本文旨在探討兩歲到五歲的兒童是以「規則」為基礎 (rule-based) 抑或以「逐件」為基礎 (item-based) 之方式進而習得中文的「被」字句。研究者藉由兩種不同的實驗 — 造句 (the elicited production task) 以及理解 (the comprehension task) — 以探討兒童在使用以及理解中文「被」字句的表現，同時研究者進而比較兒童與成人在這兩方面的異同。在這兩個實驗中，為了避免取得的語料是兒童從其他人的言語中模仿而得來的「被」字句，因此，研究者使用自創的動詞 (novel verbs) 來進行實驗。研究指出： (1) 年齡愈大的兒童，在使用「被」字句時也愈能記住研究者設計的自創動詞。(2) 年齡愈大的兒童，使用「長被字句」(full bei-sentence) 的比率愈高。(3) 兩歲八個月大的兒童傾向以「規則」為基礎 (rule-based)的方式使用「被」字句。(4) 四歲七個月大的兒童在使用「被」字句上的表現明顯地比兩歲八個月大的兒童臻於成熟，而且他們有傾向似成人 (adult-like) 語言能力的表現。(5) 兩歲八個月大的兒童傾向以「規則」為基礎 (rule-based)的方式來理解「長被字句」。 (6) 本文所探究的兒童不論是在使用或是理解「被」字句上的表現都不如成人那麼好 — 亦即兒童在使用以及理解「被」字句的發展上還不夠成熟，根據所有研究的結果，研究者推論不論是三歲以下或是三歲以上的兒童，都是以「規則」為基礎 (rule-based)的方式來習得中文的「被」字句，而不是經由逐個的、一件件的 ( item-based or piecemeal) 習得方式，而兒童的語言能力是漸漸地 (gradually) 發展，直到達到成人的語言能力。

The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether the children between two to five years old behave in a rule-based way or in an item-based way in the acquisition of the bei-construction in Mandarin Chinese. Two experiments, i.e., the elicited production task and the comprehension task, are conducted to explore the children’s production and comprehension of the bei-construction and then the results are compared to adults’ as well. In these two tasks, the four novel verbs are employed in order to prevent the children from imitating others’ speech. Our results are provided as follows: (1) The more novel verbs which are produced in the bei-sentences the children can remember, the older the children are. (2) The more full bei-sentences the children tend to employ, the older the children are. (3) The children at 2;8 tend to produce the nontaught bei-sentences in a rule-based way. (4) In production, the performance of Group 3 (4;7) is much better than that of Group 1 (2;8) and the performance of Group 3 tends to behave in a more adult-like way. (5) The children at 2;8 tend to comprehend the nontaught full bei-sentences in a rule-based way. (6) The performance of all children examined in the present study is not as good as that of the adults not only in production but also in their comprehension. It indicates that the children’s production and comprehension in the bei-construction are not mature enough compared to the adults’ to deal with the bei-construction in question. Based on our results above, we infer that the children not only above three years old but also under three years old acquire the bei-construction in a rule-based way, not in an item-based (piecemeal) fashion and their linguistic competence develops gradually toward adult-like performance.

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