Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Motivation
Learning a word is a complex process that involves mappings between a form, a meaning, and a sound. The arbitrary relationship between form and meaning results in difficulties for memorization and the process of rote learning is notoriously slow (Bloom 1963). Interpreting the precise meaning of words like adjectives is a challenging process because of the diverse semantic content of adjectives. According to Dixon (1982), there are seven types of adjectives: Dimension, Physical Property, Color, Human Propensity, Age, Value and Speed and the meanings of adjectives vary based on the nouns they modify. For example, the word good in ‘a good teacher’ and
‘a good meal’ denotes different properties (Klibanoff and Waxman 1998). In addition, there are cases that a word may refer to more than one meaning; to be specific, two levels of meanings are composed, literal and non-literal. For example, the word si in Chinese denotes someone’s endpoint of life, which is taken as the literal meaning
‘die.’ On the other hand, si ‘die’ can be non-literal, meaning ‘nasty’ in the specific context (Hsieh 2008). According to the Markedness Theory (Jakobson 1941, Trubetzkoy 1939), a literal meaning is an unmarked form, which is simple, general and natural and thus is early acquired by children. A non-literal meaning presents an infrequent and complex speech form in one language, and thus is a marked form.
Although non-literal expressions are marked in one language, they are commonly used in our daily conversation (Lakoff and Johnson 1980); therefore, to know how children interpret non-literal meanings is an intriguing issue in language acquisition.
There is a wide range of literature in which different types of metaphorical
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languages1 have been discussed. Some examined the distinction between literal, metaphorical, and anomalous meanings (Vosniadou and Ortony 1983), some investigated different types of metaphors such as proportional and psychological metaphors (Nippold and colleagues 1984), and some studied proverbs (Honeck and colleagues 1978, Temple and Honeck 1999) and idioms (Prinz 1983, Levorato and Cacciari 1999, Cain and colleagues 2009, Vulchanova and colleagues 2011). Apart from metaphorical expressions in the previous studies, the present study focuses on the word lao in Chinese. Lao can be interpreted literally or non-literally as shown in (1) and (2), respectively: means someone or something that is ‘old’ or ‘aged’ (Ma 2002). As in (1), lao is used to denote the advanced age of the direct object xiansheng ‘a man.’ Xiansheng ‘a man’
is modified by lao in the literal sense ‘old.’ On the other hand, lao is non-literal, meaning ‘having a long relation with’ as in (2). Thus, if lao in (2) is interpreted literally as ‘old,’ the sentence meaning would become different and non-sensical. We
1 Previous studies have focused mainly on metaphorical expressions like metaphors (Winner and Gardner 1976, Reynolds and Ortony 1980, Vosniadou and colleagues 1984), or conventional expressions like idioms (Ackerman 1982, Prinz 1983, Levorato and Cacciari 1999, Caillies and Sourn-Bissaoui 2008, Cain and colleagues 2009). In the present study, word meanings are introduced in a graded continuum in which the literal meaning at one extreme and the metaphorical meaning at the other. Between them, there exists the non-literal meaning that is further divided into two types based on the directness association to the core meaning. The classification will be further discussed later in Chapter Two.
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can use the adjective nianqing ‘young’ to modify laopo meaning ‘a young wife’ and the adjective phrase would be understood with no difficulty.
Regarding the comprehension of the polysemy, the underlying relations between different senses within lao’s semantic field are worth discussing. In terms of the relations between senses, the polysemy can be two types: linear polysemy and non-linear polysemy (Cruse 2000: 110). Senses exhibit a linear relation if one sense is a specialization of the other. On the other hand, within the non-linear polysemy, the senses are related in two ways, metaphorically or metonymically (Cruse 2000: 112).
When the sense is extended in the metaphorical process, it is used figuratively based on the resemblance from the concrete to the abstract concepts. In addition, the metonymy is the other process in which the sense is used figuratively based on an associated relationship. That is, the metonymy works by contiguity or association from the original sense to the extended sense. In addition to the relationship between different senses in a polysemous word, in the first language acquisition studies, the relationship between literal meaning and figurative meaning has been studied which will be further discussed in Section 1.2 (Gibbs 1987, Nippold 1993).
To interpret non-literal meanings of a word is not an easy task for young learners.
