Mandarin

Tone languages such as Mandarin use voice pitch to signal lexical contrasts, presenting a challenge for second/foreign language (L2) learners whose native languages do not use pitch in this manner. The present study examined components of an aptitude for mastering L2 lexical tone. Native English speakers with no previous tone language experience completed a Mandarin word learning task, as well as tests of pitch ability, musicality, L2 aptitude, and general cognitive ability. Pitch ability measures improved predictions of learning performance beyond musicality, L2 aptitude, and general cognitive ability and also predicted transfer of learning to new talkers. In sum, although certain nontonal measures help predict successful tone learning, the central components of tonal aptitude are pitch-specific perceptual measures.

The development of children’s use of referential expressions in discourse is of much interest to researchers in language acquisition. One type of referential expression in Mandarin, the headed and headless DE-marked referential forms, lacks clear understanding in terms of how discourse factors might influence the use of these DE-marked expressions. This study details one longitudinal case of the use of Mandarin headed and headless DE-marked referential expressions by a mother–child dyad in their natural conversation. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data show that the use of headed and headless DE-marked forms is not determined solely by structural properties. Findings indicate that the DE-marked referential forms are associated with the information status assumed by the interlocutors during the process of communicating. When a new and unfamiliar referent is introduced into discourse for the first time, the head in the DE-marked forms is used. However, once a referent has been treated as given information, the givenness of the referent alone cannot explain the occurrence and non-occurrence of the head in the DE-marked referential forms. We argue that the headed and headless DE-marked referential forms are also frequently linked with discourse-pragmatic factors, such as communicative acts and interactive roles undertaken and played by the interlocutors. Moreover, the child’s developmental progress of DE-marked referential expressions aligns with the communicative acts she intends to perform in discourse, and it reflects the child’s competence as an active participant in discourse. Our stance is that structural factors may affect overall use of various DE-marked expressions, but the use of headed and headless DE-marked forms should be a discourse matter.► The ‘head ellipsis’ phenomenon in Mandarin DE-marked expressions must be explained in a discourse context. ► The structural approach as explanation for this phenomenon is shown to be inadequate. ► Mother–child conversational data expose the limitations of the structural approach. ► The emergence of the child’s pre-suppositional ability in referencing is confirmed. ► Interactive roles and communicative acts help explain the differing referential expressions.