Abstract
To better understand Mandarin-speaking children’s acquisition of non-canonical word orders, we tested comprehension and production of Mandarin non-canonical activeba-construction and passivebei-construction, in comparison with canonical active SVO sentences among 180 children between three and 6 years of age. Our results showed that children had more difficulties withbei-construction compared to SVO sentences in both comprehension and production, but early problems ofba-construction only lied in production. We discussed these patterns in connection with two accounts of language acquisition which attribute language development to the maturation of grammar or to the exposure to the input, respectively.
Funder
National Social Science Fund of China