Abstract:

The initial acquisition of expressions of passive meaning by three Mandarin-speaking children is investigated in this paper. It has been found that children initially express passive meanings using the simplest patient-subject structure, “S_p+VP,” which has the same syntactic and semantic features as adults' production. Typical marked passive “bei” (被) sentences, which contain two arguments, are produced three to five months later. Furthermore, all the verbs in the “S_p+VP” structure has been used in the one-word sentence stage. The findings have revealed that the expression of passive meaning has experienced the construction process from single verb to single-argument patient-subject sentences to marked “bei” (被) sentences. The passive expression “S_p+VP” is an absolutive-like structure, which forms part of the ergative-absolutive or nominative-accusative language pattern, while the marked passive “bei” (被) sentences form part of the nominative-accusative language pattern. The initial acquisition of the expression of passive meaning by Mandarin-speaking children has shown a transitional character from an absolutive-like structure to a nominative-accusative pattern. Children initially acquire single-argument patient-subject sentences to express passive meanings. Input is a necessary but insufficient condition for this acquisition, and the decisive factor should be that the “S_p+VP” structure meets an utterance's demands in terms of syntax, semantics, and function expression to the greatest extent.

Keywords: Mandarin-speaking children; expressions of passive meaning; initial acquisition absolutive-like structure; constructivability

摘要：

通过详尽考察3名普通话儿童被动义表达的初始习得样态，本研究发现，儿童最初使用最简单的受事主语句S_P+VP结构表达被动义，儿童产出的S_P+VP结构与成人使用的同类结构在语法特征上是一致的。儿童典型有标记被动句中的被字句在S_P+VP结构习得之后的3至5个月依次产出，并且始现的被字句包含两个论元；儿童使用的S_P+VP结构中的动词都在独词句阶段使用过。因此，本研究认为，被动义表达方式经历了从动词到单论元受事主语句再到被字句的建构过程。表被动义的S_P+VP结构是类通格结构，是施通格语言或主宾格语言的前期形式，有标记被动句则属于主宾格语言模式。普通话儿童被动义初始表达方式的习得表现出从类通格结构到主宾格语言的发展特征。在儿童习得被动义表达方式的过程中，输入的作用表现为不充分必要条件，儿童之所以最初使用单论元受事主语句表达被动义，主要是因为双词句阶段S_p+VP结构能最大限度地满足一个句子在句法、语义和功能上的需求。

关键词: 普通话儿童, 被动义表达, 初始习得, 类通格结构, 建构性