Clark E V, Carpenter K L
J Child Lang. 1989 Jun;16(2):349-64. doi: 10.1017/s030500090001045x.
This study was designed to follow up children's early spontaneous uses of from to mark oblique agents by giving 40 children (aged 2;5-6;1), and 10 adults, grammatical and ungrammatical sentences containing from, with, and by to imitate and to repair. As predicted, children's imitations and repairs showed that (a) 2-year-olds produce from for agents, and with for instruments in imitation; and (b) as children get older, they shift to by for agents in their repairs, and keep from to mark locative sources. These findings support the hypothesis that when children first try to express oblique agents, before acquisition of conventional by, they choose from for this purpose because agents, as instigators of actions, are conceived of as the source of the action and its result.
本研究旨在通过让40名儿童（年龄在2岁5个月至6岁1个月之间）和10名成年人模仿并修正包含from、with和by的符合语法及不符合语法的句子，来追踪儿童早期自发使用from标记间接施事的情况。正如预测的那样，儿童的模仿和修正表明：（a）2岁儿童在模仿中用from表示施事，用with表示工具；（b）随着年龄增长，他们在修正中改用by表示施事，并用from标记方位来源。这些发现支持了这样一种假设，即当儿童首次试图表达间接施事时，在习得传统的by之前，他们会选择from来表示，因为施事作为动作的发起者，被视为动作及其结果的来源。
