Mandarin-speaking children's politeness in requests

本研究主要探討台灣漢語兒童在日常家庭對話中，對父母行使請求時的語言表現及禮貌現象，以了解漢語兒童的語用發展歷程與現象。研究的重點主要是在兒童表達請求的言語行為時所使用的語言形式，以及人際關係中會影響兒童禮貌表現的因素及其反應在語言形式的使用情形。透過對兩位以漢語為母語的兒童長期互動的觀察，本研究發現，兒童在表達請求時，採用多元的語言形式，包含祈使句、直述句、帶有語尾助詞的祈使句、以及表達個人慾望或需求的陳述句。考量這些語言形式使用的情境後進一步發現，兒童傾向在一般的日常對話中多以表達個人慾望的陳述句為表達請求的主要語言形式，而在合作互動的情境中，主要的請求語言形式則絕大多數為祈使句；這樣的語言功能分工，在兩歲半左右可以明顯觀察得到。 另外，透過兒童語言形式表達禮貌的觀察顯示，兒童普遍會依照人際互動的一些因素來選擇表達請求時所適用的語言形式，尤以有效性及地位高低為主要的兩個考量因素。觀察中發現，兒童大量使用祈使句及表達個人慾望需求的陳述句來表達請求，而其他的語言型式相對上則少得許多，主要的因素很有可能是這兩類的語言型式，在他們與父母互動中最能有效達到他們的溝通目的。此外，兒童也會依照他們在表達請求時與他們父母間的地位高低來考量請求所要使用的語言形式。儘管觀察結果指出，兒童傾向使用能有效達到溝通互動目的的語言形式來表達他們的請求，必要時，他們也會依照互動雙方的地位關係進行語言形式的微調，這樣的語言表現有明顯的系統性；而這樣的系統性，進而突顯了兒童約略在三歲前即對禮貌在語言形式使用的影響有了初步的系統與了解。 除了句法結構外，兒童也會透過詞彙單位來傳達他們在請求所應注意的禮貌，例如，必要時，他們會使用「幫」、「請」、及「我們」來修飾或削弱請求時可能對對方所造成的影響。這些詞彙的使用在發展上屬於略晚才習得的語言形式。 最後，研究的結果也指出，雖然兒童表達請求時，使用較為間接而有禮的語言形式，未必較能有效地達到他們的溝通目的，但是如果在表達請求的同時，也進一步說明理由者，達到溝通目的的機率則有明顯的增加。另外，從語言形式和表達請求的情境及人際地位的互動中發現，兒童表達請求的基本語言形式極有可能為表達個人的慾望與需求的陳述句，儘管祈使句在所觀察的語料中使用的頻率最高。這樣的論點，不但符合其他文獻中針對兒童語言發展的發現，也貼近兒童語言發展為連續過程的觀點，且也反應了人類語言發展的基本歷程。This study aims to investigate Mandarin-speaking children’s requests and their linguistic politeness so as to contribute to the understanding of children’s pragmatic development as well as linguistic development. The present study is mainly concerned with what linguistic devices children utilize to issue requests in spontaneous interactions with their parents and what interpersonal factors may have an influence on children’s uses of request forms. These two issues were discussed through examinations over children’s spontaneous interactions with their parents in family settings. On the basis of the longitudinal data produced by two children, it has been found that when requesting, children draw upon various linguistic devices, primarily including simple imperatives, WANT statements, imperatives with sentence-final particle, and declaratives. Such a variety of request forms can be observed from an early age on, at around two years old, but demonstrates no remarkable development, judged simply by these formal devices used at different ages. When situational contexts are also taken into account, nevertheless, a developmental pattern regarding the request forms is thus revealed. In terms of situational contexts, children are found to use simple imperatives primarily to convey their requests when involved in interactive activities with their parents, whereas they tend to utilize both simple imperatives and WANT statements when having common talks with their parents. Such a division of labor can be noticeably observed when children are about two and half years old. As to children’s linguistic politeness when making requests, the results reveal that children are aware of the influence of certain interactional and interpersonal factors on the appropriate use of linguistic forms. Children are inclined to draw upon comparatively more effective forms to issue their requests, and therefore children by and large request with pure imperatives and WANT statements, since these two request forms may effectively obtain the desirable compliance from their parents. In addition to effectiveness, children may also take interpersonal status and request cost into consideration when judging which request forms to use in the immediate context. Such consideration of interpersonal status when determining the appropriate request forms to use may thus reflects children’s awareness of politeness at around the age of three. In addition to syntactic structures, children are also found to draw upon lexical items to show their deference to politeness. Children may use such lexical forms as qing ‘please’, bang ‘to help with’ and women ‘let’s; we’ to mitigate the illocutionary force in their requests. These forms, despite their low frequencies in the data, may thus reveal children’s sensitivity to politeness when making such a face-threatening act as requests. The use of these polite lexical forms also discloses a comparatively late development in linguistic politeness; children may not use such polite forms until they reach the second half of their second year. A late development is also observed in the respect of children’s use of reasons to justify their requests. The results show that children’s justification may generally increase the effectiveness of their requests, but such use is infrequent and only observed at a later age, around the age of three. Finally, the results of the investigation into the data may suggest that WANT statements are highly likely an earlier developed request form and the prime linguistic forms children rely on to issue their requests, given the findings that children tend to request with WANT statements when interacting with parents at a lower status as a child and that children’s use of request forms are prone to the effect of interpersonal status. Such a suggestion may not only conform to the findings in previous studies with regard to children’s linguistic development in requests, but also accord with the general developmental pattern of human languages

