華語文教學研究 7.

3: 109- 1 俑 ， 2 010

Acquiring Double Object Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

Angela Fu-pin Lin Chun-yin Doris Chen

National Chaochou Senior High School National Taiwan Normal Univ.

Abstract

The present study aims 10 investi gate Chinese ch ildren 's acquisition of dou-
ble object verbs with gei. These verbs were c1 assified into three types ,
gei-required , gei-forbidden, and gei-opti ona l. The followin g issues were exam-
ined , i.e. the difficulty levels , unmarked/marked patterns , and development of
untargeted patterns. Two tasks were employed , a grammaticality task and a sen-
tence elicitation task. Forty-five ch ildren aged from three to five and tifteen
adults parti cipated in the experiment , who were further divided into four groups ,
i.e. Group 1 (three-year-o lds) , Group 2 (four-year-olds) , Group 3 (five-yea r-o lds) ,
and Group 4 (native controls). The results are as follows: Fir泣， among the three
types, gei-forbidden verbs posed the most difficulty for the children , wh il e the
other two were relatively easie r. Second , with regard to gei-required verbs ,
[V-DO-gei-lO] was the unmarked pattern while [V-gei-IO-DO] was marked . Si-
mil arly, for gei叩tion a l verbs , the most unmarked pattern was (V-DO-gei-lO ],
followed by [V-IO-DO] , and [V-gei-l O-DO] the most marked. Third , a steady
de velopment was found in the children 's untargeted sentences. The children be-
gan with mono-transitive use of these verbs , then added a second object, and fi-
nally generated more complex sentences

Key Words: Double Object Construction , Ll Acquisiti 凹 ， Markedness , Chinese

1. Introduction
In C hin ese double object constructions , one of the most crucial e lements in de
termining the order of the direct and the indirect objects , however, is gei. Gei is a
word with multiple functions a nd thus can be treated as belonging to different syn-

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 華語文教學研究

tactic categories based on its meanings. As a verb , for instance , gei can be used in a
doubl e object structure Ii ke ( 1) , meanin g ‘ give. ' lnterestingly, gei can also combine
with oth er verbs such as song ‘ give ' in the same structure , as exe mplified in (2)

( 1) Wo gei le Zhangsan yi ben shu (Ya ng 199 1:11 )

GEI ASP Zhangsan o ne CL book
‘ 1 gave Zhangsan a book.'
(2) Wo song ge i le Z hangsa n yi ben s hu
give GEI ASP Zhangsan one CL book
‘ 1 gave Zhangsan a boo k.'
In both ( 1) and (2) , Zhangsan is th e indirec t object and yi ben shu 'a book' is the
direct objec t. The same meanin g can be expressed with gei occ urring in postobj ec t
positio n as in (3)

(3) Wo so ng le yi ben shu gei Zhangsan

give ASP o ne CL book GEI Zhangsan
‘ l gave a book to Z hangsan. '
As can be seen in (2) and (3) , double obj ec t verbs co-occurring w ith gei ex hibit
two patterns , [V-DO-gei-IO] with gei in th e postobject position , and [V-g ei-IO-DO]
with gei in th e postverba l position
Studi es o n Mandarin double obj ect verbs abound in the literature (cf. Tang
1979) , but they fa i1 ed to arri ve at a consensus over the syntact ic categories of gei in
th e postobj ect and the postverbal pos iti ons (cf. Her 2006 , Yang 199 1). No ne of the
studi es examined these ve rbs from a n ac qui sitio nal perspectiv巴 ， e ithe r. Th e one that
examined th e acquisiti o n of dati ve constructions in Mandarin C hine se (Chung and
Gordon 1998) revolved aro und the semanti c constraints of such verbs and was un-
able to prov ide a who le picture of c hildren's acqui sition of double object verbs as
well as the uses of gei in its relevant stru ct ure s. Hence , the present study aims to
address the following research questi ons

1. How do c hildren at different ages res pond to Ch inese double obj ect co n-
structi o ns?
2. Of di fferent types of double object verbs, which type poses the mos t diftì-
culti es and which type is the easiest fo r children to acquire?

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 Acquiring Doubl e Object Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

3. For th e double obj ec t verbs that exhibit different patte rns , whi c h patte rn is
prefe rred by c hildren?

2. Li nguistic Properties and Li terature Review 0 1" Double Object Verbs

2.1 Ling ui s ti c Properties of Double Obj e ct Verbs
[n Mandarin C hin e況 ， doubl e obj ect sentences come in variou s p a ttern s ， 的 il­

lustrated in (4 ), whe re gei is befo re the object Yu ehan ‘ John ' as in (4 )a , Yu ehan
‘ John ' occurs immedi ate ly after th e verb w itho ut gei as in (4 )b , and gei is o mitted ,
as in (4)c

(4) a . Ma li da i le yi ge dangao gei Yueh an

Ma ry brin g ASP o ne C L cake G EI John
‘ Ma ry bro ught a ca ke to JoI1l1 .'
b. Ma li day in g Yueha n yi jia n shiqing
M ary pro mi se John one C L thin g
‘ Mary promi s巴 d JOl111 to do sO lll ething .'
c. Ma li so ng (ge i) Yueha n yi ben shu
Ma ry g ive G EI John one C L boo k
‘ Mary gav e John a boo k.'
Verbs 0 1' th e sa l1l e ty p巴 as dai in (4)a usua ll y il1l pl y phys ical tra nsfer o f o bj ec ts
3nd th ey do not in vo lve th e full l1l ea ning o f 冶 ivin g ，' i.e. [ - Gi v in g]. Th e re fo 時 ，

when a Goa l is a dd e d 司 th e fo ll owin g Ge i-inse rti on Rul e applies to enh ance th e g iv-
in g fea ture of th e verb

(5) Gei- inse rti o n Rul e

For a double objeCl verb 1 ν ifh fh e jeafu re [ - Gi ving) . gei I11l1 Sf be inserf ed
fo .lo r m fhe double objecl conslr llclion

As fo r ve rbs lik e dc小愕 as in (4)b, a lth ough th e re is no ph ys ic a l transfer o f objects ,

they still s igni fy trans fer o f “ infor l1l at ion" fro lll th e subj ect to the 10 (Tang 1979 )
Th at is to say, th ese ve rb s have a lready subsullled th e Ill ea nin g o f tra nsacti on , i. e
[+G iving ). In thi s case , the Gei-insertion Rul e does not appl y. Yerbs like song
'giv e' as in (4 )c diffe r fì'o m th e gei-required verb s in that gei ca n be olllitted. AII in
a ll , gei re late d ve rb s can be c lass ifi ed into th e fo ll o wing three types

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 華語文教學研究

2.2.1 Gei-required Verbs (GRV)

Generally speaking , after the Gei-insertion Rule , the 10 can either precede or
follow the 00 (Tang 1979), resulting in the two patterns below.

Pattern l: V-OO-gei-IO
The first pattern for GRV is [V-OO-gei-IO] , a pattern similar to the English
to-dati ve counte叩 art where the gei-NP is an Adjunct PP (c f. Chang 2005)

(6) a. Lisi tl yl ge qlu gel wo

Lisi kick one CL ball GE I [
‘ Lisi kicked a ball to me.'
b. *Lisi ti wo gei yi ge qiu. (*V-IO-gei-OO)
Lisi kick 1 GElone CL ball
‘ Lisi kicked a ball to me. '
In (6)a , y i ge qiu ‘ one ball' is the 00 , and wo ‘ l'的 the 10 and also the Goa l. The
verb ti ‘ kick ' originally is a two-argument predicate , so it does not subcategorize for
a Goal (Chang 2005) , as in (7). If a Goal is added , gei must be obligatorily present

(7) A: Ni ga略gang ti le sheme?

youjust kick ASP what
‘ What did you just kick? '
B: Wo ti le yi ge qiu
kick ASP one CL ball
‘ 1 kicked a ball.'
In (7) , wo '[' is the subject; yi g e qiu ‘ one ball ' is the DO. Since there is no Goal , the
Gei-insertion Rule does not app ly

Pattern 2: V-gei-IO-OO
The second pattern for GRV is [V-gei-IO-OO] , where gei appears immediately
after the verb to form a V-V compound (Chang 2005 , Her 2006) , as shown below

(8) a. Zhangsan pao gei Lisi yi shu hua. (Huang and Ahrens 1999: 6)
Zhangsan toss GEI Lisi one CL flower
‘ Zhangsan tossed a bouquet to Li si .'
b. *Zhangsan pao gei yi shu hua Lisi
Zhangsan toss GEI one CL flower Lisi
‘ Zhangsan tossed a bouquet to Lisi.'

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 Acquiring Dou ble Object Verbs in Mandarin Chi nese

This pattern is rega rded as a double object constructi on in Ma nda rin Chin ese
(C hang 2005) where the 10 precedes the 0 0 as in (8)a. T he opposite orde r of 10
and 0 0 , [[V-gei] -OO-IO ] res ult s in un grammati cality, as in (8) b

2.2 .2 Gei-forbidden Verbs (GFV)

Verbs w ith a [+G iving] feature are gei-forb idden verb s, and ty pi cal exa mpl es of
thi s ty pe are gaos lI ‘ tell ' as in (9)

(9) a. X iao min g gaos u Xiaohua yi ge mimi

X iao min g tell X iao hua one CL sec ret
‘ Xiao mi ng to ld X iaohu a a secre t. '
b. *X iao min g gaos u ge i Xiao hua yi g巴 mlml

Xiao min g tell GEJ Xi aohu a one C L secret

‘ X iao ming to ld X iaohua a secre t. '

As can be see n a b ov 巴 ， whe n gei co-occ urs with thi s ty pe of verb , it w ill resul t in
ungrammati ca lity

Pattern 3: V- IO- OO
Fo r GF V, th e DO always fo ll ows th e 10 , not vice versa

( 10) a. M ali gaosu Yuehan yi ge hao xiaox i

Mary tell John one C L good news
‘ Mary to ld John a piece of good news.'
b. *Mali gaosu yi ge hao xiaoxi Yue han
恥1 a ry tell one CL good news John
‘ Mary to ld Jo bn a piece of good news.'
Accordin g to G ivón 's to picali ty biera rchy, the “ primary topic" occupi es the subj ect
pos ition while th e “ seco ndary topic" usuall y occ urs in th e 0 0 pos ition. As for the
10 (“ prepos itional 0 句 ec t" in G iv ón 1984) a nd the DO (“ acc usati ve objec t") in do u-
ble object constructi ons , G ivó n argues tbat the 10 is usuall y more “ top ical" a nd thu s
is promoted vi a Oat ive Shi fling to 0 0 pos ition. According to hi s theory, we may
propose a rul e Ii ke ( 11 ) to ensure th at th e 10 occurs befo re the 00. To be more spe-
cific , for the gei-forbidd en ve rb s to whi ch th e Gei-insertio n Rule does not appl y, the
10 Precedence Rul e mu st take place

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 格語文教學研究

( 11 ) 10 Precedence Rlll e
Wh e l1 gei do es 1101 CO -OCCUI' wilh a doub/e objec l νerb. Ih e /0 mus l pre-
cede the DO

2.2.3 Gei-opt ional Verbs (GOV)

Gei -o ptio na l ve rbs o nly di 叮叮 from ge i-req llired verbs in that the former allows
gei to be o mitted . Verb s sllch as so愕‘ g i ve ，' f ll ' pay ,' and hua l1 ‘ retllrn ,' a re of thi s
type . As for the order of the two obj ects , th e 10 ca n e ith er precede th e 00 or follow
it. Therefo 悶， th ese verbs ca n OCC llr in the patterns , [V-ge i-lO-OO ], and
[V-OO-gei-IO]. O n the other hand , if g ei is om itted , on ly one order is poss ibl e , i.e
[V-IO-OO]. Exampl es ( 12)a and b show sll ch optiona lity.

