The Acquisition of Resultative Verb Compounds in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

Resultative verb compounds (RVCs) in Mandarin appear in a V1-V2 sequence and have three major subtypes—result-state, directional and completive RVCs with different degrees of compositionality depending on the extent to which the compound’s meaning can be derived from the meanings of the component verbs. The derivation of the RVC has been analyzed as a lexical or syntactic process. Previous acquisition studies show that the RVC’s compositionality and event structure are not fully acquired before the age of three. Findings conflict on whether the acquisition process revealed by early RVCs is usage-based or rule-based. We examined longitudinal data from two Mandarin-speaking children and administered a novel verb experiment on 32 children. The lexicalist approach to RVC formation is a better account for our data than the syntactic approach. Our data lend support to rule-based learning of RVCs. Children master the event structure of RVCs and its interaction with aspect gradually. The headedness of the RVC in relation to event structure depends on its type: V2 is more salient than V1 for the result-state RVC, while V1 is more salient than V2 for the directional RVC.