Portioning-Out and Individuation in Mandarin Non-interrogative wh-Pronominal Phrases: Experimental Evidence From Child Mandarin
Portioning-out and individuation are two important semantic properties for the characterization of countability. In Mandarin, nouns are not marked with count-mass syntax, and it is controversial whether individuation is encoded in classifiers or in nouns. In the present study, we investigates the in...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.592281/full |
| _version_ | 1818417360118218752 |
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| author | Aijun Huang Francesco-Alessio Ursini Luisa Meroni |
| author_facet | Aijun Huang Francesco-Alessio Ursini Luisa Meroni |
| author_sort | Aijun Huang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Portioning-out and individuation are two important semantic properties for the characterization of countability. In Mandarin, nouns are not marked with count-mass syntax, and it is controversial whether individuation is encoded in classifiers or in nouns. In the present study, we investigates the interpretation of a minimal pair of non-interrogative wh-pronominal phrases, including duo-shao-N and duo-shao-ge-N. Due to the presence/absence of the individual classifier ge, these two wh-pronominal phrases differ in how they encode portioning-out and individuation. In two experiments, we used a Truth Value Judgment Task to examine the interpretation of these two wh-pronominal phrases by Mandarin-speaking adults and 4-to-6-year-old children. We found that both adults and children are sensitive to their interpretative differences with respect to the portioning-out and individuation properties. They assign either count or mass readings to the bare wh-pronominal phrase duo-shao-N depending on specific contexts, but only count readings to the classifier-bearing wh-pronominal phrase duo-shao-ge-N. Moreover, the portioning-out and individuation properties associated with the individual classifier ge emerge independently in the course of language development, with the portioning-out property taking precedence over the individuation property. Taken together, the present study provides new evidence for the view that the portioning-out and individuation properties in Mandarin are encoded in classifiers rather than in nouns, and these two semantic properties are two distinct components in our grammar. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T12:05:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6501d77392c547888e1889ec2c3a92d7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T12:05:32Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-6501d77392c547888e1889ec2c3a92d72022-12-21T23:01:53ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-02-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.592281592281Portioning-Out and Individuation in Mandarin Non-interrogative wh-Pronominal Phrases: Experimental Evidence From Child MandarinAijun Huang0Francesco-Alessio Ursini1Luisa Meroni2Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, ChinaSchool of Chinese Language and Literature, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, ChinaUtrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsPortioning-out and individuation are two important semantic properties for the characterization of countability. In Mandarin, nouns are not marked with count-mass syntax, and it is controversial whether individuation is encoded in classifiers or in nouns. In the present study, we investigates the interpretation of a minimal pair of non-interrogative wh-pronominal phrases, including duo-shao-N and duo-shao-ge-N. Due to the presence/absence of the individual classifier ge, these two wh-pronominal phrases differ in how they encode portioning-out and individuation. In two experiments, we used a Truth Value Judgment Task to examine the interpretation of these two wh-pronominal phrases by Mandarin-speaking adults and 4-to-6-year-old children. We found that both adults and children are sensitive to their interpretative differences with respect to the portioning-out and individuation properties. They assign either count or mass readings to the bare wh-pronominal phrase duo-shao-N depending on specific contexts, but only count readings to the classifier-bearing wh-pronominal phrase duo-shao-ge-N. Moreover, the portioning-out and individuation properties associated with the individual classifier ge emerge independently in the course of language development, with the portioning-out property taking precedence over the individuation property. Taken together, the present study provides new evidence for the view that the portioning-out and individuation properties in Mandarin are encoded in classifiers rather than in nouns, and these two semantic properties are two distinct components in our grammar.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.592281/fullcountabilityindividuationMandarinclassifierswh-pronominal phrasesportioning-out |
| spellingShingle | Aijun Huang Francesco-Alessio Ursini Luisa Meroni Portioning-Out and Individuation in Mandarin Non-interrogative wh-Pronominal Phrases: Experimental Evidence From Child Mandarin Frontiers in Psychology countability individuation Mandarin classifiers wh-pronominal phrases portioning-out |
| title | Portioning-Out and Individuation in Mandarin Non-interrogative wh-Pronominal Phrases: Experimental Evidence From Child Mandarin |
| title_full | Portioning-Out and Individuation in Mandarin Non-interrogative wh-Pronominal Phrases: Experimental Evidence From Child Mandarin |
| title_fullStr | Portioning-Out and Individuation in Mandarin Non-interrogative wh-Pronominal Phrases: Experimental Evidence From Child Mandarin |
| title_full_unstemmed | Portioning-Out and Individuation in Mandarin Non-interrogative wh-Pronominal Phrases: Experimental Evidence From Child Mandarin |
| title_short | Portioning-Out and Individuation in Mandarin Non-interrogative wh-Pronominal Phrases: Experimental Evidence From Child Mandarin |
| title_sort | portioning out and individuation in mandarin non interrogative wh pronominal phrases experimental evidence from child mandarin |
| topic | countability individuation Mandarin classifiers wh-pronominal phrases portioning-out |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.592281/full |
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