( 12) a. Lisi so ng ge i Xiao ling yi zhi shollbi ao

Lisi g ive GE I Xiao lin g one C L watch
‘ Lisi gave Xiaoling a watch. '
b. Lis i so ng Xia o lin g y i zhi shollbiao
Li s i g ive Xiao ling o ne C L watc h
‘ Lisi gave Xiaoling a wa tch 、

Tabl e 1 sllmmari zes the rll les we proposed previollsly w ith th e correspo ndin g
verbs and th e ir pattern s

+Ge i-inse rti on Rul e Gei-insertion Rul e

+ 10 Prece d e nc e 一 10 Precede nce 1+10 Precedence 1 一 1 0 Precede nce
[V-gei- IO-OO] [V-OO-gei-IO] I[V-IO-OO] NA
[ - Giving] [ - Giv ing] [+Gi ving] NA
No le: F0 1' the fo urlh 仰oe IVhere none 0./ Ih e 111'0 mles is (，ψ'plied. Ih ere is no such verb 0 1'
pa l/ ern il1 Mandarin Ch in臼 e， hence il is nOI applicable

If children have acqllired the two rule s , it is expected that th ey wi ll have no dif-
ficu lty acq uirin g the three pattern s of dOllbl e object ve rbs. Wh en gei is mi ss in g ,
based on the 10 Precedence RlI le , they w ill know that th e on ly pattern all owed is
[V-I O-OO] instead of [V-OO-IO]. If th ey produce sentences with the 10 fo ll ow ing
lhe 00 , lh en the Gei-inserti on Rul e mll st appl y and th e pattern w ill be
[V- OO-gei- IO]. As for the [V-gei-IO-OO] patte rn , it ShOllld callse no difficlllty sin ce
th e phrase [gei- IO] can occur e ith er befo re or after th e 00 in Ma nd ari n C hin ese

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 Acq uiring Double Object Verbs in Mandarin Chin ese

2.2 Empiri ca l S tudi es of D a ti ve Co n s tructi o n s

In thi s sect io n, sO ll1 e 0 1' th 巴 s tudi es on th e acqlli siti o n 0 1' dOllble obj ect v 巴 rb s in
Eng li sh and in oth er la ngll ages w ill be rev iewed

2.2 .1 Osgood and Zehl e r ( 198 1)

Osgood a nd Ze hl e r ( 198 1) exa ll1 in ed the effec ts of prototy pi ca lity and sente nce
cO ll1 pl ex ity o n c hildre n 's acqlli s iti o n 0 1' Eng li sh dOllbl e o bj ect constrll cti o ns. Their
sllbj ects co ns isted of s ix teen ch ildren in eac h age grollp , three- , fOllr- , and
fìve -year-o ld s. Thirty-two sentences we re exa ll1 in ed , s ixtee n o f w hi ch were dativ e
and the oth er s ixtee n ditrans iti ve. FOllr leve ls of prototypica lity a long w ith fO llr lev-
els of cO ll1 pl ex ity we re e ll1 pl oyed . Th e children were asked to per form two tas ks; th e
日 rs t was an ac t Ollt tas k , and th e seco nd , a produ cti on ta sk
Th e ir res lllts showed th at , at th e fìrst cO ll1 pl ex ity l ev訓， w hi c h in vo lved o ne
tra nsfe r event a nd one transfe rred o bj e仗， no age effect was fO llnd . ln othe r wo rds , at
the age 0 1' th l 間 ， the childre n had a lready acqllired th e two a lte rn atin g constructi ons I
Second , ani ll1 acy pl ayed a crll cia l role in their childre n 's perfo r ll1 ance on both tasks
Third , w hen th e c hildren had cho ices to describe acti o ns of transfer in the prodllc-
ti on tas k, th ey displayed overw he lll1 in g prefe rence fo r th e Bas ic co nstrllcti on2 1f
they used th e Transfo rll1 structure 3 , they tended to use it in sentences with typica l
s itu atio ns. Th e refore , p roto ty pi ca lity, like cO ll1 pl ex i 旬， was a cru c ia l fac to r in th e
childre n 's pe rfo r ll1 ance . As the childre n got o ld凹 ， they tried to use th e Transfo rll1
co nstrll cti on m ore often. Fo urth , the res ults o f the cO ll1 prehens io n task showed that
as a se ntence beca ll1 e 1l1 0re compl ex and less typi ca l, th e ch ild re n 's perfor ll1 ance
dec reased fo r the Transfor ll1 stru cture ll1 uch ll1 0 re th an th e ir pe rfor l11 a nce on th e Ba-
sic strllcture. That is 10 say, th e Bas ic strllcture was eas ier fo r the c hildren th a n the
Tran s form structure. To acco unt fo r th is , Osgood and Ze hl er cl a il11 ed th at the chil-
dren tended to trea t th e nOlln c1 0sest to the verb as the 0 0 instead of th 巴 [0 . Fur-
th er l11 0 l 巴 ， th e seque nce of V-OO in th e Basic for l11 ex pressed co nti g uity, while in the
Transform se ntences th e 10 se parated the verb and the DO

l ‘ The two alterna lin g construct ions' mea ns ‘ the two constructi ons th at are interchangeab le'
here
The bas ic co nstruction here refers to lh e co nstructi on thm does not in vo lve tran sforma-
ti onal rlll es
, The transforll1 structure is a slructure that is derived fro m a basic co nstruclion with ru les

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 華語文教學研究

2.2.2 Mazurkewich (1984)

Mazurkewich 's research on the dative alternations was based on the Marked-
ness Theory. Instead of the acquisition of first language , she examined learners' 的­
quisition of English as a second language , with a view to exploring second language
acquisition process in comparison with that of first language acquisition. Following
Chomsky ' s principles of UG, she suggested that the dative structure [NP PPj be the
lI nmarked form. The experiment involved one grammaticality task in which alter-
4
nating as well as non-alternating verbs appeared in both dative and double object
constructions. Subjects of two unrelated languages , French and lnuit (Eskimo) ,
were tested , with each group further divided into three proficiency levels , basic , in-
termediate , and advanced. The mean ages for the two groups were 18 for the French
grollp and 17 for the lnuit group. Two control groups were made lI P of six subjects
with the mean age of 12;3 in one grollp and another six with the mean age 15;6 in
the other group
The results lent support to the prediction that dative constructions were ac-
quired before the doub1e object counterparts. Furthermore , overgenera1izations of
the dative a1ternations were fOllnd not on1y in the experimental groups , but a1so in
the contro1 groups , suggesting that the subjects , L 1 as well as L2 1earners , had not
comp1ete1y acquired the alternating constraints. Decrease in the nllmber of overgen-
era1izations i 日 the older age groups , however, revea1ed that these wou1d gradually
disappear as the chi1dren got olde r. Finally, to suppo此 the view that dative con-
structions were the lI nmarked forms , Mazurkewich referred to Chomsky's Case
Theory, and suggested that in the dative construction , the JO receives case 什om a
preposition in a PP, since prepositions are case assigners. The dOllb1e object con-
struction , on the other hand , is not consistent with Case Theory because there is no
structllra1 case assigner next to the 10
Chung and Gordon's study was based on Pinker 's (1989) hypothesis of Broad
Range Ru1es (BRR) and Narrow Range R 1I 1es (NRR)5, which spec均 the semantic
restrictions on English dative alternations. Their pllrpose was to examine whether
the two ru1es cou1d be app1ied to Chinese dative constructions as we1 1. ln their study,

4 An alternating verb is a verb that can occur both in the 叭 P PPj pattern and in the [NP NPj
pattern , but a non-alternating verb can only show up in the [N P PPj pattern
5 According to a broad range rule (BRR) , the underlying meaning of a double-object con-
struction : X Verb Y Z is that X causes Y 10 have Z. Therefore , Y must be the prospective
possessor of Z. However , a narrow range rule defïnes semantic sub c\ asses of verbs that
exhibit the dative alternatio l1

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 Acquírín且 Double Object Verbs ín Mand arín Chín ese

Chinese doubl e object verbs were di vided into two classes , one datavi zable and the
other non-datavi zable. Datav izable verbs are those that can occur in the V-NP-NP
construction. Th ese verbs correspond to Tang's (1979) Types 111 and IV, which can-
not co-occur with gei . Non-datavizable verbs , on the contrary, cannot have the
V-NP-NP construction , which belong to Tang's Type [ and have to take the Goal
marker gei . TherefOl巴 ， th e BRR dete rmines whether verbs can have dOllble object
constrllctions , while the NRR further c lass ifies these verbs into semantic sllbclasses
Thirty-seve n children parti c ipated in their experimen t. Two tasks were designed , th e
first syntactic and the second semantic. Th e sy ntactic task was a pllppet selection
task in which twenty-two vel 恤 ， eleven dativi zable, and e leven non-dativi zable ,
were tested. One puppet prodllced one dOllble object construction with a verb , while
the other said a dative g ei-NP constrllction or other prepositional constructions. The
classi 日 cation of verbs and the semantic sllbc lasses are taken from Chung and
Gordon. The ma in pllrpose of the se mantic task was to investigate whether the chi l-
dren cOllld difTerenti ate different mea nin gs of se ntences with deprivational verbs in
do uble object and dative gei-NP constructions
Their findings are as fo llows. First of a ll , the BRR , which specifies which
verbs can exhibit double object constructions , may not be lI niversal , since the de-
privational verbs in Mandarin Chinese violate the universa l linkin g rule. Second ,
concerning the linking rule that violates the uni versa l pa ttern of associating the 10
with a Goal or a Beneficiary, it mi g ht not be more difficlllt for the children as ex-
pected. Thi 叫 ， the results of the semantic task supported the hypothes is of the Nar-
row Range Rule in th at it helped children classify dativi zab le verbs into semantic
subclasses. The pllrpose of Chung and Gordon 's stlldy is not to differentiate verbs
according to the pres巴 nce of ge九 but 10 investi gate whether their children were able
to di stinglli sh dati vizable from non 司 dativi za ble verbs. Therefore , the various patterns
of dOllble object verbs with or withollt gei have not been fu lI y exa min ed in th e ir
stlldy.

