TY - JOUR
T1 - Mandarin-speaking three-year-olds' demonstration of productive knowledge of syntax
T2 - Evidence from syntactic productivity and structural priming with the SVO-ba alternation
AU - Hsu, Dong Bo
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - Two studies investigated syntactic productivity in three-year-old Mandarin speakers' use of verbs in the SVO and SbaOV constructions. In Study 1, children were taught novel verbs in one construction and assessed for their production in the other construction. Children produced verbs taught in the ba constructions in SVO utterances, but showed order effects when producing verbs taught in SVO constructions in ba utterances. In Study 2, children described animated scenes either with structural priming (i.e., after hearing verbs in SVO or ba constructions). Children demonstrated structural priming, producing more SVO and ba utterances, respectively, directly after hearing verbs in these constructions. These results indicate that Mandarin speaking three-year-olds demonstrate productive knowledge of both SVO and SbaOV constructions. Their ability to override the predominant input frequency of SVO runs counter to a purely usage-based account of early acquisition of grammar.
AB - Two studies investigated syntactic productivity in three-year-old Mandarin speakers' use of verbs in the SVO and SbaOV constructions. In Study 1, children were taught novel verbs in one construction and assessed for their production in the other construction. Children produced verbs taught in the ba constructions in SVO utterances, but showed order effects when producing verbs taught in SVO constructions in ba utterances. In Study 2, children described animated scenes either with structural priming (i.e., after hearing verbs in SVO or ba constructions). Children demonstrated structural priming, producing more SVO and ba utterances, respectively, directly after hearing verbs in these constructions. These results indicate that Mandarin speaking three-year-olds demonstrate productive knowledge of both SVO and SbaOV constructions. Their ability to override the predominant input frequency of SVO runs counter to a purely usage-based account of early acquisition of grammar.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0305000913000408
DO - 10.1017/S0305000913000408
M3 - Article
C2 - 24160845
AN - SCOPUS:84904810364
SN - 0305-0009
VL - 41
SP - 1115
EP - 1146
JO - Journal of Child Language
JF - Journal of Child Language
IS - 5
ER -