兒童的動詞運用:工具的延伸性

Abstract

本研究旨在探討工具的特指性是否影響動詞延伸。Seston et al. (2009)曾指出，對使用英語的孩童而言，工具特指性較高的動詞較工具特指性較低的動詞易於延伸。其解釋為工具特指性較高的動詞具象化程度(imageability)也較高，根據具象化假說(imageability hypothesis; Ma et al., 2009)，具象化程度較高的詞較易被習得。具象化程度是否增進動詞學習或阻礙動詞延伸尚無定論，Golinkoff et al. (1995) 的研究認為當孩童無法確認何者為一動詞之必要語意元素時，孩童依賴動詞事件的整體外型(shape)作動詞延伸的依據。本研究要檢驗的是，工具的特指性是否影響中文孩童的動詞延伸，且當孩童面對創新工具延伸作業時，是否也依賴動詞事件的整體外型(shape)作延伸依據；另外，本研究也探討對於新工具額外的熟悉度是否促進動詞延伸 本研究操弄的自變項為工具特指性及對工具的熟悉程度。工具特指性在此定義為母語者允許一個動詞可使用的平均工具數量。在本研究中，六個動詞被選為實驗用詞，且依照其工具特指性高低程度分為特指(Specified)與開放(Open)兩組。實驗組別分為熟悉組與不熟悉組兩組。實驗分為三階段，第一階段所有受試者會聽到關於實驗故事的背景以及故事中會出現的玩偶的介紹，但只有熟悉組的受試者會聽到對於延伸新工具的額外介紹；第二階段所有受試者會接受兩題的基本訓練，做為正式實驗的熱身練習；第三階段為正式實驗階段，所有受試者會聽到十二則故事，聽完每一個故事後，受試者會被要求先以口頭改述剛剛故事裡所描述的動作，然後再實際以實驗者提供的道具做出該動作。本研究受試者為四十八位以中文為母語的兒童，包含二十四位年齡約五歲的兒童，及另外二十四位年齡約七歲的兒童。 本實驗結果顯示: (1) 對使用中文的兒童而言，尤其是五歲以下的兒童，工具特指性較高的動詞比工具特指性較低的動詞更難延伸: (2) 工具在動詞中的延伸性不受預先聽到該工具的名稱及功能的熟悉化作業影響。

This study aims to investigate the role of instrument specificity played in Mandarin-speaking children’s verb extension process. Seston et al. (2009) suggested that verbs with a more “specified” instrument were easier to be extended by English-speaking children than verbs with more open instruments. Seston’s explanation of their result is that specified instrument verbs are higher in imageability than open instrument verbs, and according to imageability hypothesis (Ma et al., 2009), verbs with higher imageability tends to be acquired earlier. It remains unclear whether imageability accounts for easier of word learning or word extension. Golinkoff et al.’s (1995) study stated that children use the overall shape of an event to extend a verb when they fail to recognize which semantic elements conflated in the verb. This study aims to explore whether the specificity of instrument affect Mandarin-speaking children’s extension of verbs and to see if children do rely on shape when facing novel instrument extension. In addition, it was also examined whether an additional familiarization of the novel instrument facilitates verb extension. This study manipulated instrument specificity and familiarity of instrument as independent variables. Instrument specificity is defined as the number of instrument that adult native speakers can identify within an experimental task setting. Six target verbs were chosen and grouped into two groups of verbs (Specified and Open) by their instrument specificity rated by native adult speakers. The experimental conditions include Familiar Condition and Unfamiliar Condition. The main experiment for testing instrument specificity can be divided into three phases: (1) the introductory, (2) the baseline training, and (3) the test phase. In the first phase, all participants received introduction to the background knowledge of the upcoming stories and to the puppets appeared in the stories. Only the participants in Familiar Condition received an additional familiarization to the novel instruments. In the second phase, two trails of baseline training were conducted as warm-ups to the test trials. Then came the third phase in which children heard twelve stories and were asked to first paraphrase and then act out the action described in the story. Children’s production and comprehension were examined. Twenty-four 5-year-old and twenty-four 7-year-old Mandarin-speaking children participated in this study. Results indicate that: (1) For Mandarin-speaking children, verbs with more specified instrument are harder to extend than verbs with various possible instruments, especially for children under age five. (2) The extensibility of novel instruments is not affected by a prior familiarization to their names and functions.