Abstract

This thesis investigates the acquisition of individual classifier reduplication structure in Mandarin-speaking children. We mainly focus on two properties of individual classifiers, namely the quantification and individuation functions. Quantification property of classifiers imposes a unit of measure on the associated nouns and the default quantity denoted by a classifier in the absence of a numeral is singular. As to the individuation function, it requires the denotation of the associated nouns to be individuals. 

The quantification and individuation functions are not limited to singular classifiers (non-reduplicated classifiers). For reduplicated individual classifiers like yi ge ge ‘one-CLge-CLge’, considering the innate plural reading of reduplicated classifiers as well as the individual  requirement for classifiers in question, we think yi ge ge ‘one-CLge-CLge’ also possesses the quantification and individuation functions.

According to The Early Lack of Noun Individuation Hypothesis (Huang, 2009), the quantification and individuation functions of classifiers are not developed in a parallel way in Mandarin-speaking children aged between three and six years old. They acquire the quantification function of individual classifiers much earlier than the individuation function. 

This thesis attempts to explore how Mandarin-speaking children acquire the quantification and individuation functions of reduplicated individual classifiers and to confirm or disconfirm The Early Lack of Noun Individuation Hypothesis with regard to the classifier reduplication structure. Reduplicated individual classifiers like yi ge ge ‘one-CLge-CLge’ were discussed. 

We conducted two experiments with Truth Value Judgment Task (Crain & Thornton 1998). The results show that the quantification function of the reduplicated individual classifier yi ge ge ‘one-CLge-CLge’ has been in place in children but they haven’t acquired the individuation function. On the one hand, children as young as four years old comprehended the quantification function of the reduplicated measures. They were well aware that the reduplicated individual classifier yi ge ge ‘one-CLge-CLge’ denotes plural reading. Some of them accepted abundant plural reading while others took at least two reading. Although a few child subjects accepted one object situations, we proposed distributive reading to explain their interpretation. On the other hand, however, they acquired the individuation function at a later stage. Unlike adults, children accepted partial object situations for the reduplicated individual classifier yi ge ge ‘one-CLge-CLge’ across the board. Thus we concluded that The Early Lack of Noun Individuation Hypothesis is also attested in the acquisition of reduplicated individual classifiers.

Key words: quantification function, individuation function, classifier reduplication structure, acquisition 

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

1.1 Outline of the thesis-1

1.2 Organization of the thesis-2

Chapter 2 Interpretation of singular classifiers and reduplicated classifiers in Chinese-4

2.1 Interpretation of singular classifiers in Chinese-4

2.1.1 Quantification function of classifiers-4

2.1.2 Individuation function of classifiers-5

2.1.3 Relationship between the quantification and individuation functions of classifiers-7

2.2 Interpretation of reduplicated classifiers in Chinese-8

2.2.1 Requirements for the reduplicated classifiers-8

2.2.2 Grammatical meanings of the reduplicated classifiers-11

2.2.3 Quantification and individuation functions of reduplicated classifiers-12

Chapter 3 Review of the acquisition of the quantification and individuation functions of classifiers in Chinese-15

3.1 Review of Huang’s (2009) experiments-15

3.1.1 Review of Experiment 1: Acquisition of individual classifiers and bare nouns-15

3.1.2 Review of Experiment 2: Acquisition of container classifiers-17

3.1.3 Review of the Early Lack of Noun Individuation Hypothesis-17

3.2 Review of Duan’s experiment-18

3.3 Summary of Huang’s and Duan’s experiments-19

Chapter 4 Experiments on the acquisition of classifier reduplication structure-20

4.1 Setting the stage-20

4.2 Experiment 1: Acquisition of the quantification function of reduplicated individual classifiers-20

4.2.1 Subjects-20

4.2.2 Methods-21

4.2.3 Research questions-21

4.2.4 Test sentence frames-22

4.2.5 Test conditions-23

4.2.6 Procedures and test items-24

4.2.7 Findings in Experiment 1-28

4.2.8 Discussion-29

4.3 Experiment 2: Acquisition of the individuation function of reduplicated individual classifiers-32

4.3.1 Research questions-32

4.3.2 Test conditions-33

4.3.3 Procedures and test items-34

4.3.4 Findings in Experiment 2-36

4.4 Summary of findings in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2-37

Chapter 5 Conclusion-39

References-41

Appendix 1: Warm-up and practice trials before Experiment 1-44

Appendix 2: List of test stories used in Experiment 1-45

Appendix 3: List of test stories used in Experiment 2-50

文献综述报告-53