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Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

ISSN Print: 2576-0556 Downloads: 411821 Total View: 3301429
Frequency: monthly ISSN Online: 2576-0548 CODEN: JHASAY
Email: jhass@hillpublisher.com
Article http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.12.026

Acquisition of the Non-interrogative Uses of the Wh-Element Na in Child Mandarin

Yang Yang

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

*Corresponding author: Yang Yang

Published: January 16,2024

Abstract

The present study focuses on the acquisition of non-interrogative interpretations of the wh-element na in child Mandarin. Previous L1 acquisition studies have focused primarily on the universal and existential indefinite readings of a restricted set of the Chinese wh-words, with limited attention devoted to their free choice reading. Building on existing research, this study takes the Chinese interrogative wh-element na as a case study to explore the early acquisition of the three non-interrogative usages of the wh-words na-CL-NP “which”, nar and nali “where” in child Mandarin through a corpus study. This study suggests that na-CL NP “which” has the same various non-interrogative readings as nar or nali “where”. Moreover, the findings reveal the existence of a developmental order in the acquisition process. The negative context, which elicits the existential indefinite readings, is acquired earliest, while the free-choice usage is acquired later. Additionally, there is no significant correlation between the adult input and the output of children.

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How to cite this paper

Acquisition of the Non-interrogative Uses of the Wh-Element Na in Child Mandarin

How to cite this paper: Yang Yang. (2023) Acquisition of the Non-interrogative Uses of the Wh-Element Na in Child MandarinJournal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science7(12), 2536-2542.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.12.026