2.2 .4 Campbe lI and To ma se lI o (200 1)

Campbe ll and Tomasello (2001) condllcted a corpus stlldy on children 's acqui-
sition of th e dOllble object , to-dative and for-dative constructions , a ll of which , the
allthors c1 a im ed , are the gram m

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 1話語文教學研究

these patte rn s. Seven sllbj ects from the C HI LOES database were exa m ined. The age
of their fi rst lI se of th e three strll ctllres was recorded
The reslllts showed th at lI P to the age of three , at least fi ve of th e seven chil-
dre n had a lready lea rn ed to lI se verbs in altern atin g constrllcti ons. F lI rth erm o l 巴 ， fi ve
of the seven children lI sed the doubl e obj ect co nstrllcti on earii er than th e other two
In order to in vesti gate whether parental speec h was a crllci al factor, they fllrth er
analyzed th e verbs lI sed in both dOllble object and to-dati ve constrll cti ons by the
children as we ll as by th eir parents. It turn ed Ollt that th e children lI sed the dOllble
obj ect constrllcti ons fi rst dlle to the hi gh freqll ency of these co nstrllcti ons in their
parental speech. 8 ased on Go ldberg 's ( 1995) classificati o n, they di vided th e verb s
into three classes , i. e. centra l se nse , non-prototypical, and metaphors. lt has bee n
fO ll nd th at verbs of centra l sense have a prototypical mea ning of an Agent transfer-
ring an obj ec t to a Goa l (G oldberg 1995) . There are also dOllble obj ect verbs w hich
have less prototypical mea nin gs sll ch as ve rbs of creati on or obta ining . Finall y,
verbs th at do not signi fy phys ica l tra nsfer of o bjects belong to meta phors. The se-
manti c a n a l 抖 的 sh owe d th at, contrary to their ex pectation, the verbs lI sed by the
children did not all fa ll into th e pro totypical type. Many of them belonged to th e
other two classes , non-p rototypical and metaphors. Ca mpbell and Tomasell o thlls
arglled that thi s mi ght be attri bllted to freqllency of parental inpllt

2.2. 5 Cho , Lee , O ' Grady, Song , S lI zuki , and Yos hin aga (2002)
Cho et a l. (2002) in vesti ga ted children's preference for th e order of the 10 and
0 0 in Korean , a langll age whi ch ex hibits both 0 0 -1 0 and 10-00 orders. T heir
sllbjects co nsisted of forty Korea n-spea kin g children age d 仕o m fO llr to seven , with
ten in each age grollp. FOllr types of se ntences were tested , animate 10 and DO and
in animate 10 and 00 in two di ffe rent orders. Each child was asked to act Ollt with
doll s in a co mprehension tas k. In additi on , in order to exa min e w hether freqll ency of
inpllt pl ayed a ro le in deterlllin ing th e sllbjects ' wo rd order preference , a corpll s
stlldy was co ndllcted on matern al speech fro m three mothers
The reslllts of the co mprehension task showed th at the sllbj ects' perform ance
was mllch better on th e 0 0 -1 0 orde r in both animate and in animate sitllati ons. A
low accllracy rate of the 10 -00 order was attribllted to the children's interpretati on
o f th e 10 -00 order as th e 0 0- 10 ord e r. ln additi on, th e sllbj ects' perfo rmance on
th e 00-10 ord er was good fo r all age grollps , bllt in te rm s of th e 10 -00 seqllence ,
age was a crllc ial fac tor. The o lde r children perform ed better th an the yOllnger ones

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 Acq lliring DOllble Object Verbs in Mandarin Ch inese

o n the 10-DO orde r. The corp lls stlld y showed that alllong the se ntences with both
the 10 and 00 present , 70 % of th elll belon ged to the 10-00 orde r. However, the
children displayed preference for the 00-10 orde r. Thus, C ho et al. claillled , the
10-00 o rder is considered to be th e pattern Ill ost frequentl y used and also the basic
forlll of the two orders in Korean
To SU Ill up , Ill ost of these previous studi es co nducted a cOlllprehension task 10
exallline c hildl 凹 ' s acq ui sitio n of the double object construction (Mazurkewich
1984 , Cho et a l. 2002). It has been found th at there was an a nilllacy effect (Osgood
198 1) and that the 00-1 0 order was easier for c hildre n to acq uire than the 10-00
sequence. However, the cons id erabl e a((e ntion was drawn onl y on the Eng li sh dou-
ble obj ect construction. Very few studi es prov ided a n empiri ca l view o n the C hin es 巴

co rrespondin g constru ction. Thus , to have a better understa ndin g of la ngua ge uni-
versali 勻， a closer look at the Chin ese double object construction is needed

3. Research Design
3.1 Subjects
The present stud y consisted of three experime ntal groups and o ne control gro up
The experimental gro up s were made up of 45 preschoolers aged from three to 日 ve

什om a private Catholi c kindergarten in so uth ern Taiwan. The control group was
composed of 15 native Mandarin-speaking adults whose mean age was 20 ， 的 can be
see n in Table 2

Table 2: Basic Informati o n of the Subjects

Group Age Mean Gender Number
1 (3-year-o lds) 3;5- 3: 11 3:6 Male 9 15
Fema le 6
2 (4-year-o lds) 4;5- 4:11 4;6 Male 6 15
Female 9
3 (5 -year-o lds) 5;5- 5: 11 5;6 Male 6 15
Female 9
4 (con tro l gro up ) 18;4- 22;4 20;4 Male 7 15

Th e ex perimental gro ups shared a sim il ar geograp hica l background and mainl y
spoke Mandarin Chin ese in their daily li ves. Moreover, they spend most of their
time on formerly acquired skills with acti vities suc h as story-tellin g , w riting le t1 ers
or greetin g card s , drawing , si nging , playing the in struments , painting、 a nd po((ery,
etc

11 9
 望著語文教學研究

3.2 Materials and Methods

In order to examine how much children have acquired Cbinese double object
verbs , both a grammaticality judgment (GJ) task and a production (PD) task were
designed . In the GJ Task, three verbs were chosen from eacb type to be tested (see
Appendices A and B). For the gei-required verbs , two test items were designed for
each verb with the two alternative patterns, [V旬gei-IO-DO] and [V-DO-gei-IO]
For the gei-forbidden verbs, two test items for each verb were designed as well
For the gei-optional verbs , which allow three altemative patterns , [V-gei-IO-DO ),
[V-DO-gei-IO] and [V-IO-DO] , three test items were designed for each verb
Therefore, twenty-five items, four fillers inclllded, were designed in the GJ Task
Two well-known cartoon characters, Mickey Mouse and his girlfriend Minni MOllse,
were used along with a booklet and some stickers. For each test verb , two test sen-
tences were produced by each of the two puppets. Some of the sentences were
grammatical , but some were ungrammatica l. Each sllbject was asked to judge which
of the sentences prodllced by the puppets was grammatical and then the subject
would be given a sticker if he/she had the correct answer
In the PD task , four test items were designed for each type of verbs. Altogether,
there were sixteen test items , including fOllr fillers (see Appendices C and 0). The
same puppet, Mickey MOllse, was used. Each test sentence was presented with one
pictllre that described the contex t. The subjects were asked to complete a sentence
with a particular verb introdllced by Mickey Mouse

3.3 Procedures
In the study, 45 children were recruited to conduct the two tasks , each of which
consisted of two sessions: a training phase and a testing phase. For fear that our
children 's ability in sentence production were influenced by the test sentences they
heard in the GJ task, the PD task was carried out first, in which the training phase
lasted for ten minutes, and the testing phase for the GJ task took thirty minutes and
the PD task fifteen minutes . ln addition, all the subjects were told that stickers
would be given to them as gifts at the end of each task. The whole procedure was
alldio-taped
After the experiment , one point was given to a correct response. In addition ,
the syntactic category of each correct response to the PD task was labeled and
counted . The data were then entered into SPSS 17 and processed by the computer
With regard to the sentences that received no points in the PD task, a qualitative

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 Acquìrìng Double Object Verbs ìn Mandarìn Chìnese

ana lysis was conducted so as to investigate the subjects' preference for patterns
other than the double object construction

4. Results and Di scussion

4.1 Difficulty Level of the Three Types of Double Object Verbs
As can be seen in Figllre 1, the three types of verbs demonstrated a develop-
mental trend for eacb age grollp
1. 00

0.80

0.60
一﹒-requir ed

0 .4 0
____ forbìdden
-可食一-op t. ional

0 . 20

0.00 一 卡一一一一一一-r一一一

3-yr-olds 4-yr-olds S - yr-olds control

Figure 1: Subjecls ' Mean Scores of lhe Three Types of Double Objecl 愉 'bs

For gei-reqllir巴d verbs , the 111 巴an scores for the three- , fOllr- , and the five-year-olds
were .36 , .57 , and .79 , respectivell. The same trend was fOllnd in response to
gei-forbidden and gei-optional verbs. As the Sll 蚓 ects' age increased , their perform-
ance improved. The reslllts of one-way ANOVA also revealed that the different
l1l ean scores between grollps reached a significant level for a ll the three types of
verbs ( F(3 , 56)=52 .785 , p=.OOO for g e i-reqllired verbs; F(3 , 56)=52.926 , p=.OOO for
gei-forbidden verbs ; and F(3 , 56)=58 .4 41. p=.OOO for gei-optional verbs)
The post hoc tests showed that for ge i-reqllired verbs , the between-grollp diι

ferences a ll reached the s ignificant leve l. The five-year-olds were better than the
four-year-olds (p=.OO 1) and the three-year-olds (p=.OOO). The four-year-olds were
better than the three-year-olds (p =.003) . The adults did significantly better than
the three experi l1l enta l grollps. Like gei-required verbs , the results of the com-
parison for g e i-optional verbs also revealed significant differences a l1l ong these
grollps. A significant difference was found between GrollpS 1 (three-year-o lds )
and 2 (fo llr-year-o lds) (p=.OOO) , between Groups 2 (fo llr-year-olds) and 3

