| Abstract: | 指涉詞的選用策略反應了語法與言談間的重要連結。Du Bois (1987)所提出的「首選論元結構」闡明了言談模式與語法形式間的關係。首選論元結構與言談中的信息流有關，並涉及信息流與動詞之主要論元的互動。其重要論點可以四個制約表示：唯一詞彙論元制約、唯一新論元制約、非詞彙A（及物子句之主詞）制約、舊信息A制約。首選論元結構已於許多不同語言中測試驗證。本研究的目的有兩方面。第一，本研究試圖檢視是否首選論元結構也呈現於幼童漢語中。首選論元結構的研究主要是針對成人語言，只有很少部分的研究是以兒童語言為主。本計畫即希望能以一個類型不同之語言的研究來補充這方面的不足。第二個目標則是希望能進一步擴充首選論元結構的理論架構來分析幼童漢語。除了首選論元結構所強調的詞彙形式之外，本研究將進一步將語料以三種形式類別來分析，也就是詞彙、代名詞及零詞。由此希望能對幼童漢語中這三種形式論元的分布情形有更多的瞭解。另外，在語用層面上除了新信息之外，也進一步加入Allen(2000)所提出的其他的語用因素（不在場、問題、對比、語境中的辨別、言談中的辨別、不具生命、第三人）。把這些語用因素加入考量能讓我們瞭解這些不同的語用因素如何影響論元結構的語用層面。本計畫希望能對幼童漢語中語法角色、語用因素及論元形式的關係做更完整的研究與探討。
It has been shown that referential strategies constitute a key link between grammar and discourse in adult language. In his seminal article, Du Bois (1987) formulated ‘Preferred Argument Structure’, which illuminates the relationship between discourse patterns and grammatical forms. Preferred Augment Structure concerns information flow in discourse and its interaction with the primary noun arguments associated with verb phrases: A, O and S. The central notions of Preferred Argument Structure can be expressed in the form of four constraints: the One Lexical Argument Constraint, the Non-lexical A Constraint, the One New Argument Constraint, and the Given A Constraint. The patterns of Preferred Argument Structure have been documented in a wide array of languages, both of the ergative-absolutive and of the nominative-accusative type. The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, this study attempts to examine whether Preferred Argument Structure is characteristic of early child Mandarin. Research on Preferred Argument Structure has focused mainly on adult speech, and only a limited number of studies have examined child language specifically in terms of Preferred Argument Structure. This study thus aims to supplement this area of study with a typologically different language. While the first aim of this study is to examine whether child Mandarin exhibits the basic patterns of Preferred Argument Structure, the second aim of this study is to analyze child Mandarin within a framework beyond the one presented in Preferred Argument of Structure. That is, instead of focusing on lexical mentions, the data will be further analyzed in terms of a three-way classification system (i.e., null, pronominal, and nominal). In doing so, we can better understand the distributions of the three types of argument forms in child Mandarin. In addition, the pragmatic dimension analyzed will further include not just newness of information but also other informativeness features proposed in Allen (2000) (i.e., absence, query, contrast, differentiation in context, differentiation in discourse, inanimacy, and third person). By taking into consideration these informativeness features, the analysis can reveal how these different pragmatic factors contribute to the pragmatic dimension of argument structures. It is hoped that this study can provide a more complete picture of the relationship between grammatical roles, pragmatic features and argument forms in Mandarin child language. |
