以中文為母語的兒童道歉語之習得

Chinese Children's Acquisition of Apology Strategies

本研究旨在探討以中文為母語之兒童使用道歉語的發展。本研究包含兩個控制變因，即責任與冒犯嚴重度。主要研究議題為兒童對於冒犯的認知與控制變因的關係，兒童使用道歉語的分類，及其道歉語是否受到控制變因和本身對冒犯認知之影響而有所不同。本研究採用兩種實驗題型：懲罰判斷測驗與看圖回答測驗。研究對象包含實驗組的一百二十位兒童，依平均年齡四至八歲分成五組，每組二十四人，以及對照組的二十四位成人。實驗結果顯示，中文為母語之兒童平均在四歲左右已能區分不同程度的責任與冒犯嚴重度。四歲與五歲兒童常因嚴重度高而給予較重的懲罰，較年長的兒童以及成人懲罰標準偏向責任，或是兩個變因混合考慮。口語語料顯示出，就主道歉策略而言，七歲以下兒童使用直接道歉策略多於間接道歉策略，七歲以上的兒童與成人剛好相反。就次道歉策略而言，所有兒童使用最多的是提供（Offer），其次是承認（Acknowledgment），要求（Request）最少。兒童使用次道歉策略也有階段性發展。最後，本研究發現可能的原因與兒童語言發展仍未至臻有關，因此較無法有效使用間接道歉策略。對成人而言，受到禮貌理論（Brown & Levinson 1987）的影響，成人仍會使用很多間接道歉策略，不因控制變因之不同或自我對於冒犯程度認知之不同而有顯著差異。

The present study aims to analyze the developmental patterns of Chinese children's apology strategies by investigating their percept ion of punishments and their production of apologies in terms of two contextual variables, viz. the degree of their own responsibility and the severity of their offence. A comprehension task and a production task were assigned to 120 Chinese children (aged 4-8) and a control group of 24 Chinese-speaking adults. The subjects were further divided into five age groups, each of which consisted of 24 subjects. The results showed that Chinese children as young as four or so were able to take into account both the degree of their own responsibility and the severity of their offence, when assigning punishment. Furthermore, the data yielded a trend in the children's use of apologies. The children under seven employed more direct apologies than indirect apologies, while the older children and the adults tended to respond in the opposite way. With regard to sub-strategies, all the children were found to use more Offering than Acknowledging, and more Acknowledging than Requesting strategies, and there was a three-stage development in the use of these sub-strategies. These findings can be accounted for by children's unsophisticated linguistic skills and adults' greater awareness of the need for politeness (Brown ＆ Levinson 1987).