的 The l11 ean score for each age group was derìved by the correct responses dìvìded by the

four ìte l11 s for each verb type

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 蓋在 語文教學研究

(訂閱-year-olds) (p =.OI3) , and between Groups 3 (自呵 -year-olds) and 4 (contro l)

(p =.005). Concerning the subjects ' performance on gei-forbidden verbs , the
five-year-olds did not perform significantly better than the four-year-olds , a lthollgh
the five-year-olds outperformed the three-year-olds (p =.004); the four-year-o lds did
not do better than the three-year-olds. The three experilllental groups performed
significantly worse than the adult group (p =.OOO)
Given the results, we can infer that even at the youngest age, our children were
ab le to discern that gei-forbidden verbs were different frolll gei-required and
gei-optiona l verbs. As discussed earlier, gei-forbidden verbs denote a meaning of
' giving' for the reason that although they do not imply physical transfer of an object ,
they still denote a meaning of transaction metaphorically, hence with the feature
[+Giving]

(1 月 Ta wen wo yi ge wenti
he ask 1 one CL qllestion
‘ He asked me a question. '
According to Yang ( 1991) , a sentence Ii ke (13) not only signi fies abstract transac-
tion of a thellle but also denotes the meaning of ‘ giving ,' i.e. [+Giving]. Verbs sub-
sUllling the meaning of giving need not co司 occur with gei. Gei-required verbs which
do not denote the sallle llleaning are of the [ - Giving] type ， 的 in (14)

( 14) Wo ji le yi feng xin gei Lisi (Yang 1991: 19)

send ASP one CL letter GEl Li si
‘ 1 send a letter to Lisi. '
In ( 14), gei is req 肌肉 d ifthe 10 is presen t. As shown in Figure 1, our sllbjects l1l ight

be aware of the m句 or difference between the two classes of verbs , [ - Giving] and
[+Giving]. Furthermore , their performance of the former was sign ificantly better
than that of the latter, indicating that although they were aware of the two types of
verbs , the gei-forbidden type was more difficult for them. The for l1l er might be ac-
qllired first by the ll1. Gei-optional verbs , which possess the featllres [+/ - Giving] ,
scored slightl y higher than g ei-reqllired verbs , a 1thollgh not at a significant level
This might be attribllted to the reason that gei-optiona l verbs carry both the
[+Giving] and [ - G iving] features. That is to say, the absence of g ei in the dOllble
object patterns of these verbs will not reslllt in lI ngra l1l 111aticality. lf ollr sllbjects had
not yet acqllired the Gei-insertion RlI le and did not insert g ei in double object pat-

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 Acqlliring DOllble Object Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

tern s , they still cou ld prod uce grammatica l sentences. Therefo re , it was unlik ely that
they wou ld make mi sta kes w hen they encollntered g ei-optiona l ve rbs. The a ppli-
cation of the rlll e , on th e co ntra 旬， is necessary for gei-req llired verbs. Ollr child ren
mllst be awa re that th ese ve rbs possess th e [ - Giving] featu l 巴 ， and that th ey appl y
the Gei-inse rti on R lI le to dOll ble object pattern s. From our sllbjects ' performances on
gei-reqllired verbs , we can postul ate that they mi g ht not have fu ll y acquired the
Ge i-inserti o n Rule even at th e age of fiv e , since the performance of the
fi ve-year-o lds was still signifi cantl y wo rse tha n that of th e adults
On the o ther hand , o ur subjects ' poor performance on gei- fo rbidden verbs can
be attribut巴d to th e feature [+Giving]. Thi s type of verbs are also diffe rent 什o m the
other two types in that th ey do not physically denote tran sfer of objects (Tang 1979)
They only s i gni 秒 the same ll1 ea ning meta phorically. That is to say, both gei-required
andge川 ptional verbs possess the featl.l re [+Concrete], but gei-forbidden ve rbs are [一

Concrete] . It is believed th at chi ldren und erstand concrete objects or action s ea rli er
than abstract ideas. In addition , concrete objects are lI sually 1l1 0re genera l th an ab-
stract ones. According to C lark 's ( 1973) Semantic Feature H y pothe s 時 ， 1l1 0re genera l
fe atures a re ac qll 叮ed fir刻 ， fo ll owed by steady acc reti on of more specific ones
Furthermore , when a pair of words are rel ated in a chi ld 's mental lexicon and pos-
sess similar features , it is not until the child acqllires the co ntrasting vallles of pos 卜
tive (+) and negative (一) between these words that he is abl e to di stinguish the two
(C lark 1973). In th e present study , our subjects mi g ht have been able to different卜

ate the positi ve (+) fro ll1 the negative (一) va lu e of concreteness , but those with [ -
Concrete] ll1 ay still re ma in difficlll t. DOllble obj ect verbs with the negati ve value
ll1 ight not be fami li ar to th e ll1 compared to th ose with the pos itive vallle. Miller
( 1977) also agrees that children's ea rly words are usually “ broadly generic" and “ the
acqu isition of later words should sharpen conceptllal di stinctions ( 1977: 1004)."
Co mpared to ge叫o rbidd e n verbs , wo rd s w ith th e [+Concrete] featllre are more ge-
neric an d easier to unde rstand a nd thll s a re acquired ea rli e r and with ease. In
C lark 's ( 1993) di sc llss ion 0 1' c hi Idren 's ontologica l catego ri es , she a rglled th at when
chi ldren crea te meanin gs for nouns , th eir ontol og ic

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 華語文教學研究

verbs. Gei-forbidden verbs , given their abstract sense of transfer of objects , do not
result in a ph ysical change of state, and are considered semantically more complex
in meaning. They were therefore more difficult to acquire for our children
With regard to the [0 Precedence Rule , in our children's responses to the
gei-optional verbs in the PD task, none of the sentences belonged to the pattern
*[V-DO-[O). From their responses of gei-forbidden verbs in the PD task, none of
them produced the pattern *[V-DO-[O] , either.
As can be seen in Figure 1, our children's developmental progress for g，衍-required
and gei-optional verbs almost overlap, showing a steady increase of ability as the
subjects go t older. Like the development of the two types of verbs , gei-forbidden
verbs also displayed a steady progress , although it was slower. Gei-required and
gei-o ption al verbs scored the higbest for every group , and the di 叮erence between
the two types did not reach a signi 日 cant leve l. It can be inferred th at these two
types of verbs were the easiest for the subjects of the three groups. [n addition , the
multiple comparisons showed that as the children got older, their performance not
only improved but also increased significantly for the two types of verbs. Originally
we would ex pect th at the oldest group (five-year-olds) had already acquired the
adult level proficiency. Contrary to our ex pectation, the difference between the old-
est group and the adults was statistically significa帥 ， showing that they had not yet
fully acquired these two types of verbs as the adults did. That is to say, although the
children mi ght have been able to differentiate the [+Concrete] feature from the [ -
Concrete] one , with regard to gei- required and gei-option al verbs that possess the
[+Concrete] feature, they still had difficulty applying th e Gei-insertion Rule. How-
ever, the children 's acquisition of gei-forbidden verbs was differen t. As they got
older, there was only a small scale of progre ss , indicating that the acquisition of this
type of verbs was relatively slow and thus not easy to detec t. Even when the chi 卜

dren at th e age of five performed quite well on gei-required and gei-optional verbs,
their performance on gei-forbidden was still poor. Gei-forbidden verbs, with the
feature [+G iving] , which at the same time possess [ - Concrete] meaning, were still
new to our subjects, and therefore wer 巴 more difficul t. Only when they encountered
more ofth

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 Acqlliring DOllble Object Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

4.2 Chi ldre n ' s Preferences for Certain Patterns

Among the three types of double object verbs , gei-required verbs can be used
in two alternative patterns , [V-gei-lO-DO] and [V-DO-gei-IO] . Gei-optional verbs
exhibit three patterns, [V-gei- IO-DO], [V-DO-gei-IO] , and [V-IO-DO]. Gei-forbidden
verbs, however, can only be used in one pattern, [V-IO-DO]. Thus, only the for-
mer two typ巴 s of verbs were examined. According to Eckman (1977) , more un-
marked forms or strllctures wi ll be acqllired more easil y and earlier than marked
ones (c f. Mazurkewich 1984). Thus , the degree of markedness is defined according
to the degree of difficlllty levels. Others explore the frequency of a certain pattern in
a langllage or across languages as a criterion to define markedness (c f. Greenberg
1966, Liu 2001). For them , more lI nmarked forms are uSllally accompanied by
higher frequency of occurrences
As shown in Table 3 , we can find that for the three-year-olds , there were on ly 6
grammatical double object sentences, 5 of which belonged to the dative pattern

Table 3: Use ofthe Gei-required Patterns by Each Group

cei叫 UI 叫|師叫ear-olds 1 fOllr-year-o lds 1 five-year-olds
[V伊-IO-DO] 11(16.67 %) 11 (3. 13 %) 10(0%)
[V-DO-ge卜 10] 15 (83.33 %) 131 (96.88 %) 150 (100 %)

The chi-square test revealed that althollgh the dative pattern (83.33%) had more re-
sponses than the V-gei dOllble object pattern (16.67%), there was no significant dif-
ference of freque ncy between the two patterns. Therefore, for the three-year-olds, no
significant preference was found. The four-year-o lds produced thirty-two gram-
matical dOllble object se ntences, thirty-one of which (96.88%) belonged to the da-
tive pattern [V-DO-gei-IO]. The chi-square test showed that there existed a prefer-
ence for the dative pattern: X 2=26.281 , df訓 ， p=.OOO. The fi ve-year-olds a lso ex-
hibited the sa me preference , with all the chi ldren (100%) choosing the dative pattern ,
which was identical to that of th e control gro llp. Taken together, from the freqllency
counts, we can aS8ume that the chi 1dren, as well as the adu lts of the control group,
all favored the dative pattern of gei-required verbs, despite the fact that no statisti-
cally significant preference was found in the prodllction of the three-year-olds
As Table 4 shows , there were slight di 仟erences among the three experimental
grollps. The three-year-old s expressed their preference not on ly for the dOllble ob-
ject [V-IO-DO] but al80 for the V-gei [V-gei-IO-DO] pattern , which seemed to de-
viate from th 巴 other chi ldren

