¹The transcriptions for Cantonese syllables presented in this paper are based on the Cantonese Romanization Scheme proposed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (Chinese Character Database: With Word-formations, 2003). The number besides each syllable marking denotes the lexical tone. / Five experiments were conducted to investigate how phonological information is processed in Cantonese spoken word production using the picture-word interference (PWI) paradigm. Participants were asked to name aloud individually presented pictures and ignore an accompanying auditory word distractor. In the first three experiments of the present study, the target picture names were Cantonese mono-syllables with a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) structure. Participants' picture naming latencies were found faster when the target (e.g., /sing1/l¹, "Star") and the distractor (e.g., /ging 2/, /sik6/, or /soeng3/) shared two identical segments (irrespective of the segments' syllable-internal position), than when they were unrelated, whereas no reliable effects were obtained when they shared only the vowel (e.g., /dim3/), the coda (e.g., /hu ng2/), or together with the tone (e.g., /bit1/ or /fung1/). Furthermore, the facilitation effect observed in the consonant+consonant+tone-related condition (e.g., /soe ng1/) was found reliably larger than that in the consonant+consonant-related condition (e.g., /soeng3/). In Experiment 4, the syllable structure of the targets was manipulated such that half of the picture names were mono-syllables with a consonant-vowel (CV) structure (e.g., / so1/, "comb") and the other half a CVC structure (/sing1/). A significant syllable (without tone) related facilitation was found irrespective of the target type, whereas no reliable effect was observed when the target and the distractor (e.g., /se6/ and /sam2/, for CV and CVC targets, respectively) shared only the onset consonant. Furthermore, Experiment 5 investigated whether phonetic factors modulate the facilitation effect observed in a PWI task. To this end, the sonority level and duration of the target's rhyme component were manipulated in Experiments 5A and 5B, respectively. A significant rhyme-related priming effect was found in both Experiments 5A and 5B, and such effect was neither affected by the sonority level nor duration of the target's rhyme component. These results are in line with the notions that (1) a single segment does not have a significant impact on Chinese spoken word planning, (2) sub-syllabic constitutes such as rhyme is an important processing unit, (3) the lexical tone has a unique role to play during phonological encoding, and (4) segmental and tonal retrieval are operated in an interactive manner. Based on all the available results from Cantonese PWI research, an interactive model of Cantonese spoken word production is proposed. / Wong, Wing Kuen. / Adviser: Hsuan-Chih Chen. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-04, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-117). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Like other Chinese dialects, Cantonese marks its aspects with verbal suffixes, e.g. zo to indicate the perfective and gan the progressive. Gan signals not only an ongoing atelic action, but also an ongoing movement towards a destination at a particular reference time. For instance, gan can combine with the verb lai ("come") to mean "approaching the speaker", hence marking a prospective reading. In short, in contemporary Cantonese, gan denotes the progressive and prospective functions. / That gan has extended its functions beyond the traditional definition of marking a progressive can be observed in the language among younger speakers in Hong Kong. For example, the combination of gaau syu ("teach") and gan traditionally marks a progressive reading, meaning "I'm teaching." However, it now also allows the habitual reading: "I'm a teacher." Another example is while the notion of "wearing something or having put on