Specifically, it would become more difficult to interpret the same word with different meanings (Hsieh 2008). Therefore, the present study will investigate a different type of metaphorical expressions different from what has been examined in previous studies (Honeck and colleagues 1978, Prinz 1983, Vosniadou and Ortony 1983, Nippold and colleagues 1984, Levorato and Cacciari 1999, Temple and Honeck 1999, Cain and colleagues 2009, Vulchanova and colleagues 2011). It aims to analyze a specific figurative expression lao in Chinese, and see if Mandarin children would have difficulties in interpreting and comprehending figurative expressions with the aid
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1.2 Theoretical Background
In the course of language-acquisition, to comprehend the word meaning requires
‘an ability to infer the intention of others, an ability to acquire concepts, an appreciation of syntactic structure, and certain general learning and memory abilities’
(Bloom 1963: 10). Among various first language acquisition research on comprehension of metaphorical expressions, some variables affecting the comprehension of metaphorical languages have been commonly discussed (Reynolds and Ortony 1980, Nippold and colleagues 1984, Gibbs 1987, Vosniadou 1987, Levorato and Cacciari 1999, Hsieh 2008).
With regard to the figurative expressions, the degree of transparency is regarded as one of the linguistic properties in the literature (Gibbs 1987, Nippold 1993). Gibbs (1987) claimed that ‘idioms differ in the extent to which their literal meanings relate to their figurative interpretations,’ and classified idioms into two types. One is metaphorically opaque idiom in which its figurative meaning was not apparently related to the literal meaning. The other one is metaphorical transparent idiom in which the figurative meaning was closely related to the literal meaning. It is stated that only after children at age 8 or 9 began to explain the figurative meanings of metaphorical opaque idioms since the obscure historical reasons was involved.
Concerning the time point of children’s comprehension of metaphorical expressions, different claims have been proposed. The comprehension of metaphorical expressions has an extended phase of development. The age of comprehension is basically prior to 10 and may differ according to the tasks and materials employed (Vosniadou 1987). For example, Nippold and colleagues (1984) found that children at
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age 7 were able to comprehend the proportional and psychological metaphors in the multiple-choice questions. Vosniadou and colleagues (1984) demonstrated that children at age 4 were able to enact their metaphorical interpretations with toys in a special constructed toy world. Levorato and Cacciari (1999) found that the 9-year-olds could understand the meaning of an idiom out of context based on its transparency in the multiple-choice task. Overall speaking, age has been found to be a crucial factor affecting children’s acquisition of metaphorical expressions due to the variety of materials and tasks employed in these previous studies.
In addition, some studies have discussed the influence of animacy on children’s comprehension of certain linguistic expressions. Gelman and Koenig (2001) studied children’s preference for the animacy-agency association in interpreting the verb move in English. Hsieh (2008) examined whether children’s comprehension of metaphorical meanings of si would be constrained by animacy of the subject NP and her results showed that the younger children (Grades 1 to 3) had difficulties in interpreting sentences with inanimate NPs. To interpret the non-literal meaning of si with an inanimate subject was challenging.
Another concern about language acquisition is the Markedness Theory, which was first proposed by Trubetzkoy (1939) and Jakobson (1941) in Prague school. The markedness value is considered one of the universal principles of grammar and can be used to dictate the acquisition sequences (Goodluck 1991). The unmarked form is regarded as the default form which is more frequent, natural, and predictable than the marked form of the comparison set. For example, the regular plural form of a noun is marked such as cats because it has an extra affix while the singular form cat is the unmarked form. Based on the distributional evidence, it is shown that the unmarked forms are less difficult and early acquired.
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To sum up, to see if the issues (i.e., degree of tranparency, age, animacy, task effect, and metaphoricality) are dominant factors in comprehending Chinese words lao, the present study will address these issues in children’s comprehension of a specific expression lao in Mandarin Chinese.
1.3 Research Questions
To examine whether the theoretical background can well account for Chinese children’s comprehension of lao expressions, the following research questions are addressed as follows:
1) Are the non-literal meanings of lao more difficult than the literal meanings of lao for Mandarin-speaking children?
2) When children acquired the non-literal meanings, which type of meaning of lao is more difficult for Mandarin-speaking children to comprehend, transparent or opaque?
3) Does the animate feature of the NP modified by lao affect the interpretation of lao?
4) At what age do children correctly comprehend the non-literal meanings of lao in Mandarin?
5) Is there any task effect between the Interpretation Task and the Multiple-choice Task?
1.4 Significance of the Study
Children’s acquisition of metaphorical expressions has drawn numerous attention and has been analyzed in different perspectives in language acquisition research (Reynolds and Ortony 1980, Ackerman 1982, Prinz 1983, Vosniadou and Ortony 1983,
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Vosniadou and colleagues 1984, Gibbs 1987, Vosiadou 1987, Winner 1988, Nippold and Taylor 1995, Levorato and Cacciari 1995, 1999, 2002, 2004, Cain and colleagues 2009). Though the theoretical issues concerning children’s ability to comprehend or produce figurative languages have been largely discussed, these previous studies focus mainly on metaphorical language in English. Few studies have addressed L1 metaphorical language comprehension in Chinese (e.g. Hsieh 2008, Hsieh and Hsu 2010). There was a study looking into the figurative expressions of a word in particular (Hsieh 2008) but lao was not discussed. Though some theoretical studies have discussed the meanings and properties of lao, the developmental stage of how lao is interpreted has not been explored. Therefore, the present study aims to provide a thorough picture of children’s comprehension of the non-literal expression lao in Chinese. By exploring a number of theoretical issues, the present study also aims to fill the research gap in previous studies.