125
 望在語文教學 研究

Table 4: Subj ec ts' Use o fth e Gei-opti onal Patte rn s by Eac h Group
Gei-opti o叫 | 伽ee-year-olds 1 four- year-o lds 1 fí ve-year- olds
[V-gei-IO- OO] 13 (42.86 %) 14 ( 10.26 % ) 10 (0 %)
[V-OO-ge卜 10] 10 ( 0%) 119(48.72%)
[V-IO-DO] 14 (57. 14%) 116 (4 1. 03 %) 115 (32.6 1%)

T he c h 卜 sq ll are test, however, indica ted th at the di stribllti on of the yO llngest grollp
fail ed to confírm the existence of pre feren ce fo r any particular p attern : X 2=. 143 , df
= 1, p= 1.000. Therefo re , no preference was fO llnd in th e yO llngest grollp. As for th e
fOllr-year-o lds , there were still so me responses of the V-gei pattern , bllt the percent-
age was low (1 0.26 %). The maj ority of th ese children fa vored the other two pat-
terns , w ith sli ghtl y more children (48.72 %) preferring the dative [V-OO-g ei-IO] to
the dOllbl e obj ect pattern [V -1 0 -00 ] (4 1. 03 %). A ltholl gh the chi- sq uare test con-
fírmed th e existence of preference , there was no difference between th 巳 fre qll e n cy

co unts of th e dative [V-OO -gei-IO] and th e doubl e obj ect [V-I O-OO] pattern s
(p = .736). In oth er words , from the results we can onl y in fe r that th e fo ur-year-olds
favo red both the dati ve pattern [V-DO-gei-I O] and the do uble o bj ect pattern
[V -10-00]. Their preferenc e for th e dati ve pattern was not signifí ca nt. As we
examin e th e di stribllti on of the o ld est gro up , we can see th at th eir preference resem-
bl ed that o f th e adults. A maj ority of th e res ponses was of th e dative pattern
[V-DO-gei-I O] (67 .39%) , whil e none of th em belonged to th e V-ge i pattern . The
chi-sqllare test fllrth er co nfi rm ed th eir preference for the dati ve pattern
[V -DO-gei -I O] (p =.026) , a reslll t simil ar to that of th e co nt ro l gro ll p
Table 5 sllmmarizes the sllbj ects' preferences in both task s. Wi th rega rd to
th e second research qll estion, for gei-reqllired ve rb s, in th e GJ task , alth ollgh th e
children's mea n sco re of the dati ve pattern [V-OO-gei-IO] was hi gher than that of
the [V-gei ] pattern, no signifi ca nce was fOllnd . Wh en it came to language prodllcti on,
however, both the experi l1l ental and the co ntro l gro llps fa vored th e dative pattern
Th e re for巴 ， it can be clail1l ed that fo r th e two pattern s of gei-requi red verbs , th e lI n-

l1l arked one is the dati ve pattern , and the mark ed one is the [V-gei] pattern

126
 Acq l1 iring Doubl e Objecl Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

Table 5 : S u 蚓 ects' Pre ferences for Patle rns in 8 0th Tas ks

Task G rollp Gei-required Gei-option a l
PD expen- [V-DO-gei-IOj > [V-gei- IO-DO) 世 pr主-D哇 O「!堅 g'ei堅d堅 o1l > [V-IO-DOP
menta l
co ntro l [V-DO-gei-IOI > [V-gei-IO-DO) lVV--E
DE0l-.IgoeiD-IOO]l > [V-I0. DO] >

GJ [V -DO-gei-IOI> [V-gei- IO-DO] >IVfV-D-I0O.-gDeOi-1I Ol > [V-get-lO-DO]

ex p e r 卜

menta l
contro l [V-DO-gei-IOI = [V-gei-IO-DO) =lVIEVD-0lo.g-DeiOEIlOl= [V-gel-l O-DO]

For gei-oplional ve rb s, as di sc ussed previ o usly, there was no si gnificance a mong th e

mea n sco res o f th e three patte rn s in th e GJ tas k. That is to say, the children per-
fo nn ed equall y we ll o n the three a lternativ e patte rn s in the Comprehens ion tas k. For
the PD tas k , a pre ference indeed ex isted both for the children and the adults. AII o f
th e s lI bj ec ts pre ferred the dative pattern [V-DO-gei-IO ], and the [V-gei] patlern was
the least favo red . Th ere fol 巴， th e dative pattern ca n be said to be th e most unmarked ,
fo llowed by th e dOllbl e o bjec t pattern [V-IO-DO). The [V-gei) pa ttern , like that of
gei-required verbs , is th e most marked pattern
。 ri g in a ll y it was ex pec ted that among the three p attern s o f gei-option al verbs ,
the [V -I O -DO) patte rn wOllld be the Ill ost pre fe rred s in ce th e pattern is shorter and
thu s Ill o re eco nomi ca l to prodllce. The res ults fa il ed 10 confirlll thi s view for bolh
the ex pe rime nta l and co ntrol grollps. Th e most pre fe行ed pattern was sti 11 the dati ve
patte rn [V-DO-gei-IO ) , des pite the insi g nitìcant di ffe rence betw ee n the two patterns
found in th e ex pe rimenta l gro up
Ollr res lllts corro bo rated Liu 冶 (20 01 ) typo log ical study. In te rm s of distribu-
tion , Li ll c laimed th at se ntences wi th th e [V- IO-DO) pattern can be ch anged il1 to th e
[V-DO-gei-IO) pattern . However, not a ll th e sentences w ith th e dati ve pattern
[V-DO-gei-IO) can be chan ged into th e doubl e object counterpart [V-IO-DO). In
other wo rd s , w hat Liu mea nt is that gei-optiona l verbs w hich all ow the [V- IO-DO)
patte rn ca n a ll appea r in th e dativ e patle rn , whil e gei-required ve rb s , which allow
the dati ve pa tte lll , ca nn ol appea r in the [V-I O -DO] p a tte rn ~ . Th e re fol 巴 ， in Lill 'S

7 In lhe GJ la此 ， lh e adull s att ain ed 100 % aCC l1 racy for all the verbs
s It l1l ighl be arg l1 ed th at contrary to whal Liu clail1l ed‘ gei-forbidden verbs‘ which can ap-
pear il1 th e dOl1 bl e objecl paltern , cannot appear in the dati ve pattern . A poss ibl e reaso l1 is
lhal gei-forbidden verbs are di ffe rent fro l1l th e oth er two types in that they do 110t denote
ph ys ica l tra l1 sfer, whi ch is the dOl1l in ant criteri on in Liu 's typological study.

127
 華語文教學研究

words , based on the wider distribution of the dative pattern than the double object
pattern , the dative pattern [V組 OO-gei -IO] is more unmarked than the [V -10-00]
In addition to distribution , Liu 's discussion of the structural distance and linear dis-
tance of arguments suggested that the 00 should be closer to the verb than the 10
The pattern [V -10-00] violates the linear order because the 10 is closer to the verb
than the 00. As for the V-gei pattern [V穹的國 10-00] ， the V-gei sequence conforms
to the structural order because the 10 is introduced by gei and it is structurally closer
to gei as well , but it violates the linear order in that the 00 is even farther from the
verb. For the above reasons , Liu suggested that [V-OO-gei-TO] is the most un-
marked and the other two patterns are marked. To explicate the relative degrees of
markedness of the two patterns [V-IO-OO] and [V-gei-IO-OO] , Liu claimed that
although the 00 is farther from the verb in the V-gei pattern , these two patterns are
similar in that V-gei can be considered a compound. The difference of the two can
be attributed to the economy principle , which states that it is more economical to
express the same meaning with fewer elements (c f. Liu 2001). Therefore , the
[V-IO-OO] pattern is considered more economical since gei is omitted. In addition
to the notion of distance and the economy principle , Liu also discussed other issues
such as heavy NPs and topicali zation , which can determine the relative order of the
00 and the 10. ln Liu's comparison of the above factors , conceptual and linear
distances are two of the most dominant in determining the word orde r.
In addition to the degree of markedness , we have also discussed the order of
thematic roles. Givón's (2001) thematic hierarchy, proposed in 1984 , was d 凹 ussed
with regard to the order of the 00 and the 10. Since Givón's hierarchy is based on
the degree of topical i 旬， it is aligned with the notion of animacy (Levin and Hovav
2005). A prototypical 10 , i.e. the recipie 肘 ， which is animate , is considered more
prominent than the prototypical inanimate 00 on the topicality continuum
Therefore , the recipient (10) will tend to precede the theme 9 (00). In Givón's in-
vestigation of the frequency distribution in texts , 84% of the DO positions were oc-
cupied by the OAT/BEN objects , i.e. the recipiel哎 ， while only 16% of them were the
ACC objec俗 ， i.e. the theme . Following Givón , Chang (2005) examined the double
object gei constructions

9 In the study， “theme" 的 used instead of “ patien t. "

128
 Acquiring Double Obj ect V，巳 rb s in Mandarin Chinese

[V-gei-IO-OO] , 15% of whi ch belonged to the dative patte rn [V-OO-gei- IO]. Th e

res ults of the present stud y, however, co ntradi cted what they have claimed. Fo r
gei-required verbs , the maj ority o fth e responses (97 .7%) in the children were o fth e
dati ve pattern [V-OO-gei-fO]. Fo r th e adults , all of them favo red the same pattern
With rega rd to gei-o ptional verbs , it was ori g inally ex pected th at th e [V -10 -0 0 ]
patte rn wo uld be the most preferred sin ce it wo uld be more econo mi ca l co mpared to
th e oth er two pattern s in whi ch gei cann ot be o mitted . Surpri singly , more child re n
(5 0 res ponses) preferred the [V-OO-gei- lO] pattern to th e doubl e o bj ect pattern
[V-IO-OO] (3 5 responses) , alth ough not at a significant leve l. The adults' results
confirmed that fo r th e gei-optio nal ve rbs , the [V -DO-gei- IO] pattern was also mo re
favo red
Sin ce th e children's prefere nces were in co ntrast to Chang's (2 005) findin gs
and G ivón 's (2001 ) th emati c hi erarchy, to account fo r the res lll 的 ， we refer to th e
noti on of Case Theory in th e fi eld of generati ve gramma r. In fact , Mazurkew ich
( 1984) also re ferred to C ho msky's Case Th eory to accollnt fo r her results . She ar-
g ued that the [N P PP] is more unmarked tb an tb e 們P NP] because th e dati ve nOlln
is introduced by a P in th e [N P PP] pattern , but in [N P N 門 ， th ere are two N Ps. In
generative sy ntax , it is sugges ted th at acco rding to the Case Filter, eve ry overt NP
mu st be case-marked , th Oll gh it does not necessa ril y bave an overt morph ological
rea li zati o n ( Haegeman 1997). That is to say, eve ry overt N P mllst be assigned one
case by its head. Am ong the N Ps in English , fo r exampl e , th e obj ects of transitive
verb s a nd prepos itions are assigned Accusati ve case by th eir heads , V and P respec-
ti vely. If we a ppl y the Case Filter to th e different pattern s of doubl e obj ect verbs in
Engli sh , we ca n find that in the [V-OO-to-IO] pattern , both the 00 and the 10 re-
ceive case fro m th eir heads , V and P respective ly. In the [V-IO-OO] patte rn , how-
ever, the re is o nl y one case assig ner V, but two NPs , the 10 and the DO , on the sur-
face form. Furthermore , in such a pattern , there is an inte rve ning e lement betwee n
the verb and the 00 , w hi ch contradicts th e adj ace ncy condition on case ass ignment
In other word s , it is gene rall y ass llmed th at the NP and its case assig ner mu st be ad-
j acen t. The s urface patte rn [V-IO-OO] obvio usly violates th e adj acency co nditi o n
(H aegeman 1997). Th erefo re , for th e children in the study, tb e one wh ich conform s
to Case Th eory as well as th e adj acency condi tion was expected to be easier and
thus used more widely.
Our res ults lend support to what Osgood and Zehler (1 98 1) had found in th eir
s ubj ects. The re lative ord er ofth e 0 0 and th e 10 should be the 00 preceding th e 10

