本研究旨在探討以中文為母語之兒童使用道歉語的發展。本研究包含兩個控制變因，即責任(responsibility)與冒犯嚴重度(severity of the offence)。主要研究議題為兒童對於冒犯的認知與控制變因的關係，兒童使用道歉語的分類，及其道歉語是否受到控制變因和本身對冒犯認知之影響而有所不同。本研究採用兩種實驗題型：懲罰判斷測驗與看圖回答測驗。研究對象包含實驗組的一百二十位兒童，依平均年齡四至八歲分成五組，每組二十四人，以及對照組的二十四位成人。
實驗結果顯示，中文為母語之兒童平均在四歲左右已能區分不同程度的責任與冒犯嚴重度。四歲與五歲兒童常因嚴重度高而給予較重的懲罰，較年長的兒童以及成人懲罰標準偏向責任，或是兩個變因混合考慮。口語語料顯示出，就主道歉策略而言，七歲以下兒童使用直接道歉策略(direct apologies)多於間接道歉策略(indirect apologies)，七歲以上的兒童與成人剛好相反。就次道歉策略而言，所有兒童使用最多的是提供(Offer)，其次是承認(Acknowledgment)，要求(Request)最少。兒童使用次道歉策略也有階段性發展。此外，較年長的兒童合併道歉策略的能力也較高，而最常使用的策略公式是：直接道歉 + 承認 或 間接道歉 ( + 其它)。最後，控制變因對於兒童及成人選擇直接或間接道歉策略並無顯著的影響，受試者本身對於冒犯的認知也未明顯影響其選擇直接或間接道歉策略。可能的原因是兒童語言發展仍未至臻，較無法有效使用間接道歉策略。對成人而言，受到禮貌理論(politeness theory) (Brown & Levinson 1978, 1987)的影響，成人仍會使用很多間接道歉策略，不因控制變因之不同或自我對於冒犯程度認知之不同而有顯著差異。

As a speech act, apologies function to retain social equilibrium by minimizing negative repercussions and restoring damaged identity (e.g., Goffman 1971, Leech 1983). Although apologies have long been examined in pragmatic studies, there is little research on children’s acquisition of apologies, especially apologies in Chinese. The present study aims to analyze the developmental patterns of Chinese children’s apologies by investigating their perception of punishment and production of apologies under the manipulations of two contextual variables, viz. responsibility and severity of the offence. A comprehension task and a production task were assigned to 120 Chinese children (aged 4-8) and a control group of 24 Chinese-speaking adults. The subjects were further divided into five age groups, each of which consisted of 24 subjects.
The results showed that Chinese children as young as four or so were able to take into account both the subjective factor, responsibility, and the objective factor, severity of the offence, when assigning punishment. However, the younger children were more apt for an outcome rule and the older children for an intentional rule or a conjunction rule (cf. Zelazo, Helwig, & Lau 1996, Helwig, Zelazo, & Wilson 2001). Furthermore, the production data yielded a trend of the children’s use of apologies. Our children younger than seven employed more direct apologies than indirect apologies, while the older children and the adults tended to respond opposite. With regard to sub-strategies, all the children were found to use more Offer than Acknowledgment, which was more than Request, and there was a three-stage development of using sub-strategies. Our older children were also found to be more capable of using combined strategies, and the frequently employed formula was direct apologies of Offer followed by Acknowledgment or indirect apologies of Offer, which was followed by any other strategies. Finally, almost no effect of the contextual variables was found on both the adults’ and children’s choices of direct and indirect apologies. In addition, not more indirect apologies were elicited when both our children and adults assigned heavier punishment. These unexpected inconsistencies can be accounted for by children’s unsophisticated linguistic skills and adults’ awareness of politeness (Brown & Levinson 1978, 1987).

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