1.5 Organization of the Thesis
This thesis is organized as follows: Chapter Two discusses the syntactic and semantic properties of lao and introduces a new classification of lao. Four empirical studies on L1 acquisition of figurative expressions are reviewed. Chapter Three describes the research design of the present study. Chapter Four reports the results and presents the analysis of non-literal meanings of lao, and followed by a brief summary of the major findings and limitations of the present study in Chapter Five.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
In this chapter, the theoretical background and classification of lao, and L1 acquisition of metaphorical expressions are explored. Section 2.1 reviews four Chinese studies on the semantic and syntactic properties of lao. In Section 2.2, four empirical studies on L1 acquisition of metaphorical expressions are discussed. In Section 2.3, a new classification of the linguistic properties of lao is proposed. Finally, a short summary of this chapter is provided in Section 2.4.
2.1 Theoretical Studies of Lao
Lao is a word with diverse senses and different parts of speech. In spite of its complex linguistic feature, lao is frequently used in the daily conversation. As a result, previous researches have discussed the word lao with different foci (Wang 1996, Ji 2000, Zhou 2000, Dong 2002, Guan 2002, Ma 2002, Yang 2003, Liu 2005, Liu 2007, Feng 2008, Zhang and Yu 2009, Zuo 2009). In this section, three of the related studies (Ma 2002, Liu 2007, Zuo 2009) of lao are reviewed.
2.1.1 Ma (2002)
The Chinese word lao is frequently used in Mandarin Chinese. A total of 17 senses of lao are listed in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (Xiandai Hanyu Cidian). Lao is defined as a polysemous word that has a complex semantic field in which the diverse senses are linked by its core meaning, „old.‟ Ma (2002) states that lao is a distinct polysemous word and some senses of it are derived from its core meaning while others are associated or deduced from the meaning derived from the core meaning.
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The semantic properties of lao can be categorized into three levels and the core meaning of each level refers to (a) old, (b) a long period of time, and (c) change dramatically, respectively. The 17 meanings of lao is summarized in Table 2-1. The first level „old‟ refers to Meaning one (e.g. lao ren „elders‟), Meaning two (e.g. jing lao „to respect elders‟), and Meaning three as in (1).
(1) Zhangsan de fuqin zuotian lao- le. (Ma 2002:96)1 Zhangsan DE father yesterday old- ASP
„Zhangsan‟s father died yesterday.‟
Table 2-1 The Classification of Lao in Ma (2008)
No. Definition No. Definition
1 Old 10 Deterioration of macromolecular
compounds
2 To respect elders 11 (Colors)To be deeper
3 To die 12 (States) For a long time
4 Experienced 13 (Actions)To happen repetitively 5 Someone existed a long time ago 14 Very; extremely
6 Outmoded 15 Someone in the final ranking
7 Original 16 Prefix indicating the ranking
8 (Vegetables)To be over-riped 17 Surname 9 (Foods)To be overcooked
The first meaning of lao as in (a) refers to „people who is old,‟ as the opposite of
„young‟. The second meaning is „elders,‟ and the third meaning refers to someone who passed away, which is a colloquial usage and lao must be followed by the aspect
1 Lao functioned as a verb meaning „to die‟ in (1) is not applicable in Taiwan.
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marker le. According to XuShen Shuo Wen JieZi2, lao originally denotes „old.‟
Therefore, Ma (2002) indicated that the second meaning is the primary meaning of which the intrinsic feature –„old‟ (of an elder) is the core meaning of lao in the semantic field.
The core meaning–„old‟ comprises a feature „a prolonged period of time,‟ which constructs the second level in the semantic field. „A prolonged period of time‟ links Meaning four (e.g. laoshou „an experienced expert‟), Meaning five (e.g. laopengyou
„an old friend‟), Meaning eight, as in (2), and Meaning 12 (e.g. laozhugu „an old customer‟) together.
(2) Cai tai lao- le. (Ma 2002:96)
vegetables too old- ASP
„The vegetables are too over-ripped.‟
Meaning five refers to „something/ someone existed from a long time ago,‟
which is the opposite of „new.‟ Meaning eight describes „the state of overripe (vegetable),‟ and Meaning 12 describes the state „for a long time.‟ Meaning five, Meaning eight, Meaning 12 shares a notion of „continuing duration,‟ directly relating to the core meaning of the second level. However, Meaning four refers to „one who is experienced at something,‟ showing an indirect relationship with „a long period of time.‟ In addition, Meanings six and, seven also belong to the second level; Meaning six refers to „outmoded‟ (e.g. laonaojin „an outdated brain‟) and Meaning seven refers to „original‟ (e.g. laodifang „an original place‟). Both are deduced from Meaning five.
