Parallel development of numerals and numeral classifiers in children's acquisition of Mandarin Chinese

ABSTRACT: In light of the view that numeral classifiers and numeral bases function as multiplicands (Greenberg 1990: 293; Her 2012a; Her et al. 2017, 2018), this study investigates Mandarin-speaking children's acquisition of numerals (Num) and numeral classifiers, which consist of sortal classifiers (C) and mensural classifiers (M), in the construction of [Num C/M N]. We conducted four elicitation experiments with four age groups, from 2 to 5. In line with previous studies, the results show that Cs appeared before Ms, and before the children were able to use various appropriate C/M for different nouns, ge5 , the general classifier, appeared as a placeholder, indicating their understanding of the requirement of a C/M when quantifying N with Num. More importantly, the findings for the first time reveal a parallel development between numeral bases and C/M. This robust correlation implies that children's grasp of numerals and numeral bases facilitates their acquisition of C/Ms. This finding, in turn, lends support to the view that numeral bases and C/M converge cognitively as multiplicands. 摘要: 基于量词和位数词都可视为是"被乘数"的观点(Greenberg 1990: 293; Her 2012a; Her et al. 2017, 2018)，本文进而探究汉语儿童习得"数量 名"结构时在数词、位数词和量词上的使用情形；其中量词可分为个 体量词与计量量词。本研究执行了四个诱答性测试，涵盖了2 到5 岁 的四个年龄组。与先前的研究结果一致，显示个体量词的习得先于计 量量词，且在儿童能够使用不同的量词来适切地量化名词之前，"个" 这个通用的个体量词往往有作为占位符的功能，这表明汉语儿童已理 解了同时使用数词与量词来量化名词的必要。更重要的是，本研究发 现也首次显示了位数词和量词之间的对等发展，两者之间的显著相关 性意味着儿童对数词和位数词的掌握有助于他们在量词上的习得。这 项研究发现也进一步支持了位数词和量词在认知上同为被乘数的观 点。