Shi Jiawei, Li Jing, Zhou Peng
Department of Linguistics, School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
J Psycholinguist Res. 2025 Sep 16;54(5):56. doi: 10.1007/s10936-025-10172-2.
It has been reported that children's comprehension of complex structures is affected by temporary ambiguity. Yet, much less is known about its effect on children's comprehension of relative clauses (RCs). To fill this gap, the present study focused on Mandarin RCs, where temporary ambiguity often plays a role in the comprehension of object-extracted RCs. More specifically, we directly manipulated the (non)existence of temporary ambiguity in object-extracted RCs and compared 3- to 5-year-olds' understanding of object-extracted and subject-extracted RCs. Using the Truth Value Judgment Task, we found a clear developmental trajectory of preschoolers' abilities to comprehend the RCs. The 3-year-olds could correctly understand the object-extracted RCs only when there was no temporary ambiguity in the sentence, while the 4- and 5-year-olds exhibited successful comprehension regardless of the (non)existence of temporary ambiguity. In addition, when temporary ambiguity was not present, object-extracted RCs were generally easier than subject-extracted RCs for preschoolers to comprehend. Taken together, the findings inform us about the role of temporary ambiguity in RC comprehension, and point to the necessity of taking into account this factor when examining children's sentence comprehension performance.
据报道，儿童对复杂结构的理解会受到临时歧义的影响。然而，关于其对儿童关系从句（RCs）理解的影响，我们所知甚少。为了填补这一空白，本研究聚焦于汉语关系从句，其中临时歧义在宾语提取关系从句的理解中常常起作用。更具体地说，我们直接操控了宾语提取关系从句中临时歧义的（不）存在，并比较了3至5岁儿童对宾语提取关系从句和主语提取关系从句的理解。使用真值判断任务，我们发现了学龄前儿童理解关系从句能力的清晰发展轨迹。3岁儿童只有在句子中不存在临时歧义时才能正确理解宾语提取关系从句，而4岁和5岁儿童无论是否存在临时歧义都能成功理解。此外，当不存在临时歧义时，宾语提取关系从句对学龄前儿童来说通常比对主语提取关系从句更容易理解。综上所述，这些发现让我们了解了临时歧义在关系从句理解中的作用，并指出在考察儿童句子理解表现时考虑这一因素的必要性。