A Functional Analysis of Children's Requests in Mother-Child Conversation

本論文藉由分析兩位三歲兒童和他們母親的對話來探討兒童行使請求(request)的情形。文中的討論主要涵蓋了三個層面。分別是兒童行使請求時採取的策略，使用的語言形式，以及運用的互動知識(interactional knowledge)。結果發現，兩位兒童行使請求時會採用下面的策略：指明一特定的動作、指明想要取得的物體、指出自已的需求及間接暗示。此外，他們利用以上的策略行使請求時所使用的語言形式有所不同；而這些差異似乎間接反映出這兩位兒童的一些對話或是人際互動的知識(conversational or interpersonal knowledge)影響了他們請求時所使用的語言形式。因此，本論文推論兒童在三歲左右或許已經知道了一些互動知識，而這些互動知識會影響他們在對話中如何請求。This study aims to explore children’s requests in mother-children conversation based on dyads of two three-year-old children and their mothers. Three aspects about children’s requests in daily conversation are concerned: (1) the means or strategies children depend on to convey their request intents; (2) the formal or linguistic elements children employ to realize their request intents; and (3) the conversational or interpersonal skills children may have acquired as they are requesting. With a careful examination over the collected conversations, it is found that children at the age of three tend to demonstrate their requests through the following means. First, children indicate a specific action they intend their hearers to do in their utterances. Second, children request for a desired object by indicating literally the target objects, or information about the target object, e.g. adjectives or quantifiers. Thirdly, they indicate their self-want to have their hearer fulfill their desire. The last means children employ to request is hinting. They indirectly convey their request intents, and their hearer can infer the intended act. In addition, children usually use different formal elements to manifest their requests. For example, their requests for a specific action were found to be conveyed with imperatives, imperatives with sentence-final particles, or imperatives with A-not-A tags. Further investigation on the formal varieties of children’s requests reveals that some conversational or interpersonal factors may play a role in how children convey their request intents, e.g. cooperativeness, social status, conversational topic. The findings, therefore, show that children at the age of three have probably been aware of some conversational or interpersonal knowledge and the knowledge may affect their performance of requests in conversation

