Zhou Peng
Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia,
J Psycholinguist Res. 2014 Aug;43(4):421-45. doi: 10.1007/s10936-013-9262-6.
This study investigated 4-year-old children's knowledge of the structural constraints on ellipsis constructions in Mandarin Chinese, focusing on the structural difference between verb phrase (VP) ellipsis and null object constructions. In Mandarin Chinese, if the antecedent clause of a VP-ellipsis structure contains an adverbial modifier, this adverbial modifier must be recovered at the elided site in the second clause. However, if the antecedent clause of a null object construction contains an adverbial modifier, the reconstruction of this adverbial modifier at the elided site is not necessary. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether young Mandarin-speaking children are sensitive to this structural difference between the two ellipsis constructions. The results show that children exhibited adult-like performance in both experiments. This is evidence that young Mandarin-speaking children have knowledge of the structural difference between VP-ellipsis and null object constructions with regard to adverbial recovery. We interpreted the findings in conjunction with previous research as evidence that children's knowledge of the structural constraints on ellipsis constructions is innately specified.
本研究调查了4岁儿童对汉语省略结构中结构限制的了解，重点关注动词短语（VP）省略和零宾语结构之间的结构差异。在汉语中，如果VP省略结构的前项从句包含一个状语修饰语，那么这个状语修饰语必须在第二个从句的省略位置重现。然而，如果零宾语结构的前项从句包含一个状语修饰语，则不必在省略位置重现这个状语修饰语。进行了两项实验，以检验说汉语的幼儿是否对这两种省略结构之间的这种结构差异敏感。结果表明，儿童在两项实验中都表现出类似成人的表现。这证明说汉语的幼儿了解VP省略和零宾语结构在状语重现方面的结构差异。我们结合之前的研究对这些发现进行了解释，以此作为儿童对省略结构的结构限制的了解是天生设定的证据。