something" would have to be marked by zyu, the durative aspect, in old Cantonese: zoek zyu, a preferable alternative now is gan: zoek gan. Still another example is that the combined use of lai and gan to function as a temporal adverb. As these usages appear divergent in nature and serve different functions, it is the purpose of this study to examine gan to offer an analysis that accounts for its many functions as derivatives from the core notion of progressiveness. / The project makes use of a rich corpus of colloquial Cantonese materials that date back to the 19th century. Combing through data of nearly two hundred years, we uncover patterns of development, in both grammatical and semantic behaviors, that help us to reconstruct the history of gan in Cantonese. We believe that the progressive use of gan dates back to gan cyu (lit. near there) in the 19th century, a spatial expression that eventually took on a metaphorical extension to mark temporal nearness. As for the new usages of gan in the 21st century, we assume that the habitual and durative come from the progressive, and the temporal adverb denoting a future time from the prospective, all reflecting different paths of grammaticalization. / 片岡新. / Adviser: Samuel Hung-Nin Cheung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-270). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Pian'gang Xin.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

早期口語習得研究假設被動句的賓語通過“論元移位“ (A-movement) 移到主語位置。Huang (1999)和 Tang (2000, 2001) 認為粤語被動句和漢語被動句類似，都通過空運算元移位形成，即空運算元通過“非論元移位“(A’-movement) 從內嵌 VP的賓語位置移到時態短語(TP)指定語的位置。經過謂語化後，這個空語類受主語約束。 / 漢語被動句習得研究顯示兒童較遲獲得長被動句 (Chang, 1986; Xu and Yang, 2008; Liu and Ning, 2009)。粤語表被動的「畀」存在一詞多義形式，除了表示被動，還有表示給予的「畀」，表示與格的「畀」，以及表示允許的「畀」。Wong (2004) 發現表被動的「畀」最難習得。 / 本研究從普遍語法 (UG)的角度來考察粤語「畀」字被動句的獲得情況，旨在探討聾童如何習得粤語「畀」字被動句，他們是否經歷與健聽兒童相似的習得過程。同時，進一步研究聾童是否掌握粤語「畀」字被動句內部的語法關係，包括基本的句法語序，內嵌使役結構的有終結性“telic“，以及空運算元和主句主語的約束關係。本研究採用了三種實驗方法：圖片選擇、圖片描述，以及圖片判斷。參與此項研究的被試有 18名 7;03至 12;06之間的聾童，40名 3;03至 7;05之間的健聽兒童，以及作為控制組的 20名健聽成人。 / 圖片選擇和圖片描述實驗的結果表明聾童和健聽兒童在粤語「畀」字被動句的發展中經歷了相似的習得過程。他們表達含光杆動詞的被動句沒有什麼困難。光杆動詞，比如“踢“，若自身帶有“終結體“(+telic) 的特徵，在粤語被動句中是合語法的。但是，當需要使用動補複合動詞 (RVC) 來表達一個事件的有終結性特徵時，聾童與健聽兒童的表現則不同。聾童很難以這種有終結性的特徵解讀這個內嵌的使役結構。取而代之，他們保留用光杆動詞結構來表達單單一個動作或一個結果。亦有不少聾童使用兩個連接的短語，以前一個表達動作，後一個表達結果。圖片判斷實驗的結果顯示，隨著“語言接收年齡“(receptive language age) 的提高，聾童對可加強被動義的標記「親」(-can1)意識也逐漸提高。在「畀」字句中，含被動義的標記「親」用於限制: (a) 句子在表允許和表被動的歧義，使句子解讀為被動義; (b) 主句主語和內嵌賓語的約束關係。 / 為深入瞭解聾童「畀」字被動句的獲得，本研究同時考察了他們能否區別「畀」字的一詞多義形式及其相應的句法結構，包括表給予的「畀」和表允許的「畀」。研究結果顯示「畀」字被動句帶有兩個小句，且含空運算元移位，這給聾童被動句的習得造成了極大的困難。儘管表允許的「畀」也帶有兩個小句，含賓語控制結構，相對而言仍比被動句容易習得。表給予的「畀」為單句，我們假設應發展得較早，但是在本研究中卻發現比表允許的「畀」更遲習得。事實上，聾童在產出粤語 IDOC (即 [N bei2 DO IO], DO 代表直接賓語而 IO代表間接賓語) 語序時有困難，可是卻會採用漢語語法的語序 DOC (即 [N bei2 IO DO])。我們認為這可能是漢語書面語的輸入對聾童更為“可接收 （accessible）所致；相比之下，由於聽力受損，他們通過聽覺接收的粤語口語輸入卻受到了限制。 / Earlier acquisition studies of passives in spoken languages assume A-movement of the object to the subject position. Huang (1999) and Tang (2000, 2001) claim that Cantonese passives, similar to Mandarin passives, involve null operator movement from the object position of the embedded VP via A’movement to the specifier position of the intermediate TP. This null category is then bound by a base-generated subject through predication. / Acquisition studies of Mandarin passives show that children acquire long passives late (Chang, 1986; Xu and Yang, 2008; Liu and Ning, 2009). As for Cantonese, Wong (2004) found that passive bei2 is most difficult among the different polysemous bei2, namely transfer bei2 ‘give’, dative bei2, and permissive bei2 ‘let’. / In the current study, we approach the acquisition of Cantonese passive bei2 from a UG perspective. We aim to see how deaf children acquire passive bei2, whether they go through a similar acquisition process as their typical hearing counterparts. We also want to see if they have developed knowledge about the grammatical relations involved with passive bei2, namely the basic syntactic order, the telicity encoded in the embedded causative structure, and