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Asking for action or information? Crosslinguistic comparison of interrogative functions in early child Cantonese and Mandarin
Hui Li1; Eileen Chin Mei Wong1; Shek Kam Tse1; Shing On Leung2; Qianling Ye2
2015-06-07
Source PublicationFIRST LANGUAGE
ISSN0142-7237
Volume35Issue:3Pages:213-218
Abstract

Request for information (RfI) is believed to be the universally dominant function of young children's questioning, whereas request for action (RfA) has been reported to be the leading interrogative form used in early child Cantonese. The possibility of crosslinguistic variability prompts further research and comparison with additional languages. This study compares the interrogatives elicited from two early Chinese language corpora: Early Childhood Cantonese Corpus (ECCC) and Early Childhood Mandarin (ECMC). Altogether, 1214 and 942 question types were elicited from ECCC and ECMC, respectively. Analyses indicated that: (1) all the interrogative functions identified in an earlier study of Cantonese were also observed in the early Mandarin interrrogatives; and (2) both RfA (49.9%) and RfI (45.5%) were the most frequently observed functions of early child Chinese interrogatives. This crosslinguistic evidence suggests that follow-up studies are needed to further explore the possible influences of language, culture and communication tasks on children's uses of interrogative forms.

KeywordCorpus-based Study Early Child Cantonese Early Child Mandarin Interrogative Function
DOI10.1177/0142723715579604
URLView the original
Indexed BySSCI
Language英語English
WOS Research AreaPsychology ; Linguistics
WOS SubjectPsychology, Developmental ; Linguistics ; Language & Linguistics
WOS IDWOS:000359262500002
Scopus ID2-s2.0-84938819007
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Citation statistics
Document TypeJournal article
CollectionFaculty of Education
Corresponding AuthorHui Li
Affiliation1.The University of Hong Kong, PRC
2.University of Macau, PRC
Recommended Citation
GB/T 7714
Hui Li,Eileen Chin Mei Wong,Shek Kam Tse,et al. Asking for action or information? Crosslinguistic comparison of interrogative functions in early child Cantonese and Mandarin[J]. FIRST LANGUAGE, 2015, 35(3), 213-218.
APA Hui Li., Eileen Chin Mei Wong., Shek Kam Tse., Shing On Leung., & Qianling Ye (2015). Asking for action or information? Crosslinguistic comparison of interrogative functions in early child Cantonese and Mandarin. FIRST LANGUAGE, 35(3), 213-218.
MLA Hui Li,et al."Asking for action or information? Crosslinguistic comparison of interrogative functions in early child Cantonese and Mandarin".FIRST LANGUAGE 35.3(2015):213-218.
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