Occasion-level Classifiers or Event-level Classifiers? -Evidence from Child Language Acquisition Yuan Xiaohe, Zhang Xiaoqian, Luo Yingyi, Hu Jianhua Institute of Linguistics Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Verbal classifiers in Mandarin （ Huang & Liao, 2009 ） specialized verbal classifiers ： hui “ CLF hui ” , ci “ CLF ci ” , bian “ CLF bian ” , tang “ CLF tang ” , dun “ CLF dun ” , xia “ CLF xia ” verbal classifier borrowings ： borrowings from nouns ： qiang “CLF gun ”, dao “CLF knife ”, jiao “CLF foot ” borrowings from verbs ： kan yi kan “ have a look ” , mo yi mo “ have a touch ” , shuo yi shuo “ have a talk ”
Cusic’s hierarchy of event units “Counting is a way to test which are the individuals that we assume for the domain (Donazzan and Tovena, 2013).” Cusic (1981) proposes a multilayered conception of event units in the verbal domain.
Linguistic evidence for the existence of three levels of event units Occasions vs. events (1) The salesman rang the doorbell twice. (Cusic, 1981) ‘On two separate occasions he rang the bell once.’ ‘On one occasion he rang the bell two times.’ (2) a. Daniel a sonné deux fois. (Tovena, 2012) ‘Daniel rang the bell two times.’ b. Daniel a sonné à deux reprises. (Tovena, 2012) ‘Daniel rang the bell (on) two (different) times.’
Events vs. phases (3) The mouse nibbled the cheese. (Cusic, 1981) ‘The mouse took several little bites.’ ‘#The mouse took one little bite.’ (4) a. La souris a mordu (mordre) le fromage. ‘The mouse bit the cheese.’ b. La souris a mordrillé (mordr-iller) le fromage. ‘The mouse nibbled the cheese.’ (5) a. Luisa ha tagliato (tagliare) una mela. (Tovena, 2012) ‘Luisa cut one apple.’ b. Luisa ha tagliuzzato (tagliuzzare) una mela. (Tovena, 2012) ‘Luisa chopped one apple.’
Verbal classifiers and different types of event individuals (6) 大林打了玉茹三次。每次都打了三拳。 (Zhang, 2017) Dalin da-le Y uru sanci. Mei ci dou da le san quan. Dalin beat-PFV Yuru three CLF ci each CLFci all beat- PFV three CLF fist . ‘Dalin beat Yuru three times. Each time he punched him three times.’ (Zhang, 2017) Zhang (2017)’s proposal : event-external classifier vs. event-internal classifier But such division has its problem.
Nutshell Mandarin verbal classifiers can be divided into two groups according to different types of event individuals that they modify. Our proposal: Occasion-level classifier: ( hui “ CLF hui ” , ci “ CLF ci ” , bian “ CLF bian ” , tang “ CLF tang ” ...) Event-level classifier: ( xia “ CLF xia ” , jiao “CLF foot ”...)
Research question 1 Do Mandarin 4-5-year-olds master the basic meaning of a very typical occasion-level verbal classifier hui “CLF time-o ”?
Research question 2 Could Mandarin children distinguish occasion- level classifiers from event-level classifiers?
Experiment 1 Do Mandarin Children master the basic meaning of occasion-level verbal classifier hui “CLF time-o ”? Participants: 24 adults, 21 children (4;02-5;06; M=4;09) 4 controls, 2 true targets 1, 2 false targets 1, 2 true targets 2 and 2 false targets 2, 8 fillers Truth Value Judgment Task (Crain &Thornton, 1998) 2-3 pictures, pre-videoed Peppa Pig, T or F
Controls verbal verbal phrases classifie r hui shuaya (brush the teeth) T hui qu xiaotuzi jia (go to the T rabbit ’ s house) hui pashan (climb the hill) F hui diaoyu (go fishing) F e.g. Little Rabbit had a toothache in the morning, so she brushed its teeth, and then went to see the doctor at noon. In the afternoon, she brushed its teeth again. Test sentence: Xiaotuzi shua le lianghui ya “Little Rabbit brushed his teeth two CLF time-o ”.
Target 1 Target type T or F Numeral phrases Target 1-1 T “steal two 4+1 CLF- time-o ” Target 1-2 T “eat two 3+1 CLF- time-o ” Target 1-3 F “buy five 4+1 CLF- time-o ” Target 1-4 F “write four 3+1 CLF- time-o ” xiaotuzi chile lianghui huluobo “Little rabbit ate the carrots two CLF time-o ” (T)
Target 2 (continuously) Target type T or F Numeral phrases Target 2-1 F 3+1 摘四回 Target 2-2 F 1+4 拔五回 Target 2-3 F 1+3 洗四回 Target 2-4 F 1+4 缝五回 x iaotuzi jintian zhai le si hui pingguo “Little rabbit picked up apples four CLF time-o .”