the binding relationship between the null operator and the matrix subject. Three experimental procedures were developed: a picture selection task, a picture description task and a picture verification task. 18 deaf children (7;03-12;06), 40 younger hearing children (3;03-7;05) and 20 hearing adults as controls participated in this study. / The results in the picture selection and the picture description task show that the deaf children and the hearing children went through a similar acquisition process in the development of passive bei2. They did not seem to encounter difficulty in producing passives bei2 involving a bare verb which is inherently +telic such as ‘kick’, which is acceptable in Cantonese. However, when coming to using a resultative verb compound (RVC) to encode the +telic aspect of the eventuality, the deaf subjects’ performance differed from the hearing subjects in demonstrating difficulty in encoding a telic causative event structure. Instead, they maintained a bare verb structure to encode either an activity or a result. A number of deaf children also used two conjoined phrases, with the first encoding an activity and the second a result. The results of the picture verification task show that as a function of receptive language age, the deaf children in our study were sensitive to the presence of the adversative marker -can1, which is used to restrict (a) the interpretation of an ambiguous permissive/passive sentence to a passive reading, and (b) the binding relation between the matrix subject and the embedded object involved. / To deepen our understanding of deaf children’s acquisition of passive bei2, part of the project is to examine if they could identify the other polysemous bei2s, including transfer bei2 and permissive bei2 as they involve different linguistic structures. The results show that passive bei2 which requires a biclausal structure plus null operator movement poses as the most difficult construction to be acquired by deaf children. Although permissive bei2 also invokes a biclausal structure with object control, it is relatively easier than passive bei2. Unexpectedly, transfer bei2 is found to be more difficult than permissive bei2 although the structure is monoclausal and assumed to be developmentally early in typically developed children. In fact, the deaf subjects have experienced difficulty in producing the IDOC order (i.e. [N bei2 DO IO], where DO represents Direct Object and IO represents Indirect Object), a required word order in Cantonese; instead, they resorted to the DOC (i.e. [N bei2 IO DO]) order which reflects the Mandarin grammar. We propose that it is due to the more ‘accessible’ input from printed written Chinese, which follows the Mandarin grammar, as against the less accessible Cantonese input through the auditory mode. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Yiu, Kun Man. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-242). / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendix 1 includes Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgement --- p.vi / Table of Contents --- p.viii / List of Figures --- p.xiii / List of Tables --- p.xvi / Abbreviations --- p.xvii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2. --- Spoken Language Acquisition by Deaf Children --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3. --- Berent’s (2004) Characterization of Bi-modal Bilingual Acquisition --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4. --- The Current Research --- p.7 / Chapter 1.5. --- Organization of the Thesis --- p.10 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Deafness and Language Acquisition --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1. --- Introduction --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2. --- General Descriptions about the Deaf Situation in HK --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3. --- The Effects of Deafness on Language Acquisition --- p.13 / Chapter 2.4. --- Factors Affecting Language Acquisition