Mandarin Children's Acquisition of Numeral Container Classifier Phrases Yuan Xiaohe Institute of linguistics Chinese Acadmey of Social Sciences
Introduction-Counting vs. Measuring a.san ge pingguo three Cl ge apple three apples b. san jin pingguo three Cl kilo apple three kilos of apples
Container classifiers a.There are two glasses of wine on the table. (counting) b. He poured two glasses of wine into the water. (measure)
Theoretical basis There are two glasses of wine on the table. (counting) He poured two glasses of wine into the water. (measure) Rothstein (2009, 2010, 2017) Counting Measure
Li (2013)
Semantics for classifiers in counting reading (Li,2013) ［ DP [D NumP[Num NP[N NP ］ ] ］］
Semantics for classifiers in measure reading (Li,2013) [DP [MeasP [Num N Meas ] N ］］ a. ‖ ping ‖ = λ n λ x. MEAS(x) = <n,BOTTLE> ∪ k (x) ∧ MEAS(x) = <n, b. ‖ ping cl ‖ = λ n λ k λ x. BOTTLE> c. ‖ san ping ‖ = λ k λ x. x ∈∪ k ∧ MEAS(x) = <3,BOTTLE> d. ‖ san ping shui ‖ = λ x.x ∈∪ ∩ WATER ∧ MEAS(x) = <3,BOTTLE>
Two standards distinguishing counting and measure (Li, 2013) 1. Pre-classifier adjectives appear before classifiers in counting contexts: yi da zhang zhi count classifiers one big CL piece paper ‘a big piece of paper’ ta he le yi da ping kele massifiers he drink PFV one big CL bottle coke ‘He drank a big bottle of coke.’
Two standards (Li, 2013) 2. classifiers that can be interpreted with a measure reading can be followed by de , in which case the measure reading is obligatory wo zou le san gongli (de) lu I walk PFV three kilometer DE road ‘I walked three kilometers of road’
Literature Review Piaget (1952) • Lima (2014, 2015, 2016) •
Piaget-conservation experiments (1952) • liquid task The liquid from one of the short glass has been poured into a taller, skinnier glass. A child that cannot Two glasses with an equal conserve would assume the taller amount of liquid glass has more liquid than the shorter glass.
• number task: Marbles are placed into two parallel lines that are the same length. Then the marbles in one line are spread, longer than the other. • solid quantity task: Two balls made of clay, one ball is stretched out to be a long oblong shape. • Result: Children (2-6) are bad at amounts, but favor counting individual pieces.
Lima (2014,2016) Yudja: locative context, verb categories four types of verbs (pour, drink, bring water, bring rice) four critical conditions: (a) full and identical containers; (b) full containers of different sizes; (c) containers of the same size, but with different amounts including both full and not full sizes; (d) containers of the same size, but all not full. Result: counting bias
individuation and measure contexts 37 English-speaking adults; 3-5-year-olds; 6 Lima (2015)
Research question 1 Could children differ counting and measure in container classifier phrases ? Are they better at counting or measuring?
Container classifier phrases with de • a. wo kai le san ping jiu . [Counting] I open PFV three CL bottle wine ‘I opened three bottles of wine.’ • b. wo-de wei neng zhuangxia san ping de jiu. [Measure] my stomach can hold three CL bottle DE wine ‘My stomach can hold three bottles of wine.’
Rothstein (2010,2017); Li (2013) Container classifier phrases with de would force the full size meaning ‘ zhuoshang you san wan de tang “There is a quantity of soup equal to three bowlfuls on the table”’(Rothstein, 2010:699); ‘we use the English-based gloss BOTTLE-FUL to express the measure interpretation of the expression’ (Rothstein, 2010: 725); ‘ bei “glass” is followed by de , and merely expresses that the quantity of the wine consumed was three glass-units’ (Li, 2013:207); ‘In the measure reading, I drank the quantity of a bottle, i.e. 750 ml of red wine. In this case, the event is a telic event. It doesn’t mean that I drank some of 750 ml, but the full amount’ (Li, 2013:149).
