The syntax-semantics interface in a child's path: A study of 3- to 11-year-olds' elicited production of Mandarin recursive relative clauses

2024-06-06

arXiv.org

AI Summary

This study investigates the acquisition order and cognitive mechanisms underlying recursive relative clauses (RRCs) in Mandarin-speaking children aged 3–11. Employing a 4×2 (grammatical type × semantic reversibility) behavioral experiment with a speech–visual priming paradigm, we systematically manipulated internal and external semantic reversibility (IIS/IES vs. RIS/RES) across four RRC subtypes: subject-subject (SSRRC), object-subject (OSRRC), subject-object (SORRC), and object-object (OORRC). We propose the “Syntax–Semantics Interface Two-Stage Development Model”: Stage 1 establishes the interface between syntax and non-reversible internal semantics (IIS); Stage 2 extends it to non-reversible external semantics (IES). Results show that SSRRCs, OSRRCs, and SORRCs are produced accurately approximately two years earlier under IIS/IES than under RIS/RES conditions, confirming both the staged progression and semantic constraint of interface development. These findings provide critical empirical support for Mandarin syntactic acquisition theory and introduce a novel explanatory framework.

Technology Category

• Natural Language Processing: Lexical Semantics and Morphology
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Knowledge Acquisition

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Multilingual and cross-lingual Web search
• Semantics and Knowledge: Methods to enhance, augment, integrate or synergize semantic models such as knowledge graphs and LLMs
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Models for Web evolution

Abstract

There have been apparently conflicting claims over the syntax-semantics relationship in child acquisition. However, few of them have assessed the child's path toward the acquisition of recursive relative clauses (RRCs). The authors of the current paper did experiments to investigate 3- to 11-year-olds' most-structured elicited production of eight Mandarin RRCs in a 4 (syntactic types)*2 (semantic conditions) design. The four syntactic types were RRCs with a subject-gapped RC embedded in an object-gapped RC (SORRCs), RRCs with an object-gapped RC embedded in another object-gapped RC (OORRCs), RRCs with an object-gapped RC embedded in a subject-gapped RC (OSRRCs), and RRCs with a subject-gapped RC embedded in another subject-gapped RC (SSRRCs). Each syntactic type was put in two conditions differing in internal semantics: irreversible internal semantics (IIS) and reversible internal semantics (RIS). For example,"the balloon that [the girl that _ eats the banana] holds _"is SORRCs in the IIS condition;"the monkey that [the dog that _ bites the pig] hits_"is SORRCs in the RIS condition. For each target, the participants were provided with a speech-visual stimulus constructing a condition of irreversible external semantics (IES). The results showed that SSRRCs, OSRRCs and SORRCs in the IIS-IES condition were produced two years earlier than their counterparts in the RIS-IES condition. Thus, a 2-stage development path is proposed: the language acquisition device starts with the interface between (irreversible) syntax and IIS, and ends with the interface between syntax and IES, both abiding by the syntax-semantic interface principle.

Problem

• Mandarin Acquisition
• Recursive Relative Clauses
• Child Language Development

Innovation

• syntax-semantic interface
• recursive relative clauses
• two-stage development path