A case study of the sentence final particle “BA” ’s pragmatic functions in chinese-speaking children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/saecj.vol7.7.2018Keywords:
SFP “ba”, intentions, pragmatic function, sentence types, language acquisitionAbstract
The process of the language acquisition of children is reflected in two aspects; language structure and pragmatic functions. Data from "The Longtime Tracing Oral Corpus of Typical Development Children" (one child; 2,367 sentences) are analyzed. This study examines the child’s sentence final particle (SFP) “ba”, in which we focused on the intention of this word and concluding with the core pragmatic meaning and divided the different levels of “ba”. In this way, we combined the different sentence types, the intentions of utterance, and the degrees of “undetermined intention” and researched on the pragmatic function of child’s SFP “ba” in order to obtain the pragmatic acquisition of “ba” at the specific development period (1;12-4;01). The acquisition and development of children's language is the result of a combination of biological factors, discourse input, and cognitive ability. Finally, the enlightenment of the research conclusions on early childhood education are pointed out.
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References
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http://www.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?FileName=1013017099.
Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Xie, N. & Zhang, D. (2017). A study on the construction of the children’s multi-modal oral corpus. Technology Enhanced Foreign Language Education (177), 56-64.
Zhao, C. L. & Sun, L. (2015). On the distributional verification and semantic extraction of the sentence final particle “ba.” Studies of the Chinese Language (365), 121-132.
Zhou, S. H. (2009). Grammatical meaning and discourse function of “ba” revisited. Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies (2), 16-22.
Angeleri, R., & Airenti, G. (2014). The development of joke and irony understanding: A study with 3- to 6-yearold children. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(2), 133-146.
Bloom, L. (1970). Language development: Form and function in emerging grammars. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bowler D. M., & Strom, E. (1998). Elicitation of first-order theory of mind in children with autism. Autism,2(1), 33-44.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978). Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena. In Goody, E. N. (ed.) Questions and Politeness: Strategies in Social Interaction. Cambridge: CUP.
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Choi, S. (1991). Early acquisition of epistemic meanings in Korean: a study of sentence-ending suffixes in the spontaneous speech of three children. First Language (11), 93-119.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1987). On the nature, use, and acquisition of language, in W. Lycan (ed.), 1990, Mind and Cognition, Oxford: Blackwell.
Clancy, P. M. (1989). Form and function in the acquisition of Korean wh-questions. Journal of Child Language, 16(2), 323-347.
Fine, J., & Freedle, R. (1983). Developmental issues in discourse. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1975). Learning how to mean: Explorations in the development of child language. London: Edward Arnold.
Kong, L. D., & Li, H. M. (2008). The development of pragmatic functions of “le” sentence in the child language. Journal of Chinese Linguistics (13). Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Li, C., & Thompson, S., (1981). A Functional Reference Grammar of Mandarin Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Li, H. M. (2005). Modal particles in children’s language. (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from
http://d.g.wanfangdata.com.cn/Thesis_D513344.aspx.
Li, H. M. (2012). The development of pragmatic functions of “de” sentence in the child language and its comparison with “le” sentence. Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies (13), 105-112.
Liu, Y.J. (2009). The research of acquisition of children’s modal particles “ma” and “ba”. (Master’s thesis.) Retrieved from
http://www.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?FileName=2009130452.nh&DbName=CMFD2009.
MacWhinney, B. (1982). Basic processes in syntactic acquisition. In S. A. KuczajII (Ed.), Language development, 1: Syntax and semantics. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
MacWhinney, B. (2009). Enriching CHILDES for morph syntactic analysis. Retrieved from http://repository.cmu.edu/psychology.
Matsui, T., Yamamoto, T., Miura, Y., & McCagg, P. (2016). Young children’s early sensitivity to linguistic indications of speaker certainty in their selective word learning. Lingua (175-176), 83-96.
Matsui, T., & Yamamoto, T. (2013). Developing sensitivity to the sources of information: Early use of the Japanese quotative particles tte and to in mother-child conversation. Journal of Pragmatics (59), 5-25.
Murasugi, K. (2013). Steps in the emergence of full syntactic structure in child grammar. Nanzan Linguistics (9), 85-118.
Ninio, A., & Snow, C. E. (1996). Pragmatic development. Boulder, CO: West view Press.
Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. (1979). Developmental pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.
Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. (1983). Acquiring conversational competence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Piaget, J. (1923). The language and thought of the child. In Marjorie & R. Gabain (Eds.), London and New York: Routledge Classics.
Qian, Y.J. (2003). Modal particles in children’s language. (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from
http://d.g.wanfangdata.com.cn/Thesis_D513344.aspx.
Romaine, S. (1984). The language of children and adolescents: The acquisition of communicative competence. Oxford: Blackwell.
Rowland, C. F., Pine, J. M., Lieven, E. V., & Theakston, A. L. (2003). Determinants of acquisition order in whquestions re-evaluating the role of caregiver speech. Journal of Child Language, 30(3), 609-663.
Russell, R. L., & Grizzle, K. L. (2008). Evidence based, pragmatic language competencies toward assessments. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review (11), 59-73.
Sacks, H. (1995). Lectures on conversation (Vol. I). Oxford: Blackwell.
Schieffelin, B., & Ochs, E. (1986). Language socialization across cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Tao, Y. (2012). The acquisition of Mandarin sentence final particles. (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from
http://www.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?FileName=1013017099.
Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Xie, N. & Zhang, D. (2017). A study on the construction of the children’s multi-modal oral corpus. Technology Enhanced Foreign Language Education (177), 56-64.
Zhao, C. L. & Sun, L. (2015). On the distributional verification and semantic extraction of the sentence final particle “ba.” Studies of the Chinese Language (365), 121-132.
Zhou, S. H. (2009). Grammatical meaning and discourse function of “ba” revisited. Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies (2), 16-22.
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Published
2018-10-29
How to Cite
Zhang, D., Wang, Z., & Elliott, R. (2018). A case study of the sentence final particle “BA” ’s pragmatic functions in chinese-speaking children. Southeast Asia Early Childhood Journal, 7, 60–77. https://doi.org/10.37134/saecj.vol7.7.2018
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