本研究旨在探討以中文為母語的兒童如何習得中文的主題結構。本實驗共設計兩種測驗：句子選擇測驗與引導說話測驗。受試對象為六十位年齡四至六歲的兒童。依照受試者的年齡，分成四歲、五歲、六歲三個實驗組。此外，尚有二十位以中文為母語的成人為控制組。
實驗結果顯示，在中文主題中的語義特性中，指稱(definiteness)較總稱(genericness)容易習得。然而，三組受試者仍尚未完全習得這兩個語意特性。研究亦發現四歲跟五歲的兒童在語意特性的習得有很大的差異。在語法性方面，所有格式(possessive-like)主題最早習得，原位衍生式(base-generated)主題次之，而移位式(moved)主題最難習得。主題鏈(topic chain)對兒童來說亦是很難習得的特性，三組受試者都尚未完全習得中文主題鏈。研究發現支持語言習得先天性理論(the nativist approach)，受試者皆有自己的語法，沒有模仿實驗者的句子，因此行為學派的語言習得理論(the behaviorist approach)在本研究不成立。本研究結果亦顯示兩種測驗有顯著的差異。普遍來說，句子選擇測驗的分數較引導說話測驗高。但在所有格式主題的習得結果中，受試者在引導說話測驗表現較好。我們可以將此測驗差異歸因於引導說話測驗給予受試者較大彈性，他們可以自由說出他們已經習得的所有格式主題。然而句子選擇測驗較為限制，受試者必須從兩個選項中選擇一個，因此受試者在句子選擇測驗中的對所有格式主題的表現較差。

The present study aims to investigate semantic and syntactic features of Chinese topics, topic chains, two theoretical approaches of language acquisition, and methodological effects in Chinese-speaking children’s acquisition of topic constructions. Sixty Chinese-speaking children and twenty adult controls participated in the present experiment, and the children were divided into three groups according to their age: Group 1 (4-year-old), Group 2 (5-year-old), and Group 3 (6-year-old). The present study employed two tasks: a sentence selection task as a comprehension task and an elicited imitation task as a production task.
The results showed that definiteness was easier to acquire than genericness of Chinese topics. No subjects in the present study have fully acquired the adult’s grammar in the use of generic and definite topics. A developmental gap between ages 4 and 5 was found in acquiring semantic topics. With regards to syntactic features, possessive-like topics were the easiest topic to acquire, followed by base-generated topics and moved topics. The children were found to use syntactic topics according to their own grammar. Topic chains were found difficult for the subjects. One-way ANOVA showed that all the subjects and the control group performed significantly differently (p<0.05), indicating that no subjects have acquired topic chains. However, the subjects were found to retain the topic or to use pronouns to replace with the zero topic of the following sentence. Our findings support the nativist approach because the subjects in the present study did not imitate the experimenter’s input and they constructed their own grammar. Finally, significant task effects were found in the results of the present study. The SS task was generally easier than the EI task. However, the subjects responded to possessive-like topics more correctly in the EI task than in the SS task because they could produce their own possessive-like topics and showed more correct responses in the SS task.

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