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 主蜜語文教學 研究

Th ei r subj ec ts pre ferred the [S-V- DO-to-I O] to th e [S-V- IO -DO] because they
te nd ed to rega rd th e obj ect closest to th e verb as th e DO . Therefore , 110 mattel
whether th e fi rst obj ect is th e the me o r th e dati ve obj ect, the c hildren consid ered it
to be the th eme. To ex plain th 時 ， Osgood aod Ze hl er arg ued th at th e V-DO se-
quence ex presses co ntigui ty , because th ere is a “ natural Ii nkage betweeo th e tra ns-
fe rrin g ac ti on and the objec t being tra nsferred ( 198 1: 382). " [n Cho et a l. 's (2002)
stlldy, th e DO- IO sequ ence received a hi g her production rate than th e 10 -DO se-
qll e n c 巳 Th ey also fO llnd that their children tended to conside r the first n o o- s u 吋 ec t

N P to be th e DO , and the seco nd to be the 10 in dOllble obj ect constru cti ons. In the
present stlld y, the s ubj e c 峙 ， preference fo r th e dati ve pattern [V-DO -gei-IO] fo r the
gei- required a nd the gei-opti o nal verbs was coosistent w ith both of the two hy-
potheses proposed in their st lld y司 th e Hi e rarc hy Hypoth es is and th e Iconic ity Hy-
po th es is. The ir Hi erarchy Hypothes is , whi ch is co nce rn ed with the access ibility of
N Ps to vari ous transform ati ons sllc h as topi ca li zati on and re lati vizati on , predi cts
th at th e DO is ranked hi gher than th e 10 . On the other hand , the Ico ni city Hy-
pothesis , w hi ch states th at th e word o rde r iconi c w ith th e co rrespondin g situati o n is
more preferred for children , predi cts th e same ord er of DO-I O. Cook ( 1976) , in hi s
stlldy of c hil d r凹 's perfo rm ance on th e TO co nstrllction (e.g. G ive a bo ne to th e dog.)
and th e O RD ER constrllction (e.g. Give th e dog a bo ne.) , fO lln d that hi s sllbjects ,
aged five to ten , pre fe rred the TO constructi o l1. The older they grew, the greater ac-
curacy they showed for th e O RD ER co nstrllcti on , i.e . the doubl e obj ect co nstrllcti on
in th e present stlldy , [V-I O- DO]
To co ncl llde , it has bee n fOll l1 d th at fo r gei-reqllired verbs , the most preferred
patte rn is [V -DO-gei- IO] , and it is also more lI nmarked. For the g ei-opti onal verbs ,
th e most favo red pattern is still [V- DO-gei- IO ], fo ll owed by [V-I O-DO]. Th e
[V -gei-IO- DO] pattern is th e least favo red and is co nsid ered the most ma rked pat
tern

4 .3 Othe r Pa tte m s E lici ted

In thi s section , attenti on w ill be draw n to th e s ubj ects' producti o n data oth er
tha n the ex pected dOll ble o bj ect co nstrll ctio ns. A ltho ll gh the c hildren , especia ll y the
three-year-olds , did not perform we ll 011 the three types of do ubl e object verbs , a
c loser loo k at the data showed th at most of th eir se ntences that we re 110t of the dOll-
bl e o bj 叫 p att e rn s were still grammati ca l

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 Acq lliring DOll ble Object Verbs in Mandarin Cbinese

F ir乳 ofa ll ， 自 o m th e ana lys is of the ir se nte nces of gei-required verbs , th ere was
a steady dec rease in th e number of th e ir uninte nded responses as the ir age g rew. In
a dditi 凹， amo ng th em th e maj ority fe ll into the mono-transitive u侃， [V-NP] , for a ll
th e three groups , the pe rcentage be in g es pec iall y large fo r th e three-yea r-o lds (75.93
%) . Th e subj ects ' sentences onl y co nta in ed the verb and th e 0 0 , w ith th e 10 mi ss-
in g , such as th e fo ll ow in g sentence

( 15) X iao min g na g ushi shu (ge i Xiao me i)

X iao ming take story book (GEI X iao me i)
‘ Xiao min g ga ve a sto ry book (10 Xiao me i) .'

In addi tion to lh e mono-trans ili ve use , th e [V-N P-V-gei-N P] patte rn , in whi ch a n

additi o na l ve rb was add ed to the doubl e object sentences , was th e seco nd favo red
pattern fo r th e fOllr- and t h e 訂 閱- yea r- o ld s ， 34 .4 8% and 22.22% respec ti ve ly. In ( 16) ,
an additi ona l ve rb yao , “ wa nt" was add ed be fore gei

( 16) Xiao min g xie ka pian yao ge i Xiaome i

Xiaomin g write ca rd to GE I Xi ao me i
‘ X iao min g wrote a card in orde r 10 g ive it to Xi ao me i. '

1nte res tin g 旬， none of the th ree-yea r-olds prodllced sentences w ith suc h a pattern
T hi s Ill ight be attribllted to the reaso n lh at instead of lI s in g co mpl ex se ntences , i.e
mo re th an one V P, th e yO lln gest childre n tend ed to respond wi th th e Ill o no-tra nsiti ve

patte rn , res ullin g in a hi gh p巴 rce n tage tòr thi s pattern . Fo r th elll , the seco nd favo red
p a 叮叮n was [V-gei-NP-(N P)] , 11 . 11 %, w ith th e o llliss ion of the 0 0 . For the
fo ur-yea r-o lds , th e third favore d pa tte rn was [V-NP-gei-NP-V P] , 10.3 4% . T his was
s illlila r to th e seco nd tàvored pattern in that a n additi ona l verb was added , res ullin g
in a more compl ex se ntence lik e ( 17)

( 17) Xiaolllin g na shll ge i ta kan

Xiao min g take book GE I her loo k
‘ Xiao min g took a boo k fo r her to read.'
O ne thin g wo rth noti ci ng was lha t a mong the th ree age groups , two c hildren pro-
du ced th e dou ble object patte rn with o ll t gei , which res ulted in a n lI ng ramm ati ca l

se nte nce like ( 18)

13 1
 華語文教學研究

(1 8) Xiaoming ji *(gei) Xiaomei li wu

Xiaoming send *(GEI) Xiaomei present
‘ Xiaoming sent Xiaomei a presen t. '
One ofthem was a girl in the three-year-old grollp; the other was a five-year-old boy
For the rest three test items of gei-reqllired verbs, the three-year-old girl prodllced
one grammatical dOllble object sentence, and two mono-transitive sentences with the
[V-NP] pattern. The five-year-old boy prodllced one grammatica l dOllble object sen-
tence , another of the mono-transitive pattem , and the other of the [V-NP- V-g ei-NP]
pattern. Their prodllction data showed that they indeed were able to use the verbs in
different pattems with occas ional errors (only one) in the task
As for the sentences of g ei-optional verbs, like that of gei-reqllired, most of the
sentences fell into the mono-transitive [V-NP] pattern , 8 1.13% for the three-year-olds ,
85.71 % for the fOllr-year-o lds, and 100% for the five-year-olds. ln sllch a pattern ,
the 10 was Ii kely to be omitted . The second favored pattem consisted of the verb
and the 10 withollt the DO, all of which were prodllced by the children in the two
yOllnger grollps. This pattern on ly constituted a small proportion of all the re-
spons的 ， 7.55% and 9.52% for the three- and fOllr-year-olds respectively. The per-
centage of the no/i nappropriate eli citation category was small , and it was only pro-
duced by Group 1 and the nllmber decreased in Grollp 2. None of the five-year-o lds
prodllced sllch responses, indicating that these verbs became easier as the chi ldren
grew older
The children 's responses to gei-forbidden verbs were somewhat different from
those of the above two types . lt was fOllnd that the no /i nappropriate elicitation cate-
gory constitllted more than half (56.90%) of the responses prodllced by the
three-year-olds. For the four- and the five-year-olds , the percentage of this category
declined to around 35 % , and it fllrther dropped to 0% for the adll lts , obviollsly indi-
cating a developmental seqllence concerning the children's responses to this type of
verbs. FlI rthermore , among the responses fOllnd in this category, some of them were
irrelevant to the intended sentences becallse the children did not know how to re-
spond to the qllesti 凹 ， as can be seen in (19)

( l 9)Ni yao jide ￠

yOll have-to remember it
‘ YOll have to keep it in mind.'