Research question 2: Would Chinese container classifier phrases with de induce the full size meaning?
Two research questions/experiments Could children differ counting and measure in • numeral classifier phrases? Are they better at counting than measuring? Would Chinese numeral classifier phrases with • de induce the full size meaning?
measure de test experiment Participants: 4 groups of adults from Ocean University of China (17, 21, 18, 21) Methodology : Picture selection task
measure de test experiment 6 controls: 3 empty, 3 full 9 targets: 6 half full, 3 little Two contexts: neutral context, recipe context
Experiment 1/2-neutral context (de/no de) neutral context Here are two boys. Only one boy has san guan de guozhi 'three cans of juice'. Tell me which boy? note: san guan de guozhi three can DE juice empty control 'three cans of juice'
neutral context Here are two boys. Only one boy has san bei de cha 'three cups of tea'. Tell me which boy? full control note: san bei de cha three cup DE juice 'three cups of tea'
neutral context Here are two boys. Only one boy has san bei de guozhi 'three glasses of juice' . Tell me which boy? note: san bei de guozhi half full target three cup DE juice 'three cups of juice'
neutral context Here are two boys. Only one boy has san ping de tang 'three bottles of soup'. Tell me which boy? note: little target san ping de tang three bottle DE soup 'three bottles of soup'
Experiment 3/4-recipe context ( de/no de) Here are two boys. Both of them want to make a special dissert, but only one boy is able to make such a dissert because according to the recipe san guan de guozhi 'three cans of juice' is needed and only one boy has three cans of juice. Tell me which boy? empty control note: san guan de guozhi three can DE soup 'three cans of soup'
Result Adults’ responses
recipe de/no de: F=0.12 (1,31) , p=.912 neutral de/no de: F=.786 (1, 34), p=.382 neutral de/ recipe de: F=.001 (1, 31), p=.979 recipe no de/ neutral no de: F=1.942 (1, 34), p=.172
Children’s result 20 younger children (4;07-5;07, m=4;10) 18 elder children (6;00-7;06, m= 6;08) little targets: p=0.004, z=2.972 (Younger children vs. Adults); p=0.401, z=0.908 (Elder children vs. Adults)
Discussion The result from experiments 1&3 with de and 2&4 • without de doesn’t have significant difference showing that the numeral container classifier phrases without de is ambiguous-either counting or measure interpretation. Chinese numeral container classifier phrases with de • don’t necessarily induce the full size meaning even in the strong recipe context but at least induce the half size meaning. The recipe context doesn’t help, which means that • participants prefer the counting reading of numeral classifier de phrases even in the strong measure context as long as it satisfies the purpose.
Conclusion Both Chinese adults and children prefer counting instead of measuring or have a very strong bias for counting in comprehension. it is not until 6 that children could better distinguish counting and measuring.
Selected references Cheng, L. S. & Sybesma, R. (1998). Yi-wan tang, yi-ge tang: classifiers and massifiers. Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, New Series 28(3): 385–412. Donaldson, M , (1978). Children's Minds. Fontana, Glasgow Donaldson, M . (1982). Conservation: what is the question? Br.J. Psychoi. 73, 199-20. Chierchia, G. (1998). Pluraity of mass nouns and the notion of ‘semantic parameter’. In S. Rothstein (ed.), Events and Grammar , 53–103. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Li, X. (2013). Numeral Classifiers in Chinese: The Syntax- Semantics Interface . Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Piaget, J. & Szeminska, A. (1952). The Child's Conception of Number. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Rothstein, S. (2009). Individuating and measure readings of classifier constructions: Evidence from modern Hebrew. Brill Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 1 (1): 106–145. Rothstein, S. (2010). Counting and the mass-count distinction. Journal of Semantics 27 (3): 343–397. Rothstein, S. (2012). Measure readings of mandarin classifier phrases and the particle de. Language and linguistics 13(4): 693–741. Rothstein, S. (2017). Semantics for counting and measuring. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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