本論文是透過實驗來討論中文使動與啟動動詞交替之習得。實驗共分二種: 造句 (Elicited Production Task)和判斷( Judgment Task)。經由實驗，可以知道兒童如何學習、使用使動與啟動動詞的交替、多大年齡的兒童就可以習得、每個年齡層兒童使用上的差異性、給予兒童的問句是否影響兒童使用使動與啟動動詞、肢體接觸(Physical contact)是否影響兒童在使動動詞上的回答。

從實驗結果發現 (1)二歲八個月的兒童就能使用使動與啟動動詞交替 (2)從二歲八個月至四歲七個月的兒童都能使用使動與啟動動詞非常好 (3) 四歲七個月兒童使用冗長使動動詞(Periphrastic causative verbs)較年紀較小的兒童更頻繁 (4) 肢體是否接觸是會影響兒童在使動動詞的回答。當肢體有接觸時，兒童會較常使用使動動詞(Lexical causative verbs)；而當肢體沒有接觸時，兒童會較常使用冗長使動動詞(Periphrastic causative verbs) (5) 問句的形式也會影響兒童回答。在包含二個論元的問句裡，兒童會較常使用使動動詞(Lexical causative verbs)；而在只有一個論元的問句裡，兒童會較常使用冗長使動動詞(Periphrastic causative verbs)。

This thesis aims to investigate children acquisition of novel causative and inchoative verb alternation in Mandarin Chinese. Two types of experiments were conducted: Elicited Production Task and Judgment Task. Through the experiments, we could understand the children how to express novel causative and inchoative verb alternation, how old the children could acquire causative verbs, what different expressions of novel causative and inchoative verb are in among three groups, the queries we asked whether affect children’s responses in lexical causative verbs or not and whether physical contact is a key point to affect the children’s response.

The main finding were: (1) the 2;8- year-old children could use novel causative and inchoative verb alternation. (2) the children (from 2;8 to 4;7) were productive in novel causative and inchoative verbs alternation. (3) the 4;7-year-old children uttered periphrastic causative verbs more than the two younger groups. (4) physical contact was a crucial point for children in responses of lexical causative verbs. When the theme was directly manipulated the children used more lexical causative verbs. Besides, when the theme was indirectly manipulated the children produced a partly separate sentence of causatives and a partly truncated causative sentences. (5) the queries we asked effected the children’s response in lexical causative verbs.

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