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 Acquiring Doubl e Object Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

The children 's res ponses sllch as the above did not contain the given double object
verbs. They were merely phrases or sentences relevant to the pic 山 res or descriptions
in the PD tas k. The hi g h percentage fOllnd in thi s category throll ghollt the three
age grollps indicated that thi s ty pe of verbs was 1l1 0re difti clllt than th e other two
types. Th 巴 yOllnger the chi ldren we re , the more difficlllty they encountered in
producing the intended patterns of gei-forbidden v 巴 rbs

Aside fro ll1 this ca tego 句， the 1l1 0st preferred pattern for this type was , like the
other two types discllssed ea rlier, the 1l1 0no-transitive use , [V-NP ], 32.76% , 50.00% ,
and 38.78% for the three- , four- , a nd 訂閱 -ye a r-old s respective ly. When we look at
the two patterns (i.e. [V-NP-VP] and [V-VP]) in whi ch there were 1l1 0re than one VP,
we can see that these two patterns made lI P to 10 % for the yOllngest grollp , 12% for
the four-year-o lds , and 24% for th e old est children , indicating that their ability to
constrllct cO ll1 plex sentences was accompanied by the growth oftheir age

(20) Xiao ll1 ei dayin g ta ZlI O shiqin g

Xiao ll1 ei pro ll1 ise him do thíng
‘ Xíao ll1 eí promí sed hím to do sO ll1e thín g.'
One response b 巴 l o nged to the [V-NP-gei-NP- VP] pattel洞 ， líke that of gei-optional
verbs. The only lI ngra ll1ll1 atícal pattern , í. e. wíth the ínsertíon of gei , was prodllced
by one gírl of the fOllr-year-old grollp. For the fOllr test ítems of gei-forbídden verbs ,
thís gírl only produced one ungra ll1 matícal sentence. Two of her responses were
gram ll1 atica l, and for one íte ll1 she díd not kn ow what to say. Therefol 巴， ít can be
ín ferred that the gírl was able to prodllce gra ll1ll1 atíca l sentences w íth gei-forbídden
verbs wíth only ll1 ínor errors
In Englí s h , doubl e object verbs Ii ke g ive have to tak e two objects. O ll1 íttíng
eíther the DO 0 1' the 10 wi ll lead to ungra ll1ll1 aticalíty. In Mandarín C hín ese ,
however, verbs 1íke jil , ‘ pay,' can be lI sed as a 1l1 0no-transítíve verb and they on ly
tak 巴 a n objec t. As expected , for the responses of the verb jil , all the se ntences be-
longed to the [V-NP] pattern líke (21)

(2 1) Xíao ll1 íng fll er-sh í yllan

Xiaoming pay tw o-ten dollars
‘ Xíao ll1 ín g paíd 20 dolloars .'

In fact , both gei-reqllíred and gei-optíonal verbs can take on ly one object and
are sti ll gra ll1 maticaL Besides , judgíng from th e chí ld ren's responses , the object they

133
 T在語文教學研究

took was the 00 , not the 10 , whic h corroborates the claim made in the previous
section that the verb and the 00 have a closer relationship than the verb and the 10
Th e grammaticality of the [V-OO] pattern w ith ollt the 10 a lso confirms what Os-
good and Zehler (198 1) postulate. It was found that the verb and the 00 did express
contigll ity. In addition , the wide use of the mono-transitive pattern without the 10
clea rl y shows that the conceptual distance between the verb and the 00 is c1 0ser
than that between the verb and the 10, as Lill (200 1) claims. That is to say, if the
children have to choose an object when using these verbs , they will choose the DO ,
not the 10
In addition to the choice of the 00 and the 10 , it was also worth mentioning
that although the chi ldren 's mean scores of the production task were low, the ana ly-
sis of their sentence patterns indi cated that they actually were ab le to produce sen-
tences with the tbree types of verbs. Moreov凹 ， most sentences they produced were
1110no-transitive instead of the intended ditransitive patterns , which might be the
main cause of their poor performance. Compa red to the mono-transitive pattern
[V-N呵 ， ditransitive patterns of either [V-(gei)- IO-OO] or [V-DO-gei-IO] required
more elements such as additional NPs and the insertion of gei , and thus were more
complicated for them. After extensive use of the mono-transitive pattern for all the
three types of verbs as illustrated in (11) , the ch ildren started to insert the 10 by
adding gei for gei-req uired and gei-optional verbs , reslllting in the [V-gei-NP] pat-
tern. As for their ab ility to use gei-forb idd en verbs , they began to learn to lI se the
verbs in complex sentences by adding an extra VP. As their age increased , they
learned to add more eleme nts into sentences
Chi ldren are expected to prodllce simpl e sentences earlier and more freqllent ly
than cO l11 plex ones. As mentioned by Ervin-Tripp ( 1973) , ch ildren's use of verbs
appear early, usually with on ly one or two of the arguments of a three- or
four-argument verb like giνe . She also suggested that the 10 may appear early but
the number of occurrences is smal !. In Lil11 ber's (1973) study of children 's syntac-
tic development , he conclllded that at the age of three , English-speaking children
have already been able to prodllce sy ntactically complex expressions , by which he
meant to be ab le to form complements and relatives. In add iti on , Limber fo und
that during this year, the “ N-V-N sequence is the com l11 on sil11 pl e sentence
(1973: 182) ," and that children 's production of complex sentences is generated from
their storage of simp le ones. In ana lyzing child ren's utterances , Bowerman ( 1973)
found that before the age of two , her sllbjects ' utterances displayed three patterns ,

134
 Acquiring DOllbl e Object Verbs in Mandarin Chin ese

sllbj ect-verb , verb-object , a nd s lI bject-v er l于 obj ect ， with the first pattern the 11l 0st

freqllently lI sed . In the present stlldy, th e children 's respon ses indeed confir l1l ed
thi s vi ew. When they did not prodllce the inten ded dOllbl e obj ect sentences with
th e g iven verbs , the lllaj ority of the l1l prodllced Silllple sentences 0 1' sllb-
ject-verb-obj ec t. As they got older, th 巴 ir ability to prodllce dOllb le o bj ect se ntences
progressed , as can be see n frolll th e perfOrlll anCe of the five-year-olds in the present
study.
Aside frOlll the 1ll 0nO切 transitive pattern , th e rest of the children 's responses
l1l ainl y co ns isted of the two pattern s , [V-NP-gei-NP- VP] and [V-(NP)- V呵 ， whi c h
were regarded as cOlllplex sentences ( Lilllber 1973). In Lilllber's stlldy of
three-year-olds' prodll ction of object cOlllplelllents , he catego ri zed children's lI se of
Eng lish verbs into two [(N P)- {l1l ain V}-(object NP)] a nd [(N P)- l1l a in
pattel 肘 ，

V-{ 們的小(NP) 汀， the latter a cOlllplex strllctllre. Consistent w 仙 Lilllber ' s view,
in the present study, the children , the three-year-old s in c lllded , were able to prodllce
cOlllplex sente nces spontaneo ll s ly. Take gei-forbidd en verbs for exalllp le , the
three-year- o lds lllight not b巳 a ble to prodllce the intend ed dOllble object patterns
They tended to paraphrase the descripti ons of th e pictures with cOlllplex sen tences
Ii ke (22)

(22) Xiaolllei day in g bang l1l ang

Xiaolllei prolllise help
‘ X iao l1l e i pro l1l ised to help. '
Another isslle worth 110ticing is that in th e [V-NP-gei-NP- VP] pattern , ge i was in -
serted . This was 110t the intended dOllble obj ect pattern beca llse an additional VP
was added. Indeed , sllch patte lll is not lI nCOllllllOn in Mand arin Chinese . In H哎 ' s

(2 006) cO l1l prehensi ve analysis of the lI se of gei , thi s pattern was categorized as the
purpos ive lI se of gei 'O , which ca n be fOllnd in everyday conversations . Consid er the
following 巴 xa l1l p l e

IU In I-I er 's analysis , the main foclls is on the syntacti c category of gei in different pos iti ons
I-I er refe rs to various sentences in Mandarin Chin ese to support hi s claim that therefo re gei
in the pattern [V-NP-gei-NP- VPj is a co mpl ementi ze r. The syntactic category of gei.
h owever， 的 n ot the main isslle in the present stlldy. Th ere fore, it will not be ex pl ored here
R ead 巴 rs ca n refer to I-I uan g and Ahrens ( 1999) and I-I er (2006) for their deta iled discus-
Slon

135
 主蜜語文教學研究

(2 月 Xiaomei chang ge ge i mama ting

Xiaomei sing song GEI mother heal
‘ Xiaomei sang a song for her mothe r. '
The verbs that can be used in the pattern include not only the double object verbs
examined in the present study, but also mono-transitive or even intransitive verbs
like 戶t “ fly， " a verb used by Her (2006) in his analysis. Therefor巴 ， It was not sur-
prising to find this pattern in the children 's production data
To sum up , the children's developmental progress can be presented in the fo l-
lowing figure . From their production data , the mono-transitive pattern [V-NP] was
the most widely used for g ei-required , g ei-optional , and gei-forbidden verbs . It was
obvious that this pattern was the earliest for the children to acquire. As can be seen
from Figure 2 , at the initial stage , the mono-transitive use first appeared in the chil-
dren's development of double object verbs. At this stage , they had not yet acquired
the [+1 - Giving] feature

Stage 1
No emergence of the [+1- Giving] feature
Mono-transitive use:[V-NP]

Stage 2
Emergence of the [+1- Giving] feature

Stage 3a
[ - Giving] [V-ge

More occurrences of complex

[V-NP- V-gei-NP] use:[V-VP]

Figure 2: Children ~' Deνelop ll1ent ofthe Double Object 悔rbs

136
 Acq uiring Double Object Verbs in Mandari n Chinese

Therefol 巴， the children were not able to di scern wheth er these verbs co uld be used
in do uble obj ect constrll cti ons or no t. For them , these verbs were li ke other
mono-transiti ve verbs in Mand arin Chin ese. After Stage 1 came the seco nd stage ,
with the emergence ofth e [+/- Givi ng] fea ture. At Stage 2 , th e [+/ - G iving] featllre
appeared. The children began to learn th at these verbs indeed possess the fea tllre and
that th ey co uld be used in doubl e obj ect constru cti o ns. Wh en the children entered
Stage 3 , they learned to differenti ate th e verb s wi th [+G ivin g] fro m those with [ -
Giving]. They began to lI se these verbs in do uble object co nstructio ns more often
and began to appl y th e Gei- inserti on RlI le to th e verbs with th e [ - G iving] featllre ,
i.e. Stage 3a . At thi s stage , th e children needed not onl y to lea rn the [+/- G iv i.ng]
feature , but they also needed to learn the [+/ - Concrete] fea tl.l re at the same tim 巴，
since so me of these do uble obj ect verbs wi th th e [ - Concrete] feature might be
more di ffi cul t for th em. Once th ey entered Stage 4 , they had less diffi clll ty with th e
do ubl e obj ec t verbs and th erefore were abl e to use th em in more compl ex sentences
That is to say, to acquire the gei constrllcti on, our subj ects went th rough di ffe rent
stages of rlll e fo rm ati ons to capture the generali zation (N ini 1999) , rather th an y
relied on the surface form s to acqu ire th e constru ction (cf. Go ldberg 2006)