Things change through a long period of time. The core meaning of the second level „a prolonged period of time‟ brings about several types of changes. Therefore, the core meaning of the third level turns into „changing dramatically,‟ which links
2 XuShen defined lao: “Lao, kao ye. Qishiyuelao”which means that lao also named as kao, people who are seventy-year-old can be referred as aged.
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Meanings 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 together. Meaning 9 refers to „foods being overcooked‟, showing the change of degrees as shown in (3); Meaning 10 refers to „deterioration of macromolecular compounds,‟ indicating a change of qualities (e.g. laohua „aging‟);
Meaning 11 refers to „(colors) being deeper‟ as a change of quantity (e.g. laohong
„deep red‟); Meaning 13 refers to „actions happen repetitively‟ as in (4), showing the change of frequency in which „a prolonged period of time‟ refers to the interval between repetitive actions. Meaning 14 refers to „very,‟ describing a change of degree (e.g. laozao „very early‟).
(3) Jidan zhu lao le. (Ma 2002:96)
egg cook old ASP „The egg was overcooked.‟
(4) Renjia lao tician wancheng renwu, others always ahead finish mission,
women ne? (Ma 2002:96)
we how
„Others always finish ahead of time, how about us?‟
In addition to the concrete meanings of lao mentioned above, lao can be a derivational prefix as in Meanings 15 and 16. Meaning 15 indicates „someone in the final ranking‟ (e.g. laoerzi „final born son‟), which is grammaticalized from the core meaning of the first level „old.‟ Moreover, Meaning 16 indicates the ranking and it is grammaticalized from the core meaning of the second level „a prolonged period of time.‟
Overall, Ma (2002) proposes a complete semantic field of lao and further analyzes the relationships among the diverse meanings of lao. However, the analysis still has some inadequacies. According to her, lao has 17 meanings but it does not
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occur in the same linguistic context. From the perspective of language acquisition, different meanings of lao ought to be systematically categorized into fewer types.
Also, although the semantic relation between the three levels of meanings of lao is thoroughly discussed, Ma‟s analysis fails to provide the meanings of lao in the metaphorical context. Moreover, a clear explanation for the grammaticalization of lao is not provided.
2.1.2 Liu (2007)
Lao has been continually used to denote „old, aged,‟ which is regarded as the core meaning in its semantic field. Other meanings of lao are developed and grammaticalized from its core meaning. Liu (2007) summarizes the process of grammaticalization of lao both diachronically and synchronically, and states that the primary semantic feature of lao is „the excess of a certain degree,‟ which further develops multiple meanings of lao. In her study, the motivation and mechanisms of grammaticalization from different perspectives like syntac, semantics, and cognitive semantics are analyzed. First of all, the syntactic context is the inducement of grammaticalization. Lao as an adjective has been frequently used preceding the predicate; thus, as time goes by, lao is steadily regarded as a frequency adverb meaning „often, always,‟ as exemplified in (5).
(5) Ta dui shei lao xiaolianxiangying, he meet whom always smile,
you shuo you xiao. (Liu 2007:4)
with talk with laugh
„He is always smiley and talkable to get along with others.‟
In the process of grammaticalization, lao is transformed from a content word into
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a derivational affix in a series of shifts. Lao is essentially an adjective modifying nouns such as kinship terms, name initials, career types, or animals. For modifying kinship terms, lao originally keeps the meaning of „aged‟ to denote the elder relationship to the kinship terms as in (6).
(6) Dazhangfu qi dang yi lao jie real man how bear by old sister
qiu ming? (Liu 2007:10)
seek fame
„How would I bear to seek the fame by my sister? ‟
Liu (2007) claims that lao as in (6) has started to be used as an affix from the Six Dynasties and still keeps the meaning of „elder.‟ In (6), lao carries the meaning of
„elder‟ to modify the sister, meaning „elder sister.‟ The syntactic place enables lao to be grammaticalized as an prefix which is attached to the noun.
Liu (2007) proposes that lao preceding a specific career category such as jizhe „a reporter‟ as in laoji „a reporter‟ denotes the emotion of „banter.‟ It is worth noting that the grammaticalization of lao preceding the career type is initially from laoshi
„teacher,‟ which originally means „an experienced, elder researcher‟ to the Song Dynasty of China when laoshi has been used as „someone who teaches.‟ Until now, the meaning of lao is no longer related to the age or experience of a person. Moreover, lao can precede da „big,‟ yao „youngest,‟ and numerals from two to ten (e.g. laoyao
„the last born child‟.) In this type, lao denotes the rank of siblings and is derived from
„the last born child‟.) In this type, lao denotes the rank of siblings and is derived from