ERIC Number: EJ1486036
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Apr
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0090-6905
EISSN: EISSN-1753-6555
Available Date: 2025-03-28
Development of Referential Dependency in Preschool Mandarin-Speaking Children
Yuan Xie1,2; Peng Zhou3; Sergey Avrutin4; Peter Coopmans4
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, v54 Article 11 2025
Children's knowledge of referential dependency involved in the interpretation of reflexives has been investigated mainly from a purely syntactic perspective. However, syntax alone is insufficient to account for various kinds of referential dependencies, as many of them require discourse interpretations. To fill this gap, the present study investigated the development of referential dependency established between the Mandarin reflexive "ziji" and its antecedent in preschool children by taking advantage of the properties of "ziji," whose interpretations largely hinge on discourse contexts. A truth-value judgement task was conducted to investigate how 3- to 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children build referential dependencies between the anaphor "ziji" and its antecedent and between the logophor "ziji" and its antecedent. The results show that children performed equally well in both types of referential dependencies, and they exhibit a developmental trajectory in their knowledge of referential dependencies. The implications of the findings were then discussed in relation to the role of processing factors and language-specific properties.
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Mandarin Chinese, Syntax, Inferences, Phrase Structure, Form Classes (Languages), Discourse Analysis
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link-springer-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/ek8jg/?view_only=72f5a32665d54d29949a790a1938900d
Author Affiliations: 1Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Institute for Advanced Technology, Hangzhou, China; 2Westlake University, School of Engineering, Hangzhou, China; 3Zhejiang University, Department of Linguistics, School of International Studies, Hangzhou, China; 4Institute for Language Sciences-ILS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

Peer reviewed
Direct link
