This paper explores the learnability of English indefinite any , Dutch modal verb hoeven , and Mandarin Chinese (WH-)indefinite/pronoun shenme . These three expressions, belonging to different syntactic categories in different languages, have been referred to as Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) in the literature, as they are all restricted to contexts that in some sense count as negative although there are differences in the types of semantic environment that may license them. By investigating the distribution of these three expressions in both child and child-directed speech recorded in the CHILDES database (MacWhinney 2009 ), this paper argues that children in their acquisition of these NPIs employ the same conservative widening learning strategy (Berwick and Weinberg 1986 ; Manzini and Wexler 1987 ), which prevents them from overgeneration. A two-stage acquisition process is detected for each of the three NPIs. However, distinct learning pathways are found, which we take as evidence indicating different underlying analyses of these expressions at different stages in child language. Taking into consideration the input characteristics, the distributional patterns of the three expressions in adult grammar, and the children’s lexical development, we hypothesize what the analyses of any , hoeven , and shenme at different acquisition stages look like. This provides us with a different view of the nature, or the reason underlying the restricted distribution of these expressions in adult language.

中文翻译：

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分配限制项目

本文探讨了英语不定式 any、荷兰语情态动词 hoeven 和普通话 (WH-) 不定/代词 shenme 的可学习性。这三种表达在不同语言中属于不同的句法类别，在文献中被称为负极性项 (NPI)，因为它们都限于在某种意义上算作否定的上下文，尽管它们的类型存在差异可能许可它们的语义环境。通过调查记录在 CHILDES 数据库（MacWhinney 2009）中的儿童和儿童导向语音中这三种表达的分布，本文认为儿童在获得这些 NPI 时采用了相同的保守扩展学习策略（Berwick and Weinberg 1986； Manzini 和 Wexler 1987 ），这可以防止它们过度繁殖。检测三个 NPI 中的每一个的两阶段获取过程。然而，发现了不同的学习途径，我们将其作为证据表明在儿童语言的不同阶段对这些表达的不同潜在分析。考虑到输入特征、成人语法中三种表达的分布模式以及儿童的词汇发展，我们假设在不同习得阶段对any、hoeven和shenme的分析是什么样的。这为我们提供了对成人语言中这些表达受限分布的本质或原因的不同看法。我们将其作为证据表明在儿童语言的不同阶段对这些表达进行了不同的潜在分析。考虑到输入特征、成人语法中三种表达的分布模式以及儿童的词汇发展，我们假设在不同习得阶段对any、hoeven和shenme的分析是什么样的。这为我们提供了对成人语言中这些表达受限分布的本质或原因的不同看法。我们将其作为证据表明在儿童语言的不同阶段对这些表达进行了不同的潜在分析。考虑到输入特征、成人语法中三种表达的分布模式以及儿童的词汇发展，我们假设在不同习得阶段对any、hoeven和shenme的分析是什么样的。这为我们提供了对成人语言中这些表达受限分布的本质或原因的不同看法。