Predicting Chinese Preschoolers’ Acquisition of Aspect Markers: A Corpus-Based Study

This study explored the patterns and predictors of aspect marker acquisition of Chinese preschoolers speaking Mandarin Chinese as their first language (L1). Based on a corpus drawn from 157 preschoolers from Beijing, China, this study set out to explore (1) the developmental pattern of aspect marker...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Languages (Basel) 2022-06, Vol.7 (2), p.133
Main Authors: Li, Hui, Liang, Luyao, Wu, Dandan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adverbs
Aktionsart
aspect markers
Chinese languages
Corpus analysis
Corpus linguistics
corpus-based study
Grammatical aspect
Hypotheses
Interpersonal communication
Mandarin
Mandarin Chinese
Morphology
Native language
Native language acquisition
Preschool children
preschoolers
Semantics
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Summary:This study explored the patterns and predictors of aspect marker acquisition of Chinese preschoolers speaking Mandarin Chinese as their first language (L1). Based on a corpus drawn from 157 preschoolers from Beijing, China, this study set out to explore (1) the developmental pattern of aspect marker acquisition; (2) the interactional pattern between grammatical aspect markers and lexical aspects; (3) the production of temporal adverbs with aspect markers; and (4) the predictors of aspect marker acquisition. The main research findings included the following: (1) the Jonckheere–Terpstra test revealed an age-related increase in children’s production of aspect markers, and in particular, there was a significant increase in grammatical aspect markers and lexical aspect subclasses from age 4;6 (Year; Month) onwards; (2) the Friedman’s ANOVAs indicated that -LE was frequently used in combination with most of the lexical aspect subclasses, among them the achievement was the most frequently co-occurring subclass, while the activities came second; (3) a series of Chi-square tests showed that using temporal adverbs in combination with aspect markers became increasingly common among older children; (4) the hierarchical regression analysis identified children’s preschooling experience as a significant predictor of their early aspectual development, after controlling for the other variables.
ISSN:2226-471X
2226-471X
DOI:10.3390/languages7020133