The emergence of verb argument structure in Mandarin Chinese
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Jidong Chen
Abstract
This study examines the emergent linguistic properties of the early production of verb argument structure in Mandarin Chinese. Longitudinal naturalist speech data of one Mandarin-learning child were coded and analyzed for their argument structure from age 1;3 to 3;4, the crucial age for early syntactic development. The results reveal an early emergence and dominance of transitive verbs and the theme-only argument. Transitive verbs tend to have reduced number of arguments, whereas intransitive verbs tend to sustain one argument. The acquisition of thematic roles proceeds in the order of theme, agent, location, and recipient. The child’s production of verb argument structure reflects the typological features of Mandarin and reveals some language-general route in the acquisition of argument structure, which suggests the importance of explicit instruction of the discourse-pragmatic properties of verb arguments in teaching and learning Mandarin verbs to second language learners.
Abstract
This study examines the emergent linguistic properties of the early production of verb argument structure in Mandarin Chinese. Longitudinal naturalist speech data of one Mandarin-learning child were coded and analyzed for their argument structure from age 1;3 to 3;4, the crucial age for early syntactic development. The results reveal an early emergence and dominance of transitive verbs and the theme-only argument. Transitive verbs tend to have reduced number of arguments, whereas intransitive verbs tend to sustain one argument. The acquisition of thematic roles proceeds in the order of theme, agent, location, and recipient. The child’s production of verb argument structure reflects the typological features of Mandarin and reveals some language-general route in the acquisition of argument structure, which suggests the importance of explicit instruction of the discourse-pragmatic properties of verb arguments in teaching and learning Mandarin verbs to second language learners.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Acknowledgments xi
- Integrating Chinese linguistic research and language teaching and learning xiii
- The emergence of verb argument structure in Mandarin Chinese 1
- A corpus linguistics approach to the research and teaching of Chinese as a second language 13
- Facilitating language learning 33
- An ERP study of the processing of Mandarin classifiers 59
- Explicit, implicit and metalinguistic knowledge in L2 Chinese 81
- Metalinguistic awareness and self-repair in Chinese language learning 97
- De-stressed words in Mandarin: drawing parallel with English 121
- Prosody and discourse functions of ranhou 然后 145
- Patterns of plural NP + dou (都) expressions in conversational discourse and their pedagogical implications 169
- Prominence marking in second language Chinese tones 195
- A multi-dimensional corpus study of mixed compounds in Chinese 215
- Index 239
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Acknowledgments xi
- Integrating Chinese linguistic research and language teaching and learning xiii
- The emergence of verb argument structure in Mandarin Chinese 1
- A corpus linguistics approach to the research and teaching of Chinese as a second language 13
- Facilitating language learning 33
- An ERP study of the processing of Mandarin classifiers 59
- Explicit, implicit and metalinguistic knowledge in L2 Chinese 81
- Metalinguistic awareness and self-repair in Chinese language learning 97
- De-stressed words in Mandarin: drawing parallel with English 121
- Prosody and discourse functions of ranhou 然后 145
- Patterns of plural NP + dou (都) expressions in conversational discourse and their pedagogical implications 169
- Prominence marking in second language Chinese tones 195
- A multi-dimensional corpus study of mixed compounds in Chinese 215
- Index 239
