Mandarin-Speaking Children's Acauisition Of Quantificational Directions Of Dou

Chinese universal quantifier dou 'all' can quantify over a wh-word either to its right or left.The wh-word to the right of dou is interrogative while the one to the left of it is not interrogative any more.In the negative wh-questions without dou,the wh-words express interrogative meaning regardless of whether they are to the right or left of the negator mei 'not'.It has been found that Mandarin-speaking children acquire the leftward quantification of dou at the age of 4.But children's acquisition of the rightward quantification of dou has not been explored yet.This thesis presents an experimental study investigating Mandarin-speaking children's knowledge of the rightward quantification of dou.The study consists of three experiments.Experiment 1 examines children's distinction between the rightward and leftward quantification of dou.The test sentences are exemplified as follows:Xiaoxiong shenme dou mei chi 'Little Bear didn't eat anything,and Xiaoxiong dou meichi shenme 'What are the things that Little Bear didn't eat'.The former is a declarative sentence,whereas the latter is an interrogative sentence.Experiment 2 examines children's interpretation of the negative wh-questions without dou and compares the results of Experiments 1 and 2 in order to find out whether children process the quantifier dou or not.The test sentences are exemplified as follows:Xiaoxiong shenme mei chi and Xiaoxiong meichi shenme 'What are the things that Little Bear didn't eat'.As wh-words to the right of either dou or mei express interrogative meanings and require exhaustive answers,a comparison between these two types of sentences can reveal whether there is a quantitative difference in children's interpretations of them in the same way.Experiment 3 examines children's directionality preference for the quantification of dou.The test sentences are exemplified as follows:Xiaoxiong and Xiaotu dou chile shenme `What did Little Bear and Little Rabbit eat'.While the answer to the leftward quantification of dou should be the same thing(s)that both Little Bear and Little Rabbit ate,the answer to the rightward quantification of dou should be the thing(s)that Little Bear and Little Rabbit have eaten respectively.It is found that(1)children at least at the age of 4 acquire the rightward/leftward quantification of dou,younger children's ability of processing the leftward quantification is not adult-like though they distinguish the rightward quantification from the leftward quantification;(2)dou has both qualitative and quantitative effects on children's rightward and leftward quantificational interpretations;(3)children preferred the rightward quantification though adults did not demonstrate such a preference.Based on the findings,it is argued in the thesis that children at least at the age of 4 obey the quantificational directionality of dou in Chinese,and children's preference for the rightward quantification reflects the influences of non-grammar factors.