| Abstract: | 兒童語言習得研究顯示幼童早期的語言有省略論元的現象。幼童可能省略主詞論 元、受詞論元、或兩者都省略。這種現象發生在不同的語言中，無論是允許論元省略的 語言如華語(Wang et al., 1992)、因紐特語(Allen, 2000)、日語(Hirakawa, 1993)、韓語(Clancy, 1993, 1997)或是不允許論元省略的語言如英語(Bloom, 1970, 1990; Hyams, 1986; Valian, 1991)及丹麥語(Hamann & Plunkett, 1998)。針對幼童語言中論元省略的現象研究學者提 出了不同的解釋，如語法觀點的解釋(Hyams, 1986, Hyams & Wexler, 1993, Radford, 1990) 及語言表現的解釋 (Bloom, 1993; Valian, 1991)。最近一些研究採用了言談語用的觀點來 解釋幼童的指涉詞選擇 (Allen, 2000; Clancy, 1993; 1997; Guerriero, et al., 2006; Huang, 2011, 2012; Narasimhan, et al., 2005; Serratrice, 2005)。 這些研究雖指出了一些影響幼童指涉詞選擇的語用特徵，但是這些特徵主要是關於 幼童對聽話者知曉狀態的評估(Skarabela, 2007)。要更完整的瞭解幼童的指涉詞選擇，另 一種重要層面的心智狀態也必須考量，也就是所謂的共同注意力。共同注意力是關於幼 童對聽話者注意力狀態的評估。從兒童發展的觀點來看，能協調聽話者的注意力並達成 共同注意力的狀態是兒童在社會認知發展上的一個重要里程碑(Bruner, 1983, 1995)。 本研究的目的主要有兩點。第一，本研究旨在探討共同注意力在漢語幼童指涉詞選 擇中所扮演的角色。研究中將對共同注意力及Huang (2011, 2012)中所提的語用特徵作 分析，並進一步瞭解共同注意力與這些語用特徵的互動關係。研究假設為當加入共同注 意力這個層面的因素之後，更能有效解釋漢語幼童指涉詞的選擇。第二，本研究同時也 將探討共同注意力在母親的指涉詞選擇中所扮演的角色。根據Guerriero, et al. (2006)， 幼童與母親在語言及非語言的指涉形式上通常極為相似。因此研究假設為母親輸入語中 運用共同注意力的方式與幼童指涉詞選擇中運用共同注意力的方式會有直接的關聯性。
Research in first language acquisition has shown that child language at the early stages of language acquisition is characterized by the omission of arguments. Children may omit the subject argument, the object argument or both in their utterances. Such phenomenon occurs cross-linguistically, regardless of whether the target language requires overt arguments as in English (Bloom, 1970, 1990; Hyams, 1986; Valian, 1991) and Danish (Hamann & Plunkett, 1998) or permits omitted arguments as in Chinese (Wang et al., 1992), Inuktitut (Allen, 2000), Japanese (Hirakawa, 1993), and Korean (Clancy, 1993, 1997). Different types of explanation have been proposed to account for the phenomenon of argument omission in child language, such as the grammatical account (Hyams, 1986, Hyams & Wexler, 1993, Radford, 1990) and the performance account (Bloom, 1993; Valian, 1991). More recently some researchers have adopted a discourse-pragmatic perspective to explain children’s referential choice (Allen, 2000; Clancy, 1993; 1997; Guerriero, et al., 2006; Huang, 2011, 2012; Narasimhan, et al., 2005; Serratrice, 2005). Previous studies have identified several discourse-pragmatic features that influence children’s referential choice. However, these features are mainly related to the child’s evaluation of the listener’s knowledge states (Skarabela, 2007). It has been suggested that to have a more complete picture of the child’s referential choice, another important dimension of mental state should also be taken into consideration, that is, joint attention. Joint attention entails the child’s evaluation of the listener’s attentional states. From a developmental point of view, the ability to coordinate the listener’s attention and to engage in joint attention marks an important milestone in the child’s socio-cognitive development (Bruner, 1983, 1995). The aim of this study is twofold. First, this study attempts to examine the role of joint attention in Mandarin-speaking children’s referential system by exploring the interaction between the factor of joint attention and the other factors examined in Huang (2011, 2012). It is hypothesized that Mandarin-speaking children’s referential system can be better explained when the factor of joint attention is taken into consideration. Second, this study also attempts to examine the role of joint attention in the mothers’ referential choice. As reported by Guerriero, et al. (2006), children and their mothers often demonstrate a close similarity in their linguistic as well as non-linguistic referential patterns. It is hypothesized that how joint attention is managed in maternal input may be associated with how children use joint attention in their referential systems. |
