An event-semantic account of spatial modification in the acquisition of Mandarin

Aims and objectives: This study investigates the effects of fine-grained aspects of input and cross-linguistic influence on the placement of prepositional zai-phrase ( zai-PP) in heritage Mandarin. Methodology: Utterances with zai-PPs were extracted from transcripts of an elicited narration task administered with child heritage speakers of Mandarin ( n = 27, aged 4–14) and their parents ( n = 18) in the United Kingdom, and compared with those produced by child and adult Mandarin speakers in Beijing in a similar narration task, selected from the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES). Data and analysis: The zai-PPs were coded for pre/postverbal placement and event semantics of co-occurring verbs, as well as innovative uses. Comparisons were made between groups of participants, and correlations were performed among child and input variables. Findings: In Mandarin, the heritage children overused postverbal zai-PPs across measures and comparisons, producing innovative uses of postverbal zai-PPs not found in the input or Beijing baselines. Their production of preverbal zai-PPs increases with age (proxy for cumulative amount of input) rather than structural frequency in their parental input. In English, they correctly placed spatial PPs postverbally. Our findings revealed protracted development of zai-PP placement in heritage Mandarin due to inherent complexity of the structure, reduction of input in the heritage language at school age, and strong unidirectional transfer from English to Mandarin. Originality: This study is among the first to understand a heritage structure by analysing speech samples of both heritage children and their parents and examine input–outcome relations between them directly. Significance: The placement of zai-PP in relation to individual verbs with different event semantics is subject to protracted development and vulnerable to majority language influence in heritage language acquisition, but further development at the school age is likely, if sufficient amounts of input are provided.

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Corpus of Mandarin Child Language: a preliminary study on the acquisition of semantic content categories in Mandarin-speaking preschoolers

Tang,

Lau,

Leung

2023

Front. Psychol.

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In studying language acquisition in children, sizable research studies have been focusing on the investigation of form and lexical semantics. This study aims to establish a child language database annotated both syntactically with part of speech and semantically with semantic content category to supplement the study of child language acquisition in the semantic domain beyond lexical level. The Corpus of Mandarin Child Language (CMCL) that documented the production of different semantic content categories by Mandarin-speaking children was established. Naturalistic language samples of 82 native Mandarin-speaking children aged 25–60 months, divided into three age groups, were obtained. The corresponding semantic content categories coded in each utterance were tagged according to previous studies, in addition to the annotations of part of speech. MLU and lexical diversity were examined and the usage and acquisition of different semantic content categories were also analyzed. The results regarding syntactic complexity and lexical diversity replicated the typical language acquisition pattern from previous studies, which supported the validity of the data obtained in the CMCL. To investigate the trajectory of acquisition of various semantic content categories by age, a 90% acquisition criterion was used. Our findings regarding the acquisition order of semantic content category were basically in line with previous studies in general, with some minor differences. This acquisition order observed is largely explained by the cognitive and syntactic complexity associated with the semantic content category, with additional influence from language specific properties and cultural specific factors of Mandarin. In addition, with the tags in both part-of-speech and semantic content category, the CMCL potentially provides a platform for examining the form-content interface in early child language acquisition, which also implies significantly on the theoretical and clinical ground.

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An event-semantic account of spatial modification in the acquisition of Mandarin

Cited by 3 publications

References 31 publications

The acquisition of the locative subject construction in Mandarin: An aspectual account

The acquisition of the locative subject construction in Mandarin: An aspectual account

Input effects and unidirectional transfer in Mandarin–English heritage bilingual children: The case of spatial prepositional zai-phrases

Corpus of Mandarin Child Language: a preliminary study on the acquisition of semantic content categories in Mandarin-speaking preschoolers

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