Comprehension of Null and Pronominal Object Sentences in Japanese-speaking Children

ABSTRACT In successful communication, it is critical to have the ability to identify what a speaker is referring to from previously mentioned information. This ability requires the identification of the topic initially introduced by lexical forms and its continuity in discourse expressed by anaphora such as null and pronominal forms in the subsequent sentences. While Japanese-speaking children are frequently provided with pronominal and null forms, especially the null form, in reference to previously mentioned topics, it remains unclear from what age they understand the anaphoric use of such referential forms. The current study investigated the age at which Japanese-speaking children are able to identify the presence of topic chains connecting null and pronoun anaphora to the topic referred to by a lexical form in the preceding sentence. We tested children’s comprehension of null and pronominal object sentences using an intermodal preferential-looking paradigm. The results demonstrated that the Japanese-speaking children aged 2;7 and 3;2 as a group looked at the target animation reliably longer after hearing the test sentences than before or during the test sentences. This finding provides evidence that Japanese-speaking children’s ability to track topic chains and understand anaphora in the discourse develop by 2;7 years of age. However, unlike the 3;2-year-old group, the 2;7-year-old group showed weaker performance in interpreting pronominal object sentences, suggesting a possibility that young children find the interpretation of null anaphora easier than that of pronoun anaphora.

摘要 在成功的交流中，具备从之前提及的信息中识别说话者所指内容的能力至关重要。这种能力需要识别最初由词汇形式引入的主题，以及它在后续句子中通过回指（如零形式和代词形式）所表达的语篇连贯性。虽然说日语的儿童经常会接触到代词形式和零形式（尤其是零形式）来指代之前提到的主题，但他们从什么年龄开始理解这些指称形式的回指用法仍不清楚。本研究调查了说日语的儿童能够识别将零回指和代词回指与前一句中由词汇形式所指主题相连接的主题链存在的年龄。我们使用跨通道优先注视范式测试了儿童对含零宾语和代词宾语句子的理解。结果表明，2岁7个月和3岁2个月的日本儿童作为一个群体，在听到测试句子后注视目标动画的时间比测试句子之前或期间可靠地更长。这一发现提供了证据，表明说日语的儿童追踪主题链以及理解语篇中回指的能力在2岁7个月时已经发展。然而，与3岁2个月的儿童组不同，2岁7个月的儿童组在理解代词宾语句子方面表现较弱，这表明幼儿可能觉得对零回指的理解比对代词回指的理解更容易。