An experimental study of Mandarin-speaking children's acquisition of recursion under a formal definition/classification system for recursion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4093556 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chia Min Yang (0000-0002-0544-2081), Cai-Mei Yang, Ya-Fei Hu, Jia-Bao Fan, Jiabao Fan, Xin Dong (0000-0001-9908-4838), Liane Jeschull |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 271 |
| Pages | 103228 |
| Publication date | 2022-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Lingua (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0024-3841 • E-ISSN: 1872-6135 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.lingua.2021.103228 |
| OpenAlex | W4210940312 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 48 |
Starting with constructing a formal definition/classification system for recursion and consequently dividing recursive sequences into different levels and subtypes, the current paper presents an experimental study of Mandarin-speaking children's acquisition of three subtypes of 2-level recursive sequences exemplified with the so-called "recursive relative clauses (RCs)", reanalyzed as the 2-level tail-, nested-, and mixed-recursion RC sequences. 249 Mandarin-speaking children aged 4–9 years and 46 adult controls are recruited to finish a most-structured elicited Production task. The main findings are as follows: in general, children have acquired 1-level recursive RC sequences by the age of 4, but they have not acquired 2-level tail-recursion RC sequences until the age of 6, they have not acquired 2-level mixed-recursion RC sequences until the age of 8–9, and they have not acquired 2-level nested-recursion RC sequences until the age of at least 10; before acquiring 2-level recursive RC sequences, children tend to replace them with 1-level recursive RC sequences or coordinate structures. This experimental study provides new data and accounts for the development of the faculty of linguistic recursion, and also evidence in support of the formal definition/classification system for recursion. Further, this study makes more elaborate by subdivision the part of Chomsky Hierarchy (1959) claimed to be unique to natural language
Algorithm · Arithmetic · Double recursion · Geography · Hierarchy · Linguistics · Mandarin Chinese · Mutual recursion · Recursion (computer science · Subdivision · Task (project management · Computer Science · Language Development and Disorders · Mathematics · Reading and Literacy Development · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
Recursion and Human Language
On certain formal properties of grammars
The Faculty of Language
The role of parallel function in the acquisition of relative clauses in English
Linguistic complexity
The development of abstract syntax
Growing trees
Young children’s production of head-final relative clauses
The acquisition of Chinese relative clauses
Rethinking the acquisition of relative clauses in Italian
The nature of the language faculty and its implications for evolution of language (Reply to Fitch, Hauser, and Chomsky)
The faculty of language
Evidence and Argumentation
Pirahã culture and grammar
Structural priming
Constraints on multiple center-embedding of clauses
Children's judgments of regular and irregular novel past-tense forms
Some Core Contested Concepts
Three Factors in Language Design
Language, mind and brain
A Usage-Based Approach to Recursion in Sentence Processing
First Conjunct Agreement
Pirahã Exceptionality
A New Look at the Acquisition of Relative Clauses
The acquisition of recursive modification in NPs
How Children Constrain Their Argument Structure Constructions
Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |