Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T06:05:11.468Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children's knowledge of wh-quantification in Mandarin Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2013

PENG ZHOU
PENG ZHOU*
Affiliation:
Macquarie University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Peng Zhou, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. E-mail: peng.zhou@mq.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Wh-words in Mandarin Chinese exhibit quantificational variability. Aside from a typical interrogative reading, wh-words can also have an existential indefinite reading or a universal reading. Which reading it is depends on the linguistic environments in which they occur. The present study investigates Mandarin-speaking children's sensitivity to the linguistic environments for the noninterrogative use of wh-words: the existential reading and the universal reading. The results show that young children exhibited adultlike sensitivity to the licensing environments for the noninterrogative use of wh-words. Given the difficulty that children may have in using the input data to learn the interpretation of wh-words and the early emergence of this knowledge, we propose that the licensing mechanism for the noninterrogative use of wh-words is innate.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 411 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cheng, L. L.-S. (1991). On the typology of wh-questions. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Cheng, L. L.-S. (1994). Wh-words as polarity items. Chinese Languages and Linguistics, 2, 615–640.Google Scholar
Cheng, L. L.-S. (1995). On dou-quantification. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 4, 197–234.Google Scholar
Cheng, L. L.-S. (2009). On every type of quantificational expression in Chinese. In Rathert, M. & Giannakidou, A. (Eds.), Quantification, definiteness, and nominalization (pp. 53–75). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, L. L.-S., & Huang, C.-T. J. (1996). Two types of donkey sentences. Natural Language Semantics, 4, 121–163.Google Scholar
Foley, C., del Prado, Z. N., Barbier, I., & Lust, B. (2003). Knowledge of variable binding in VP-ellipsis: Language acquisition research and theory converge. Syntax, 6, 52–83.Google Scholar
Giannakidou, A. (1998). Polarity sensitivity as (non)veridical dependency. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Giannakidou, A. (2006). Only, emotive factive verbs, and the dual nature of polarity dependency. Language, 82, 575–603.Google Scholar
Giannakidou, A. (2011). Negative and positive polarity items: Variation, licensing, and compositionality. In Maienborn, C., von Heusinger, K., & Portner, P. (Eds.), Semantics: An international handbook of natural language meaning. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Guo, F., Foley, C., Chien, Y.-C., Chiang, C-P., & Lust, B. (1996). Operator–variable binding in the initial state: A cross-linguistic study of VP ellipsis structures in Chinese and English. Cahiers de linguistique–Asie orientale, 25, 3–34.Google Scholar
Heim, I. (1982). The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Huang, J. C.-T. (1982a). Move wh in a language without wh-movement. Linguistic Review, 1, 369–416.Google Scholar
Huang, J. C.-T. (1982b). Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Huang, J. C.-T., Li, A., & Li, Y. F. (2009). The syntax of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ladusaw, W. (1979). Polarity sensitivity as inherent scope relations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Lee, T. H.-T. (1986). Studies on quantification in Chinese. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Li, A. Y.-H. (1992). Indefinite wh in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 1, 125–155.Google Scholar
Lin, J.-W. (1996). Polarity licensing and wh-phrase quantification in Chinese. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Lin, J.-W. (1998). On existential polarity wh-phrases in Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 7, 219–255.Google Scholar
May, R. (1985). Logical form: Its structure and derivation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Musolino, J. (2006). On the semantics of the subset principle. Language Learning and Development, 2, 195–218.Google Scholar
Pan, H. H. (2006). Focus, tripartite structure, and the semantic interpretation of Mandarin Dou. Research and Exploration on Grammar, 13, 163–184 [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Sano, T., Shimada, H., & Kato, T. (2009). Negative concord vs. negative polarity and the acquisition of Japanese. In Crawford, J., Otaki, K., & Takahashi, M. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (pp. 336–346). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
von Fintel, K. (1999). NPI-licensing, strawson-entailment, and contex-dependency. Journal of Semantics, 16, 97–148.Google Scholar
Watanabe, A. (2004). The genesis of negative concord: Syntax and morphology of negative doubling. Linguistic Inquiry, 35, 559–612.Google Scholar
Xiang, M. (2008). Plurality, maximality and scalar inferences: A case study of Mandarin dou. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 17, 227–245.Google Scholar
Xie, Z. G. (2007). Nonveridicality and existential polarity wh-phrases in Mandarin. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 43, 121–135.Google Scholar
Yamakoshi, K. (2004). Children's understanding of the universal quantifier wh + mo in Japanese. In Brugos, A., Micciulla, L., & Smith, C. E. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 28th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development Supplement. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Yamakoshi, K. (2006). Children's interpretation of wh/every interaction in Japanese. In Deen, K. U., Nomura, J., Schulz, B., & Schwartz, B. D. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Inaugural Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition—North America (pp. 425–436). University of Connecticut Occasional Papers in Linguistics 4. Retrieved from http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/galana/proceedingsTOC.htmlGoogle Scholar
Zhou, P. (2010). Interface conditions in child language: A view from Mandarin Chinese. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Macquarie University.Google Scholar
Zhou, P., & Crain, S. (2009). Scope assignment in child language: Evidence from the acquisition of Chinese. Lingua, 119, 973–988.Google Scholar
Zhou, P., & Crain, S. (2011). Children's knowledge of the quantifier dou in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 40, 155–176.Google Scholar