英文摘要 |
This study sets up, on the basis of the present author's "On the Notion 'Possible Verbs of Chinese"' (1988), thirty criteria for checking Chinese verbs, and investigates a four-year-old boy's acquisition of Chinese verbs according to these criteria. The results of the investigation indicate: (1) There are phonological and lexical as well as syntactic constraints on the Chinese child's acquisition of verbs; (2) There is a close relationship between the Chinese child's acquisition of word-syntax and his acquisition of sentence-syntax, which can be accounted for in terms of the principles- and- parameters approach; (3) The distinctions between marked and unmarked constructions in Chinese are directly reflected in the temporal order of acquiring these constructions by a Chinese child; and (4) The Chinese child acquires his competence in Chinese word-syntax without any assistance or feedback from adults, and neither is there any indication of trial and error on the child's part, which can only be accounted for by his endowed faculty of language. It is hoped that this study will lead to a better understanding of Chinese word-syntax and its relevance to universal grammar as well as language acquisition. |