Fillers Fillers T or F 1 T chi le sige li “ ate four pears ” (T) 2 T yaoqing le liangge haopengyou “ invited two good friends ” (F) mai le sanbei juzizhi “ bought three cups of 3 T orange juice ” (T) 4 T mai le wuge pingguo “ bought five apples ” (T) 5 T zhunbei le xiangjiao he caomei zuo dangao “ prepared bananas and strawberries to make cakes ” (T) 6 T mai le lvse de qunzi “ bought green skirt ” (F) 7 T zuo le liangge mogu pizza “ made two mushroom pizza ” (F) 8 T yong hongse de qiu zhuangshi le shengdanshu “ used red balls to decorate the Christmas tree ” (F)
Result Figure: percentage of accuracy in experiment 1 Wilcoxon rank-signed test: no significance of children’s responses towards the 2 true targets 1 and 2 false targets 1(p=.102; z=-1.633).Their responses towards 2 true targets 2 and 2 false targets 2 also showed no significant difference (p=.157; z=-1.414)
Figure : Comparison of the true targets and false targets in experiment 1
Experiment 2 (occasion-level vs. event-level classifiers) Participants: 20 adults, 22 children (4;06- 5;06; M=4;11) 9 controls, 3 target 1, 3 target 2, 8 fillers Truth Value Judgment Task (Crain &Thornton, 1998) 3-4 pictures, pre-videoed Peppa Pig, T or F
Experiment 2 (occasion vs. event classifiers) Targets Numeral phrases T Verbal or classifie F r Target 1- qiao lianghui “ knock T xia 4+1 1 two CLF time-o ” zhuang lianghui “ bump Target 1- T xia 4+1 two CLF time-o ” 2 Target 1- shuai lianghui T xia 4+1 3 “ throw two CLF time-o ” Target 2- ti sihui “ kick four F jiao 3+1 1 CLF time-o ” Target 2- yao sihui “ bite four F kou 3+1 2 CLF time-o ” Target 2- da sihui “ beat four F bazhan 3+1 3 CLF time-o ” g
A typical target 1 trial Context: The big wolf went to knock at the rabbit's door. In the early morning, he knocked four times ( si xia “ four CLF time-e ” ) (here is a prerecorded voice), but the door was not open. And then the big wolf went back home. In the late evening, the big wolf went to knock at the door again once ( yi xia “ one CLF time-e ” ) (here is a prerecorded voice), and the door was still not open. Peppa Pig: The big wolf knocked at the rabbit’s door twice ( liang hui “two CLF time-o ”). (T)
A typical target 2 trial Context: The little rabbit came across a monster in the woods in the morning and he kicked him three times ( san jiao “three CLF- foot ”) (here is a prerecorded voice). And then the little rabbit came back home, but she still want to have a look at the monster in the woods. In the late evening, the little rabbit went to see the monster again and she kicked him once ( yi jiao “one CLF- foot ”) (here is a prerecorded voice), and she quickly left. Peppa Pig: The little rabbit kicked the monster four times ( si hui “four CLF time-o ”). (F)
Result Percentage of accuracy in experiment 2: Occasion verbal classifiers vs. event verbal classifiers Mann-whitney U test: no significant difference between adults and children in target 1 (z=-1.398, p=0.257) and target 2 (z=-0.869, p=0.424). Wilcoxon rank-signed test: there was no significant difference between adults’ responses towards target 1 and target 2 (z=-1.941b, p=0.052); no significant difference between children’ responses towards the two levels of targets (z=-.284b, p=0.776).
Conclusion 1. 4-5-year-olds behave adults alike mastering the knowledge of occasion-level verbal classifier hui “CLF- time-o ”. 2. They could differ occasion-level verbal classifier hui from event-level verbal classifiers like xia, jiao, dao, etc.
Selected references Cusic, D. D. (1981). Verbal plurality and aspect. PhD thesis, Stanford University. Huang, B. & Liao, X. (2009). Modern Chinese Language (Volume II). Beijing: Higher Education Press. Tovena, L. (2012). Elements for a linguistic ontology in the verbal domain. In Guarino, N., editor, Formal Ontology in Information Systems, volume 239, pages 235–248. Amsterdam : IOS Press. Zhang, N. N. (2017). The syntax of event-internal and event-external verbal classifiers. Studia Linguistica, pages 1–35.
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