摘要
本研究藉由分析謝等人(1991)的語料探討說中文的小孩名詞省略現象的語言特徵o 研究結果顯示虛主詞與虛受詞可出現在限定子句與非限定子句中o 再者,虛名詞在小孩學中文的初期是不出現在疑問句中的o 隨著年齡的增長,虛名詞在疑問句中出現的比率顯著提高o虛主詞也可以出現在附屬子句裡o
先前有關說英文小孩名詞省略現象的研究卻提出不同的結果: 虛主詞可以出現在非限定的主要子句中而虛受詞卻不可以;虛名詞也不出現在包含前置疑問詞的問句中;另外,虛名詞也不會出現在附屬子句裡o
本研究整合了說中文? 英文,德文,和意大利文的大人與小孩名詞省略現象的語言特徵o 依據所發現的模式,我們以Chomsky的微言理論來解釋跨語言的名詞省略現象o 我們假設虛名詞是經由與功能結構(C)確認情境連結符號後才產生的o 一個語言是否顯示名詞省略現象決定於它是否選了正值情境連結符號o 再者,虛名詞是否可以出現在主詞位置或受詞位置則與符號的強弱相關o 我們認為小孩初期的文法類似說德文大人的文法o 在學習語言的過程中,他們必須調整符號的正負或強弱值o
本研究顯示語言差異可歸咎於功能符號數值的不同o 語言習得的過程?如同微言理論所主爭張的?是調整正確符號值的過程o

ABSTRACT
The present study investigates linguistic properties of the pro-drop phenomenon in child Chinese by analyzing the data in Tse et al. (1991). The results show that null subjects and null objects are able to appear in finite and non-finite clauses. Furthermore, null arguments in early child Chinese are prohibited to appear in wh-questions. As the age increases, the proportion of null arguments rises remarkably. Finally, null arguments are found in embedded clauses.
Previous researches on pro-drop phenomena in child English reveal a different pattern (Rizzi 1994 and Hyams 1996). First, null subjects are able to occur in non-finite clauses whereas null objects are excluded. Second, null subjects are not found in questions containing a fronted wh-phrase. Finally, no null arguments are observed in embedded clauses.
Our research generalizes the linguistic properties of the pro-drop phenomena in adult speech and child speech of four languages, namely Chinese, English, German and Italian. Based on the pattern observed, we propose a minimalist analysis to account for the cross-linguistic properties of the pro-drop phenomena by adopting Chomsky's Minimalist Program (1995). In our proposal, we suppose that null arguments are licensed by checking off a discourse linking feature [+s] against the [+s] feature in C when they occupy Spec of CP. Whether or not a language reveals pro-drop phenomena results from the selection of [+s] or [-s] feature. Moreover, whether null arguments are able to appear in subject or object position results from the combinations of strong/weak features in functional nodes. Furthermore, our proposal suggests that the initial grammar available to children resembles the grammar of adult German. In the course of language acquisition, children will change the value of certain feature according to the linguistic input.
The present study show that language variations can by traced back to different values of certain formal features. Moreover, the course of language acquisition can be viewed as a process of transforming from a default grammar to the target grammar by switching the proper value of certain features as implemented in the formal minimalist theory.

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