ABSTRACT

Configurations of support include those that exhibit Support-From-Below (cup on table), as well as those involving Mechanical Support (e.g., stamp on envelope, coat on hook). Mature language users show a “division of labor” in the encoding of support, frequently using basic locative expressions (BE on in English) to encode Support-From-Below but lexical verbs (e.g., stick, hang) to encode cases of Mechanical Support. This suggests that Support-From-Below configurations may best represent the core for the category of support, and could be privileged in supporting early mappings to spatial language. We tested this hypothesis by examining spontaneous productions of children younger than 4 years found in the CHILDES corpora. Children used on to encode Support-From-Below more than other types of support configurations. They also showed clear distinctions in how they mapped different verbs (e.g., BE vs. lexical verbs) to Support-From-Below configurations compared to other support configurations. Analysis of parent language suggests that these observed patterns in children’s language cannot be fully explained by input, although a role for input is likely for children’s encoding of Mechanical Support. Thus, a concept of Support-From-Below may serve as a core representation of support, and hence the privileged spatial representation onto which spatial language for support is mapped.

摘要

支撑的配置包括具有“从下往下支撑”的支撑（配置在桌子上）以及涉及机械支撑的配置（例如，在信封上盖章，在钩上涂上外套）。成熟的语言用户在支持的编码中表现出“分工”，经常使用基本的定位表达式（英语为BE on）对Support-From-Below但词汇动词（例如，stick，hang）进行编码）编码机械支持的情况。这表明“从下面支持”配置可能最能代表支持类别的核心，并且可以优先支持早期到空间语言的映射。我们通过检查在CHILDES语料库中发现的4岁以下儿童的自发产生来验证了这一假设。儿童使用上比其他类型的支持配置要多编码。与其他支持配置相比，他们在如何将不同的动词（例如，BE与词汇动词）映射到从后面支持配置中也表现出明显的区别。对父母语言的分析表明，尽管儿童可能会使用机械支持编码，但输入可能会起到一定的作用，但输入语言不能完全解释这些观察到的儿童语言模式。因此，“从下面支持”的概念可以用作支持的核心表示，因此可以作为特权空间表示，将用于支持的空间语言映射到该特权空间表示。