中文兒童代名詞推論能力的發展研究：提及順位與性別語義特徵的影響

The development of pronoun resolution for Chinese young readers: The effects of order of mention and gender semantic features

代名詞推論對讀者建構連貫性的心理表徵具關鍵影響力，但中文的實徵研究相當有限，在兒童的發展性研究更是缺乏。本研究旨為探討中文兒童在不同性別語義特徵代名詞的推論時是否有首位優勢(即第一順位)或時近效應(即第二順位)之現象。共206位兒童參與，以重覆測量三因子混合設計（2×2×4）探討代名詞指涉第一和第二順位以及「他」和「她」性別語義特徵對二、三、四、五年級兒童在代名詞句閱讀時間的效果。結果顯示，兒童代名詞推論的答對率會隨著年級的增加而提升；且代名詞句的閱讀時間會隨著年級的增加而減少，但這個趨勢主要發生在相差一個年級以上才會出現顯著差異。四、五年級兒童進行代名詞「他」和「她」推論的答對率都高於.90，顯示他們會利用性別語義的線索，但從閱讀時間上來看沒有提及順位上的差異。此外，提及順位和性別語義特徵有交互作用，三年級兒童進行代名詞「他」推論時出現首位優勢現象。而二、三年級兒童進行代名詞「她」的推論則出現時近效應。文末對此發現進行討論並進一步提出教學上的應用。

Pronoun resolution is important for readers to build a coherent mental representation. However, earlier studies were limited to European languages. Not much is known about the process in Chinese language and even little about the developmental trajectories among Chinese readers. We investigate how the order of mention and gender semantic features may affect Chinese readers' pronoun resolution and explore their development through a 3-way ANOVA mixed design. The effects of order of mention (first/second-mention) and gender semantic features (he/she) on pronoun resolution for 2nd to 5th graders were examined. A total of 206 participants participated. The results indicate that children in higher grades have higher rate of correct answer in pronoun resolution. Moreover, the higher the children's grades, the less time they need to read sentence with pronouns. This pattern only appears, however, when the grade-groups are two or more years apart. In addition, the reading times of the first-mentioned were shorter than those of the second-mentioned when " he" referred to the first-mentioned protagonist for the 3rd graders; hence, first mention advantage is observed. Furthermore, for 2nd and 3rd graders, a recency effect appeared when children tried to resolve "she". For 4th and 5th graders, their accuracy rates were usually above 90%, indicating that they have mastered the use of gender semantic features for this age, and there were no significant effects on order of mention or gender semantic features.