Cover not available
Part of
Studies in Chinese and Japanese Language Acquisition: In honor of Stephen Crain
Edited by Mineharu Nakayama, Yi-ching Su and Aijun Huang
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 60] 2017
► pp. 237–264

Chapter 11
The acquisition of the wh-pronoun duo-shao in child Mandarin

| Soochow University
| Jönköping University

The Mandarin Chinese wh-pronouns ji-ge ‘how many-cl’ and duo-shao ‘a lot-a little’ can be roughly translated in English as ‘how-many’ and ‘how-much’, respectively. When these two wh-pronouns interact with the negation operator mei ‘not’, there derive similar but not identical readings: while the negative ji-ge structure conveys a ‘smallness’ in number (i.e., ‘small-number’), the negative duo-shao structure conveys a ‘smallness’ in quantity (i.e., ‘small-amount’). Huang and Crain (2014a) studied Mandarin-speaking children’s acquisition of the ‘small-number’ reading of the negative ji-ge structure. It was found that children undergo three developmental stages in the acquisition of the ‘small-number’ reading of the negative ji-ge structure, exhibiting the emergence of the full range of the meanings of ji-ge in the course of language development. The present study extends the inquiry of Huang and Crain (2014a) and investigates the acquisition of the ‘small-amount’ reading of the negative duo-shao structure. The experimental data exhibit two developmental stages, which are argued to reflect the development of the semantic and pragmatic properties of the wh-pronoun duo-shao. In short, the acquisition scenario of the negative duo-shao structure is different from that of the negative ji-ge structure, but both studies suggest that the semantic and pragmatic properties of Chinese wh-pronouns determine the acquisition of Chinese wh-pronouns in negative structures.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Linguistic properties of duo-shao
  • 3.‘Small-amount’ reading of mei…duo-shao
  • 4.Experiment
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Procedures and materials
    • 4.3The ‘small-amount’ condition
    • 4.4The ‘large-amount’ condition
    • 4.5Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.60.12hua
References
Chen, C. & Zhan, Y.
2009 A research on the lexicalization, grammaticalization and subjective notion of quantity of duoshao. Chinese Linguistics 3: 8–15 (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Cheng, Lisa L.-S.
1991 On the Typology of Wh-questions. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
1994 Wh-words as polarity items. Chinese Languages and Linguistics 2: 197–234.Google Scholar
Crain, S. & Thornton, R.
1998 Investigations in Universal Grammar: A Guide to Experiments on the Acquisition of Syntax and Semantics. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cruse, D.
1986 Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
De Villiers, J. & Tager Flusberg, H.B.
1975 Some facts one simply cannot deny. Journal of Child Language 2: 279–286. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fang, Y. & Zeng D.
2007 A cognitive approach to the grammaticalization of duoshao. Studies in Language and Linguistics 3: 76–81(In Chinese).Google Scholar
Givón, T.
1978 Negation in language: Pragmatics, function, ontology. In Syntax and Semantics, P. Cole (ed), 69–112. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Goro, T. & Akiba, S.
2004 The acquisition of disjunction and positive polarity in Japanese. In Proceedings of the 23rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistic, V. Chand, A. Kelleher, A. Rodrigues & B. Schmeiser (eds), 251–264. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Gualmini, A.
2005 The Ups and Downs of Child Language: Experimental Studies on Children’s Knowledge of Entailment Relationships and Polarity Phenomena. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Horn, L.
1989 A Natural History of Negation. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Huang, A.
2013 Acquisition of Polarity Sensitive Expressions in Mandarin Chinese. PhD dissertation, Macquarie University.Google Scholar
Huang, A. & Crain, S.
2014a Acquisition of the numerical wh-pronoun ji ‘how many’ in Mandarin Chinese. Lingua 145: 122–140. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014b Polarity sensitive items in child Mandarin. Language Acquisition 21: 156–181.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. J.
1982 Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Klatzky, R.L., Clark, E.V. & Macken, M.
1973 Asymmetries in the acquisition of polar adjectives: Linguistic or conceptual? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 16: 32–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, A. & Lehrer, K.
1982 Antonymy. Linguistics and Philosophy 5: 483–501. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, A.
1992 Indefinite wh in Mandarin Chinese. Journal East Asian Linguistics 1: 125–155. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, C.N. & Thompson, S.A.
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lin, J.-W.
1996 Polarity Licensing and Wh-phrase Quantification in Chinese. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts – Amherst.Google Scholar
1998 On existential polarity wh-phrases in Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 7: 219–255. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lü, S.X.
1980/1999 Xian’dai Hanyu Babai Ci (Modern Chinese Eight Hundred Words). Beijing: The Commercial PressGoogle Scholar
1985 Jindai Hanyu Zhidai Ci (Demonstrative Pronouns in Recent Chinese). Shanghai: Xuelin Press.Google Scholar
Lyons, J.
1977 Semantics. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Malkiel, Y.
1959 Studies in irreversible binominals.Lingua 8: 113–160. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murphy, M.L.
2003 Semantic Relations and the Lexicon. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Musolino, J. & Lidz, J.
2006 Why children aren’t universally successful with quantification. Linguistics 44(4): 817–852. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Noveck, I.
2001 When children are more logical than adults: Experimental investigations of scalar implicature. Cognition 78: 165–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Osgood, C. & Richards, M.
1973 From Yang and Yin to and and but. Language 49: 380–412. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sapir, E.
1944 On grading: A study in semantics. Philosophy of Science 2: 93–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Syrett, K., Kennedy, C. & Lidz, J.
2010 Meaning and context in children’s understanding of gradable adjectives. Journal of Semantics 27: 1–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wason, P.
1965 The context of plausible denial. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour 4: 7–11 DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Winter, Y.
2005 Cross-categorical restrictions on measure phrase modification. Linguistics and Philosophy 28: 233–267. DOI logoGoogle Scholar