兒童早期「比」字比較句之副詞使用

Abstract

本研究探討兒童早期中文「比」字比較句的副詞使用策略，是否建立在規則的使用上，或只是單純的類比過程。規則理論假設兒童先建立基本的「比」字比較句結構，再將副詞放入該結構『Y [比X] +___+述語』中；類比理論則假設兒童先建立「比」字比較句框架『Y 比 [X___]』，再填入簡單句『X+副詞 +述語』。本文從三方面收集證據：自然語料、實驗誘發、和文法判斷。自然語料的分析顯示，「比」字比較句的出現十分有限，兒童似乎尚未掌握「比」字比較句的結構，遑論副詞使用，以致於在文法判斷作業上，3歲和5歲的兒童對於「比」字比較句是否使用合文法的副詞，並未做出正確判斷。實驗誘發的作業中，兩組兒童接受不同的語言刺激，其中一組兒童所處的語言環境提供由副詞修飾的述語，但該副詞不為「比」字比較句所接受；另一組兒童的語言環境則提供名詞化的述語。3歲組兒童的文法錯誤顯示，兒童先建立一個比較句框架 『Y比[X____]』，再放入副詞修飾的述語或名詞化的述語，造成不合文法的比較句。實驗結果證明，兒童早期使用類比的策略來處理「比」字比較句中的副詞。

This study investigates whether children’s early use of degree adverbs in Mandarin BI comparative structure is rule-based or analogy-based. Following the rule-based account, it is hypothesized that the basic BI comparative structure and a broad-range rule that allows for degree adverbs in BI comparative structure are constructed first. Children will follow the rule and place adverbs in the BI structure “Y [bǐ X] +___+predicate“. On the other hand, the analogy-based account hypothesizes that children rely on a formula “Y bǐ [X___]”, in which they analogically fill in the blank with a simple sentence “X+ adverb +predicate”. Evidence was collected from three aspects, including naturalistic data analyses, experimental elicitation of BI utterances, and grammatical judgment task. Analyses of early spontaneous language data revealed that the children before age 4 did not seem to have mastered the BI comparative structure due to few exemplars, let alone adverb use. It echoes the results of grammatical judgment task where the children did not distinguish between correct and incorrect uses of degree adverbs in the tested BI sentences. The elicitation task elicited BI utterances from the children of age 3 and 5 that received different conditioned input. One group was exposed to the input of a predicate modified by an adverb that was not allowed in BI comparative structure. The other group was exposed to the input of nominalized predicate for contrast. The incorrect BI utterances elicited from the three-year-old children revealed that the young children created a formula for BI comparative structure, “Y bǐ [X___]”, where they slotted in the frame with a predicate modified by an incompatible adverb, or an incompatible nominalized predicate. Namely, they underwent the same process of analogy making.