本研究藉由中文疑問詞「怎麼」來探討以中文為母語的學齡前兒童對於方法問句與因果問句的習得。主要的議題包括方法問句與因果問句的習得順序、主事效應、泛指效應、題型效應，年齡因素，以及其他相關問法的句型。本研究共設計兩個測驗：圖片選擇測驗與問句形成測驗。研究對象為48位以中文為母語的學齡前兒童，根據其年齡分為三組（第一組為四歲零個月至四歲十一個月、第二組為五歲零個月至五歲十一個月、及第三組為六歲零個月至六歲十一個月）。
研究結果顯示如下。首先，學齡前兒童對於方法問句與因果問句的分辨，並未達到統計上的差異。但是就平均數而言，學齡前兒童在因果問句的得分比方法問句稍微高些。其次，主事效應的確對於「怎麼」問句有影響，此現象對於四歲的孩童尤為顯著。第三，泛指效應對於孩童在「怎麼」問句的影響達到顯著，尤其是方法問句方面。第四，題型效應對受試者影響也很大，兒童在理解性測驗的表現比口說表現來得優異。第五，在口說表現測驗中，雖然 「會怎麼」與「怎麼會」問句使用次數極少，但其他因果問句使用的次數比方法問句來得頻繁。最後，年齡的確影響孩童對於「怎麼」問句的表現。年齡越大的兒童表現越好，且受到主事效應及泛指效應的影響也越小。

The present study aims to explore children’s acquisition of manner and causal questions by examining hui zenme ‘how’ and zenme hui ‘why’ with two tasks, a comprehension task (i.e., Picture Identification Task) and a production task (i.e., Question Asking Task). The tasks were designed to investigate the acquisition of manner and causal questions, agency effects, genericity effects, task effects, age effects, and other related patterns. Forty-eight preschoolers participated in the experiment, and they were divided into three groups according to their age: Group 1 (4-year-olds), Group 2 (5-year-olds), and Group 3 (6-years-olds).
The major findings of the present study are as follows. First, the subjects’ performances did not reach a significant difference in response to hui zenme and zenme hui (p>.05), but they did perform slightly better on the latter than the former. Second, agency effects were found significant in the subjects’ responses to zenme questions (p<.05). Third, the subjects’ performances were influenced by genericity in that difference between questions in generic conditions and nongeneric conditions achieved a significant level (p<.05). Besides, it was found that the manner questions were generally not produced in generic conditions. Fourth, our subjects performed better on the comprehension task than on the production task. Fifth, the subjects preferred to produce causal questions over manner questions in either causal or manner scenarios, indicating that causal questions were easier. Last, age effects were significant in the subjects’ development of manner and casual questions. Our older children performed better on both manner and causal questions in the two tasks, questions with (non)agent subjects, questions in (non)generic conditions, and they also produced more questions than the younger children.

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