Non-adult-like Ba Construction

In order to study the development of the ba construction in the four children’s early acquisition stage, we attempt to separate those non-adult-like ba constructions from the well-formed ones. There are six patterns found in the early stage: (a) no post-ba NP, (b) no VP in the ba construction, (c) unbounded VP, (d) wrong use of verb, (e) coreferent of NP3 with NP2, (f) missing of preposition. The patterns and examples are illustrated in (2). Words inside parentheses were omitted. Ungrammatical constituents were

underlined.

(2) a. Omission of Post-Ba NP: There is no post-ba NP following ba.

還是把把抓起來 (HY: 3;7)

haishi ba ba (ta) zhua qilai or BA BA (it) grab up ‘Or, I grab it up.’

b. Omission of VP: There is no VP in the ba construction.

然後把這個電話 (CC: 2;11) ranhou ba zhege dianhua

then BA this telephone

‘Then, take this telephone.’

c. Unbounded VP: The VP does not show the property of boundedness.

我把它切 (JC: 3;1) wo ba ta qie (le)

I BA it cut (LE) ‘I cut it.’

d. Wrong Use of Verb: Sometimes, an intransitive verb is used instead of a transitive verb. Or, in some cases, a verb used is semantically improper.

你可以把直昇機飛到這裡上面 (HY: 3;0) ni keyi ba zhishengji fei dao zheli shangmian you can BA helicopter fly to this top ‘Yon can fly the helicopter to the top.’

e. Coreferent of NP3 with NP2: The NP3 may be coreferential with the NP2.

想把這個拿起來寶藏 (JC: 3;9) xian ba zhege na qilai baocang want BA this take up treasure ‘want to take this treasure.’

f. Missing of preposition: The locative phrase is not preceded by a preposition.

我把它放裡面 (HY: 2;7) Wo ba ta fang (zai) limian

I BA it put (at) inside ‘I put it inside.’

The numbers of occurrence of these ba constructions and its distribution of the four children are listed in Table 3.14 to Table 3.17. For the ease of comparison, the

percentages (Non-adult-like pattern / total numbers of ba constructions of that age) are also presented.

Table 3.14 Occurrence of non-adult-like ba construction of HY

Age 2;7 to 3;2 3;3 to 3;8 3;9 to 4;1

Omission of Post-Ba NP 0 (0.00%) 3 (1.89%) 3 (3.57%) Omission of VP 10 (19.61%) 18 (11.32%) 8 (9.52%) Unbounded VP 1 (1.96%) 2 (1.26%) 2 (2.38%) Wrong Use of Verb 3 (5.88%) 13 (8.18%) 4 (4.76%) Coreferent of NP3 with NP2 2 (3.92%) 0 (0.00%) 0 (0.00%) Missing of preposition 2 (3.92%) 2 (1.26%) 0 (0.00%)

Total numbers of ba cnstruciton 51 159 84

From Table 3.14, we can find that the frequency of the use of omission of VP, coreferent of NP3 with NP2 and the missing of preposition declined as the child grew up.

Although the ratio of the pattern of wrong use of verb is increased from the first period of age to the second period, the ratio does decline from the second period to the third period. However, to our surprise, the error, omission of post-ba NP, did not decrease at all; it increased even more. In the case of the error type of unbounded VP, the frequency declined 0.7% initially; however, unexpectedly, it rose. We will have a reasonable explanation for this change of unbounded VP in the next section.

Table 3.15 Occurrence of non-adult-like ba construction of JC

Age 2;4 to 3;2 3;3 to 3;8 3;9 to 4;1

Omission of Post-Ba NP 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Omission of VP 0 (0%) 1 (5.26%) 2 (3.64%) Unbounded VP 1 (8.33%) 3 (15.79%) 1 (1.82%) Wrong Use of Verb 1 (8.33%) 0 (0%) 1 (1.82%) Coreferent of NP3 with NP2 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (1.82%) Missing of preposition 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Total numbers of ba

cnstruciton

12 19 55

Compared with the spontaneous speech data of HY in Table 3.14, in JC’s data it is strange to find no error of the pattern of coreferent of NP3 with NP2 in the first two stages but in the last stage. Except for this, we can easily find that most of the error ratio declined successively. And, in JC’s data we find no error of the pattern of omission of Post-Ba NP.

Table 3.16 Occurrence of non-adult-like ba construction of AN

Age 1;11 to 2;6 2;7 to 3;2 3;3 to 3;8 3;9 to 4;1 Omission of Post-Ba NP 1 (3.33%) 0 (0%) 2 (3.03%) 0 (0%) Omission of VP 6 (20.00%) 3 (9.09%) 12 (18.18%) 3 (13.64%) Unbounded VP 1 (3.33%) 2 (6.06%) 4 (6.06%) 1 (4.55%) Coreferent of NP3 with

NP2

0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (4.55%)

Missing of preposition 0 (0%) 1 (3.03%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Unknown mistake 0 (0%) 1 (3.03%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Total numbers of ba

cnstruciton

30 33 66 22

Table 3.17 Occurrence of non-adult-like ba construction of CC

Age 2;7 to 3;2 3;3 to 3;8 3;9 to 4;9

Omission of Post-Ba NP 2 (6.90%) 1 (2.13%) 3 (3.49%) Omission of VP 6 (20.69%) 4 (8.51%) 8 (9.30%) Unbounded VP 3 (10.34%) 2 (4.26%) 1 (1.16%) Coreferent of NP3 with NP2 0 (0%) 1 (2.13%) 0 (0%) Missing of preposition 0 (0%) 1 (0.02%) 0 (0%) Unknown mistake 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (1.16%) Total numbers of ba

cnstruciton

29 47 86

From Table 3.16 to Table 3.17, we can find that both of the error ratios of the patterns of

omission of VP and unbounded VP are declined gradually. Moreover, it is interesting to discover an unknown mistake in each of the spontaneous speech data of AN and CC.

These two mistakes are given in (3) to (4) below.

(3) 我要把這個打電話 (AN: 3;1)

wo yao ba zhege da-dianhua I will BA this make a phone call ‘I will make a phone call to this.’

(4) 我爸爸把掃地喔 (CC: 3:1)

wo baba ba saodi o my father BA sweep SEP ‘My father sweeps the floor.’

Based on Table 3.14 to Table 3.17, it is observed that there are some obvious changes from the first period of age (1;11 to 2;6) to the last period (after 3;9). The frequency of the use of omission of VP and unbounded VP is the highest before the age 3.03 and declined successively as the child grew up, except for HY’s data in which the frequency of unbounded VP declined firstly but rose at last.