Abstract

Much research has been done on the acquisition of relative clause and tested the hypothesis related to relative clause, whereas limited studies explore the acquisition age of relative structure, fewer ones explore the acquisition of relative structure from a recursive perspective (1-Layer Recursion and 2-Layer Recursion). This study intends to explore the acquisition of relative structure from a recursive perspective with the “elicited production” test in which children are given two pictures with a slight difference, and then hear the record which uses relative structure recursion to describe one of the pictures, and finally describe the other picture. By the test, the study aims to find out the acquisition age of Chinese relative structure recursion and the differences between children as to their production of Chinese relative structure recursion. The major findings are summarized as follows:

Firstly, children acquire 1-layer relative structure recursion at 5~6, and 2-layer relative structure recursion at 11~12. There is a clear connection between age and children’s acquisition of relative structure recursion: before children’s acquisition, the older they get, the closer their performance to adult group performance. Children’s acquisition of 2-layer relative structure recursion is way behind that of 1-layer relative structure recursion. Even at the age of 7~8, their ability to produce 1-layer relative structure recursion nearly reaches that of the adults, while the ability to produce 2-layer relative structure recursion is still at its developing stage.

Secondly, there are differences among children of different age stages as to their production of relative structure recursion. When it comes to the production of 1-layer relative structure recursion, in age stage 3~4, children are not able to produce the target sentence and they tend to produce nouns, headless relatives and noun phrases. In age stage 5~6, children’s ability to produce 1-layer relative structure recursion develops, they decrease their use of verbs and nouns and increase the use of headless relatives and noun phrases. In age stage 7~8 and 9~10, children’s ability to produce 1-layer relative structure recursion nearly reach that of the adults and they response with headless relatives. 

As for the production of 2-layer relative structure, in age stage 3~4, no children acquire 2-layer relative structure recursion and their responses are mainly nouns and descriptions of the picture. In age stage 5~6, children’s ability to produce 1-layer relative structure recursion develops, they decrease their use of nouns and increase the use of 1-layer relative structure recursion. In age stage 7~8 and 9~10, children use nouns phrases most often, and then 1-layer relative structure recursion and descriptive sentences. In age stage 11~12, most children have acquired 2-layer relative structure recursion. When they cannot produce the target response, they tend to use noun phrases that are close to the target response. 

Thirdly, in this study, most of the children do acquire relative structure recursion at a similar age and they bear a certain resemblance in their responses to the test, which, to some extent, verifies Chomsky’s theory about first language acquisition.

In light of the above findings, the researcher draws some implications that may be helpful for teachers and further studies.

Key words: Relative structure, recursion, first language acquisition, children

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Background and Need of the Study-1

1.2 Purpose of the Study and Research Questions-1

1.3 Organization of the Thesis-2

Chapter Two Literature review-3

2.1 Key Term Definition-3

2.1.1 Relative structure-3

2.1.2 Recursion-3

2.1.3 The relationship between relative structure and recursion-4

2.2 Chomsky’s Theory of Language Acquisition-4

2.3 Related Studies-4

2.3.1 Studies on the acquisition of relative structure-5

2.3.2 Studies on recursion-7

Chapter Three Research Methodology-8

3.1 Participants-8

3.2 Methods-8

3.3 Data Collection and Analysis-10

Chapter Four Results and Discussion-11

4.1 The Acquisition Age-11

4.2 The Production Differences-14

4.2.1 The production differences between children as to 1-layer relative structure recursion-14

4.2.2 The production differences between children as to 2-layer relative structure recursion-15

Chapter Five Conclusion-18

5.1 Major Findings-18

5.2 Implications-19

5.3 Limitations and Room for Improvement-19

References-20

Appendix-22

文献综述报告-24