漢語親子對話中語言與非語言指涉行為及信息狀態的發展研究

Abstract

指涉溝通的能力為孩童發展過程中需要習得的一項重要能力。為達到成功的指涉溝通，兒童需要能依據聽話者的觀點來選擇指涉行為，並提供相對應的信息量。過往研究顯示兒童在兩歲左右已能夠透過語言的指涉表達區分新舊信息（Allen, 2000; Guerriero et al., 2006; Huang, 2011），並會使用非語言行為來輔助語言表達（Ateş & Küntay, 2018; Goldin-Meadow & Butcher, 2003; So et al., 2010），然而，關於非語言指涉行為的研究相對少量。隨著兒童認知及溝通能力的增長，語言及非語言行為兩者跨模態共同指涉的能力如何發展，仍需要更多研究探討。\n本研究探討漢語兒童語言與非語言指涉行為的發展，著重於其選用指涉行為與指涉物信息狀態之間的關係，及兒童使用兩個模態共同指涉的能力。同時，並檢視母親在與不同年齡兒童互動時的語言及非語言指涉行為，以進一步了解兒童的指涉溝通與周圍環境的交互影響。研究收集了一歲、三歲、及五歲三個年齡組共12對漢語親子的自然對話語料，針對對話中第三人稱指涉物分析其信息狀態（新、舊信息）及指涉行為（語言、非語言、跨模態），並細分所選用的指涉形式。\n研究結果發現兒童在一歲時即能透過語言及非語言指涉行為的選用，提供相對應的信息量來區分新舊信息。在指涉新信息時，兒童較常使用跨模態的語言及非語言行為共同指涉；而指涉舊信息時，則傾向單獨使用語言行為。兒童亦能依照指涉物的信息狀態，選用不同信息量的指涉形式：使用名詞組及代名詞與非語言行為的組合指涉新信息，使用零形詞指涉已知的舊信息。發展過程中兒童的語言行為隨著年齡增長而增加，但語言及非語言行為共同指涉新信息的用法仍佔了其指涉溝通的一部分。研究結果亦顯示兒童與母親使用類似的指涉表達，但兒童較倚賴語言及非語言共同指涉，尤其在指稱新信息時差異更為明顯。\n本研究為少數探討漢語兒童及母親的非語言指涉行為與信息狀態的研究，亦為少數直接比較孩童與母親的指涉行為的研究之一。本研究結果指出兒童在發展過程中的語言及非語言指涉行為，不只反映了其認知及溝通能力的變化，亦反映早期親子對話的特色。研究結果能增進現有文獻對漢語兒童指涉行為的理解，特別是非語言行為在兒童溝通中扮演的角色，以及其發展過程的變化與認知語用能力的關聯。

Referring is a social-cognitive skill that children need to acquire throughout their development. To succeed in referential communication, children need to develop the ability to take other people’s perspective and provide information accordingly in order to make clear references. Earlier studies have shown that the information status of referents (i.e., new and old) is one of the pragmatic factors that influences children’s referential choices from an early stage (Allen, 2000; Hughes & Allen, 2013, 2015).\nPrevious studies have shown that children differentiate new and old referents through verbal expressions at around age two (Allen, 2000; Guerriero et al., 2006; Huang, 2011). Children also use non-verbal devices to accompany verbal ones to co-express meaning from early on (Ateş & Küntay, 2018; Goldin-Meadow & Butcher, 2003; So et al., 2010). However, relatively less research has discussed children’s referential ability from a multimodal perspective that includes their non-verbal acts. More studies are still needed to gain a clearer picture of children’s multimodal referential ability throughout their development.\nThe present study investigated Mandarin-speaking children’s referential communication at ages one, three, and five in relation to information status to understand their increasing sensitivity to that discourse-pragmatic factor and their developing communicative ability in the two modalities. Their mothers’ verbal and non-verbal referential acts were also examined to further understand the children’s acquisition of such usages. The data included 12 hours of natural conversations between Mandarin-speaking mother-child dyads (one hour per dyad, four hours per age group). Each of the third-person referents in the conversations was coded for (1) information status (new and old) and (2) types of referential acts (verbal, cross-modal, and non-verbal). Referential expressions in the two modalities were also categorized (nominal forms, pronominal forms and null forms for verbal acts; gestures and communicative functional acts for non-verbal acts).\nThe results showed that the children differentiated new and old referents in both the modalities and the referential expressions they used as early as age one. They used cross-modal acts more frequently to refer to new referents and verbal acts more often to indicate old referents. As for referential expressions, the children used more informative forms, including nominal forms and pronominal forms with non-verbal devices, when they indicated new referents, while they frequently chose reduced forms such as null forms when they referred to old referents. The children’s verbal acts increased during their development; however, cross-modal acts remained an alternative way to indicate new referents in the older children’s production. Similar patterns were found in their mothers’ usages. Nevertheless, the children relied on cross-modal acts more often than their mothers did, especially when they referred to new referents.\nThe present study is one of the few studies that have examined and directly compared the children’s and the mothers’ referential communication in the two modalities. The findings demonstrated the children’s improving referential ability across modalities to co-express referents in various contexts during their development. These findings suggest that the children’s referential choices in both modalities not only reflected their communicative and pragmatic abilities but also some characteristics of early mother-child interaction.