5. Conclusion
In the stlldi es on Mandarin double obj ect verbs , many researchers have foc used
on the c1 assifi cati on of th ese verbs (H lI ang and A hrens 1999 , Ta ng 1979 , Yang 199 1)
Some contribllte to th e syntact ic analysis of the alternation of the dOllble obj ect con-
structi on and its dative co unterpart (c f. Cha ng 2005 , Her 2006 , Yang 199 1). Some
(c f. Chang 2005 , Her 2006 , Hu ang and Ahrens 1999) di scuss the syntacti c status of
gei in these constrllction s. However, few of th em have examin ed C hinese childre n's
acqui si ti on of these verbs , especiall y with regard to the occurrence of gei. The
present study, thollgh condllcted on a sma ll scale, wished to shed some Ii ght on the
issue. In do ing so , we ho pe to provide some sllggestions for resea rchers interested in
fu ture study.
First of all , th e age grollps can be expand ed. In the present study, only th ree
age groups were investi gated. According to th e subj ects ' mean sco res on the GJ
task , aithough a steady developmental progress was fou nd , the performance of the
oldest gro up ( i.e. the five-year-olds) , was still significantly worse th an th at of the
adul ts ' , indicating th at age fï ve mi ght not be th e cl.l tting age of our c hild r凹 's full
acqlli sition of dOll ble object verbs. T hus , older children may be examin ed to iden-

137
 華語文教學研究

tify the cutting age of full acqu isition of dOllble object verbs
Second , when examining Chinese double object verbs , verbs of consumption
are usually discussed in the literatllre (Tang 1979 , Yang 1991) , bllt they were not
investigated in the present stlldy. Consider the following examples taken from
Yang ( 199 1, p.28)

(24) Xiaoming tOll le Zhang laoban yi zhe biao

Xiaoming steal ASP Zhang boss one CL watch
‘ Xiaom ing stole a watch from Boss Zhang. '
‘* Xiaoming stole a watch for Boss Zhang.'
(2 月 Xiaoming tOll le yi zhe biao gei Zhang laoban
Xiaoming steal ASP one CL watch GE[ Zhang boss
‘Xiaoming stole a watch for Boss Zhang. '
' * Xiaoming stole a watch from Boss Zhang.'

Althollgh this type of verbs can have two alternative patterns Ii sted above , the pat-
terns are totally different in meaning. The major difference of this type of verbs lies
in the person (i .e. the subject) , of the action of transfe r. The sllbject is the SOllrce of
the transfer instead of the Goa l. Therefore , it wi ll be interesting to examine
whether chi ldren are able to differentiate between the SOllrce and the Goal of the
transfer of objects
Last bllt not least , ollr sllbjects ' preference for the relative order of the 00 and
[0 contradicted what Giv的 (2001) has fOllnd concerning his Thematic Hierarchy"
Therefore , to have a comp lete pictllre ofthe lI se ofthe alternative patterns ofdollble
obj 巴 ct verbs , it wOllld be necessary to also investigate children's daily lI se of these
verbs. That is , a COrpllS study can be condllcted to see whether their preferences fOl
certain pattern are consistent with the reslllts we obtained or the Thematic Hierarchy
proposed by Givón (2001)

11 As po inted out by one 0 1' the reviewers, our findings seem to support Pinker 冶 (1989)
claim of associating thematic hierarch y with the lin king rule

138
 Acqlliring Double Object Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

Append ix A: Test Structure of t he GJ Task

Type rtem Q lI estioll No Type 1tem Q lI estioll No
GRV JI Q4 GFV gaosu Q2
Q23 Qll
dai Q7 doying Q6
Q20 Q22
x le Q l6 huida Ql4
Ql8 Ql7
GOV song Q5 Fillers chi Q3
Ql9 chuon Q9
Q24 XI Ql2
huon Ql3 bian Ql
Ql5
Q21
.fit Q8
Q25
QIO

139
 華語文教學研究

Appendix B: Test Sentences Used in the GJ Task

1. 米奇. * 小 明變 小 美給魔術看 。 米直尼 小明變魔術給小美看 。
2 米奇*小明告訴 一 個秘密小美 。 米妮:小明告訴小美一個秘密 。

3 米奇 : 小明請 小 美吃糖果 。 米妮 :川 、明請糖采吃小美 。

4. 米奇. *小明寄 小 美一封信 。 米妮:小明寄 一 封信給小美 。

5 米奇:小明送小美生日禮物 。 米妮 ﹒ 川、明送 生 日禮物小美 。

6. 米奇:小明答應小華一件事情 。 米妮: * ，)、明答應 一 件事情 小 箏 。

7. 米奇: 小 明帶 一 張照片給小美 。 米妮*小明帶小美 一 張照片 。

8 米奇:小美的哥哥付 1 0 元給老悶 。 米妮汁 ， j 、美的哥哥付 LO 元老悶 。

9 米奇 : 川、美穿小明給新衣服看 。 米妮:小美穿新衣服給小明看 。

10 米奇:川、美付 一 支鉛筆小明 。 米妮:小美付小明一支鉛筆 。

II 米奇 : 小明告訴小美 一 件事情 。 米妮汁，j 、明告訴給 小 美一件事情 。

1 2. 米奇: *，)、美幫衣服洗媽媽 。 米妮﹒小美幫媽媽洗衣服 。

1 3. 米奇:小美還給小明新玩具 。 米企尼汁， 1 、美遠新玩具小明 。

14 米奇* 小 明回答給老師 一 個問題 。 米妮:小明回答老師 一 個問題 。

1 5. 米奇:小明還 一 支筆給小美 。 米妮:川、明還 一 支筆小美 。

16 米奇. * 小 明寫 一 張卡片小美 。 米妮:小胡寫一張卡片給小美 。

17 米奇* 小 美回答 一 個問題小明 。 米促: 小 美回答 小 明 一 個問題 。

1 8 . 米奇*小美寫小明 一 封信 。 米妮:小美寫 一 封信給小明 。

1 9. 米奇:小華送玩具給小明 。 米妮:川、華送玩具小明 。
20 米奇 : 川 、 美帶 一 份薯條小明 。 米妮:小美帶給小明 一 份薯條 。

21 米奇:小明還 小 美 一 本書 。 米妮:川、明還 一 本書小美 。

22 米奇:川、美答應給 小 明 一 件事情 。 米也尼 : 小美答應 小 明 一 件事情 。

23 米奇:小美寄給 小 明 一 個禮物 。 米妮 : 川 、 美寄 一 個禮物小明 。

2 4. 米奇:川、美送 一 張卡片姊姊 。 米妮:小美送給姊姊一張卡片 。

25. 米奇:小明付給 小 美 20 元 。 米妮 : 川、明付 20 元小美 。

140
 Acquiring Double Object Verbs in Mandarin Ch inese

Appendix C: Test Structure of the PD Task

Type Item Direct Object Question No
jI y i ge liwu ‘ one present ' Q14
dai y i zhiyusan ‘ one umbrella ' Q9
GRV
na yi ben manhuashu ‘ a co mic book ' Q1
Xle y i zhang kapian ‘ one card ' Q8
gaosu y i ge gushi ‘ one story' Q11
huida yi ge wenti ‘ one question' Q5
GFV
daying y ijian shiqing ‘ one thing ' Q16
wen yl ge wenti ‘ one question ' Q2
song y i zhi xio月g ‘a toy bear ' Q3
fu 20 y uan ' 20 doll ars' Q4
GOV
huan gushi shu ‘ story book ' Q7
Jl e 10 kuaiqia月 '10 dollars' Q6
qwn shou ‘ hand ' QIO
tiao 恥 II ‘ da nc e ' Q13
Fillers
ge shou ‘ fi nger' Q12
chang ge ‘ song ' Q15

141
 華語文教學研究

Appendix D: Test Pictures Used in the PD Task

l 今...( 一本 漫畫書) 1 2 問. .(一個問題) 13 送 (一隻熊 14 付 ( 二 十元)

I E Z語 l
扭扭扭

5 回答 (一個問題) 6.1昔 (十元) 7 還 (故事畫書) 8 寫 (一張卡片)

H E3: 聽埠醫d
'--一一一一-

9 帶 ( 一支雨 傘) 1 0 牽( 手) 11 告訴 (一個故事) 12 害IJ . . (手指頭)

EH3
，.，泣， r!
計31;當
1 3 跳(舞) 14 寄 ( 一個禮 物) 1 5 唱(~J:) 1 6 答應 ( 一件 事 )

339中 1 督法 s 望
[ifà! 1"

142
 Acquiri ng Double Object Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

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林語蘋

Angela Fu-pin Lin

920 屏東縣潮州鎮中山路 11 號國立潮州 高級中學

Nationa1 Chaochou Senior High School

No. 11 , Jhongshan Road , Chaochou Township , Pingtung County, Taiwan 920
wm 13@ms32.hine t. net

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 Acq uirin g Double Object Verbs in Mandarin Chinese

陳純音

Chun-yin Dori s Chen

10 6 臺北市和平東路 一 段 1 62 號圓 立臺灣師範大學英語系
Dept. of English , National Taiwan Normal University
No. J 62 , Heping East Road , Sec. J , Taipei , Taiwan J 06
c hun y in @仙111 .e du . tw

145
 華語文教略研究

華語雙賓動詞的母語習得

林種蘋 陳純音
台灣師範大學英語系

摘要

本研究旨在探討以華語為母語的學齡前兒童雙賓動詞的母語習得 。 華語雙

賓illJJ詞 可 制f/分為 三類:必加「給 」 的動詞 、 不能加 「 給 」 動詞、以及可隨意加

「 給」動詞。主要的研究議題包含以下 五 種 各類動詞 的困難度 、 句型的標記

性、非雙 賓 句型之句 子分析 。 本研究共設計兩個 測驗:句 子 選擇以及引導造句 。

研究對象 為 4S 位學齡前見童及 I S 位大學生 。 受試兒童再分為 三 組 : 第 一 組 (三

歲) 、 第 二 組(凹歲 ) 、 和第 三 組 ( 約五歲 ) 。 研究結果顯示第 一 ，不 能加 「 給」
的動詞對學童困難度最高 ，而 另外繭，類動詞困難度差異不大 。 第 二 ，必加 「 給 」
的動詞中 ， [V-gei- I O心 0] 比 [V- DO-ge i- I O] 更 具有標記悅 。 對於可隨意力 LI r 給」
的動詞而 言. , [V-ge卜 10-DO] 最具有標記性 . [V- I O-DO] 居 於第 二 . 而

[V-DO-gei- I O] 最無標記性 。 第 三 ，從學 葷的 非雙賓勘詞句 型使用 分析得 2日，他

們傾向於先把這些動詞當作一般及物動詞使用，接著加入第 二 個賓語，最後他

們說出越 來越多的複雜句于 。

關鍵詞: 雙 賓 動詞結構，母語習得 ，但I~誌性， 華語

146