普通话儿童在单宾句和双宾句中焦点的感知情况.pdfVIP

ABSTRACT

Asacategoryofinformationstructure,focusplaysanimportantroleintheacquisition

ofprosody,words,syntax,semanticsandpragmaticknowledge.Previousstudiesfor

children’sacquisitionofprosodicfocusmarkingdidnotrevealadult-likeperformance

andthereexistedtheeffectofage.SinceMandarinisatopic-prominentlanguage,pitch

accentplaysonlyaminorroleinencodingfocus.Inmostcases,wordorderreflectsthe

waythespeakerwantstoconveyorpackageinformation(BiPan,2019).Thereisa

strongpreferenceforMandarinspeakerstoplacethefocusedelementinsentencefinal

position(Xu,2004).Besides,theprosodicrealizationoffocusactuallydiffersbytones.

Mandarinlistenersidentifyfocusmuchlessaccuratelywhenitisonthelowtonethan

ontheothertones(Leeetal.,2016).Previousstudiesforchildren’sacquisitionof

prosodicfocusmarkingaremainlyanalyzedbyusingSVOconstructionsorquestions.

AsMandarin-speakingchildrenbegintounderstandthedoubleobjectconstructionas

earlyasoneandhalfyearsold(Zhou,1997),Mandarin-speakingchildren’sperception

ofnarrowfocusinSVOOsentencesisrevealedinthisstudy.

ThispaperexploredhowMandarin-speakingchildrenperceivefocusinSVOand

SVOOsentences.Threeresearchquestionswereaddressed:1)DoMandarin-speaking

childrenhavetheabilitytoidentifyfocusinSVOandSVOOsentences?2)IfMandarin-

speakingchildrencanperceivefocusinbothSVOandSVOOsentences,dotheyrely

moreonwordorderoronpitchaccenttoperceivefocus?Isthereanageeffect?Are

theredifferencesduetovariationsinfocustones?3)Whatdifferencesexistinfocus

perceptionamongMandarin-speakingchildrenbetweenSVOandSVOOsentences?

Usingpictureverificationtask,experimentoneexploredMandarin-speaking

children’sperceptionofdiffe