of Deaf Children --- p.14 / Chapter 2.5. --- Acquisition of Syntax by Deaf Children: Theoretical Assumptions . --- p.14 / Chapter 2.5.1. --- Acquisition Studies on Syntactic Development of Deaf Children . --- p.15 / Chapter 2.5.2. --- Interim Discussion --- p.17 / Chapter 2.6. --- Problematic Domains in Syntactic Acquisition --- p.18 / Chapter 2.6.1. --- Problems in the I-system --- p.20 / Chapter 2.6.2. --- Problems in the C-system --- p.20 / Chapter 2.6.3. --- Problems in the D-system --- p.21 / Chapter 2.6.4. --- Interim Summary --- p.22 / Chapter 2.6.5. --- Problems in Acquiring Syntactic Movement --- p.23 / Chapter 2.6.6. --- Problems with Interpreting Empty Categories --- p.30 / Chapter 2.7. --- Summary --- p.31 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Morpho-syntactic Analysis of Passive bei2 Construction and the Polysemous Forms of bei2 --- p.33 / Chapter 3.1. --- Introduction --- p.33 / Chapter 3.2. --- Cantonese Passives --- p.33 / Chapter 3.2.1. --- Types of Passives in Cantonese --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2.2. --- Grammatical Relations in Cantonese bei2 Passives --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2.3. --- Morpho-syntactic Analysis of Cantonese bei2 Construction --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.4. --- The Movement Approach --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2.5. --- A Complementation Approach to Cantonese Passives --- p.44 / Chapter 3.2.6. --- Telicity and Delimiting Elements of the Embedded Predicate --- p.51 / Chapter 3.2.7. --- Interim Discussion --- p.55 / Chapter 3.3. --- Polyesmous Forms of bei2 ‘give’ in Cantonese --- p.56 / Chapter 3.4. --- Transfer bei2 in Cantonese --- p.57 / Chapter 3.4.1. --- The Inverted Double Object Construction (IDOC) in Cantonese --- p.58 / Chapter 3.4.2. --- Derivation of the Transfer bei2 Construction --- p.59 / Chapter 3.4.3. --- Two Non-Canonical Transfer bei2 Construction in Cantonese --- p.60 / Chapter 3.4.4. --- Animacy Effects --- p.63 / Chapter 3.5. --- Permissive bei2 Construction in Cantonese --- p.64 / Chapter 3.5.1. --- Permissive bei2 as Object Control Sentences --- p.65 / Chapter 3.5.2. --- Selection of Non-finite Embedded Clause --- p.70 / Chapter 3.6. --- Ambiguity between Permissive and Passive bei2 --- p.71 / Chapter 3.7. --- Summary --- p.73 / Chapter Chapter4 --- Acquiring Bei2 in Cantonese: A Review of Previous Studies . --- p.75 / Chapter 4.1. --- Introduction --- p.75 / Chapter 4.2. --- Acquisition of Cantonese bei2 Passives --- p.75 / Chapter 4.3. --- Acquisition of Passives in Mandarin --- p.77 / Chapter 4.4. --- Issues in the Acquisition of Passives --- p.79 / Chapter 4.4.1. --- Age of Acquisition --- p.79 / Chapter 4.4.2. --- Passives with Actional vs Non-actional Verbs --- p.81 / Chapter 4.4.3. --- Lexical-semantics of the Verb Phrase of Passives --- p.83 / Chapter 4.5. --- Acquisition of Cantonese bei2 Passives by Deaf Children --- p.84 / Chapter 4.6. --- Acquisition of Passives by Deaf Children in Other Languages --- p.87 / Chapter 4.7. --- Acquisition of Other Polysemous Forms --- p.88 / Chapter 4.7.1. --- Acquisition of Permissive bei2 --- p.88 / Chapter 4.7.2. --- Acquisition of Control --- p.88 / Chapter 4.7.3. --- Acquisition of Transfer bei2 --- p.90 / Chapter 4.8. --- Acquisition Predictions --- p.91 / Chapter 4.8.1. --- How do Deaf Children Acquire Passive bei2 in Cantonese? --- p.91 / Chapter 4.8.2. --- What is the Sequence of Acquisition among the three Polysemous bei2? . --- p.91 / Chapter 4.8.3. --- Do Deaf Children Follow a Different Pathway from Hearing Children? --- p.92 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Methodology --- p.93 / Chapter 5.1. --- Background --- p.93 / Chapter 5.2. --- Subjects --- p.94 / Chapter 5.2.1. --- Deaf Subjects --- p.94 / Chapter 5.2.2. --- Hearing Subjects --- p.101 / Chapter 5.3. --- Experimental Design --- p.102 / Chapter 5.4. --- Picture Selection (PS) - A Comprehension Task --- p.103 / Chapter 5.4.1. --- Design of Test Items --- p.103 / Chapter 5.4.2. --- Verbs Used in the Test Items --- p.104 / Chapter 5.4.3. --- Items for Transfer bei2 --- p.105 / Chapter 5.4.4. --- Items for Permissive bei2 --- p.106 / Chapter 5.4.5. --- Items for Passive bei2 --- p.108 / Chapter 5.4.6. --- Items for Zoeng1 and Active Sentences --- p.108 / Chapter 5.4.7. --- Experimental Procedure --- p.110 / Chapter 5.5. --- Picture Description (PD) - An Elicited Production Task --- p.111 / Chapter 5.5.1. --- Design of Test Items --- p.112 / Chapter 5.5.2. --- Items for Transfer bei2 --- p.113 / Chapter 5.5.3. --- Items for Permissive bei2 --- p.115 / Chapter 5.5.4. --- Items for Passive bei2 --- p.117 / Chapter 5.5.5. --- Active Sentences --- p.120 / Chapter 5.5.6. --- Testing Procedure --- p.121 / Chapter 5.6. --- Picture Verification (PV) - A Judgment Task --- p.123 / Chapter 5.6.1. --- Can1 as the Disambiguating Cue --- p.124 / Chapter 5.6.2. --- Experimental Design --- p.126 / Chapter 5.6.3. --- The Test Items --- p.129 / Chapter 5.7. --- Experimental Procedures --- p.132 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Results --- p.133 / Chapter 6.1. --- Introduction --- p.133 / Chapter 6.2. --- Performance in Passive bei2 --- p.136 / Chapter 6.2.1. --- Picture Selection (PS) Task --- p.136 / Chapter 6.2.2. --- Picture Description (PD) Task --- p.139 / Chapter 6.2.3. --- Active Sentences (Controls) --- p.139 / Chapter 6.2.4. --- Passive bei2 with an Embedded Bare Verb --- p.141 / Chapter 6.2.5. --- Resultative Passives --- p.148 / Chapter 6.2.6. --- Subjects’ Performance on the Embedded VP --- p.152 / Chapter 6.2.7. --- Reversibility of the NPs --- p.157 / Chapter 6.2.8. --- The Picture Verification (PV) Task --- p.161 / Chapter 6.2.9. --- Is -can1 an Effective Disambiguating Cue? --- p.161 / Chapter 6.2.10. --- Interim Summary --- p.170 / Chapter 6.3. --- Performance on Transfer bei2 and Permissive bei2 --- p.171 / Chapter 6.3.1. --- Picture Selection (PS) Task --- p.171 / Chapter 6.3.2. --- Picture Description (PD) Task --- p.176 / Chapter 6.3.3. --- Acquisition of Transfer bei2 --- p.176 / Chapter 6.3.4. --- Acquisition of Permissive bei2 --- p.183 / Chapter 6.3.5. --- The Three Polysemous Forms in the PD Task --- p.191 / Chapter 6.3.6. --- The Three Polysemous Forms in Both the PS and PD Tasks --- p.193 / Chapter 6.3.7. --- Performance by Level/Group in Both the PS and PD Tasks --- p.196 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- General Discussion and Conclusion --- p.199 / Chapter 7.1. --- Introduction --- p.199 / Chapter 7.2. --- The Acquisition of Passive bei2 Construction in Cantonese --- p.199 / Chapter 7.2.1. --- Knowledge about the Grammatical Relations in Passive bei2 --- p.200 / Chapter 7.2.2. --- Knowledge about the Syntactic Order of Passive bei2 --- p.202 / Chapter 7.2.3. --- Knowledge about the Reversible and Non-Reversible Passives --- p.203 / Chapter 7.2.4. --- Knowledge about a +Telic Embedded Predicate --- p.204 / Chapter 7.2.5. --- Knowledge about Co-indexation and Null Operator Movement . --- p.206 / Chapter 7.3. --- Acquisition of Polysemous Forms of bei2 --- p.207 / Chapter 7.3.1. --- Order of Difficulty --- p.207 / Chapter 7.3.2. --- Acquisition of Transfer bei2 --- p.209 / Chapter 7.3.3. --- Acquisition of Permissive bei2 --- p.211 / Chapter 7.3.4. --- Developmental Pathway of Deaf Children’s Grammatical Knowledge --- p.213 / Chapter 7.4. --- Limitations of the Research --- p.214 / Chapter 7.5. --- Conclusions --- p.217 / Chapter 7.5.1. --- Get to Know the Acquisition Process of Passive bei2s and Other Polysemous Forms --- p.217 / Chapter 7.5.2. --- Age Factor in Research on Language Development of Deaf Children . --- p.218 / Chapter 7.5.3. --- Understanding Language Development of Deaf Children --- p.220 / Chapter 7.5.4. --- Practical Implications --- p.223 / Chapter Appendix 1: --- Test items of the experiment --- p.225 / Chapter Appendix 2: --- Correct Responses in the Picture Selection Task (All hearing adult subjects, N=20) --- p.231 / References --- p.232