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Kadsura interior

The first complete chloroplast genome (cpDNA) sequence of Kadsura interior was determined from Illumina HiSeq pair-end sequencing data in this study. The cpDNA is 153,201 bp in length, contains a large single-copy region (LSC) of 85,774 bp and a small single-copy region (SSC) of 18,077 bp, which were separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IR) regions of 24,673 bp each. The genome contains 129 genes, including 85 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA genes, and 37 transfer RNA genes. The overall GC content of the whole genome is 39.6%, . The further phylogenomic analysis showed that K. interior and Kadsura coccinea clustered in a clade in Schisandraceae family

A Two Phase Flow Model Of The Rayleigh-Taylor Mixing Zone

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability of an interface separating fluids of distinct density is driven by an acceleration across the interface. Low order statistical moments of fluctuating fluid quantities characterize the hydrodynamics of the mixing zone. A new model is proposed for the momentum coupling between the two phases. This model is validated against computational data for compressible flows, including flows near the incompressible limit. Our main result is a zero parameter first order closure for ensemble averaged two phase flow equations. We do not, however, fully solve the closure problem, as the equations we derive are missing an (internal) boundary condition along any surface for which either phase goes to zero volume fraction. In this sense, the closure problem is reduced from a volume to a surface condition, rather than being solved completely. A new understanding of the compressibility dependent loss of universality of the mixing rate is obtained in terms of a one parameter ..

The Establishment of a Genetic Transformation System and the Acquisition of Transgenic Plants of Oriental Hybrid Lily (<i>Lilium</i> L.)

Lily (Lilium spp.) has elegant flowers and beautiful colors, which makes it popular among people. However, the poor stress resistance and self-propagation ability of lily limit its application in landscaping to a great extent. In addition, transgenic technology is an important means to improve plant characteristics, but the lack of a stable and efficient genetic transformation system is still an important factor restricting the development of lily transgenic technology. Therefore, this study established a good lily regeneration system by screening different explants and plant growth regulators of different concentrations. Then, the genetic transformation system of lily was optimized by screening the critical concentration of antibiotics, the concentration of bacterial solution, and the infection time. Finally, the homologous lily cold resistance gene LlNAC2 and bulblet generation gene LaKNOX1 were successfully transferred to ‘Siberia’ and ‘Sorbonne’ to obtain lily transgenic lines. The results showed that when the stem axis was used as explant in ‘Siberia’, the induction rate was as high as 87%. The induction rate of ‘Sorbonne’ was as high as 91.7% when the filaments were used as explants. At the same time, in the optimized genetic transformation system, the transformation rate of ‘Siberia’ and ‘Sorbonne’ was up to 60%. In conclusion, this study provides the theoretical basis and technical support for improving the resistance and reproductive ability of Oriental lily and the molecular breeding of lily

Complete chloroplast genome sequence of Lirianthe coco (Loureiro) N. H. Xia & C. Y. Wu (Magnoliaceae), a popular ornamental species

Lirianthe coco (Loureiro) N. H. Xia & C. Y. Wu is a popular ornamental species of Magnoliaceae. In the present study, the complete chloroplast genome (cpDNA) of L. coco was sequenced, assembled, and analyzed. The results indicated that the size of chloroplast genome of L. coco is 159,828 bp, which exhibits a typical quadripartite structure including a large single-copy (LSC) region of 87,958 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,768 bp separated by a pair of identical inverted repeat regions (IRs) of 26,551 bp each. The genome contained 131 genes (113 unique), including 86 protein-coding genes (80 unique), 37 tRNA genes (29 unique), and 8 rRNA genes (4 unique). Phylogenetic analysis showed that L. coco is affinal to L. odoratissima and forms a nomophyletic group with the latter and L. delavayi

Complete chloroplast genome sequence of Michelia champaca var. champaca Linnaeus, an ornamental tree species of Magnoliaceae

Michelia champaca var. champaca is an ornamentally important tree in Magnoliaceae. The paper reported the complete chloroplast genome (cpDNA) of M. champaca var. champaca and its basic annotated information. The size of cpDNA is 160,008 bp, with a typical quadripartite structure of a large single-copy (LSC) region of 88,037 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,809 bp separated by a pair identical inverted repeat regions (IRs) of 26,581 bp each. The genome contained 131 genes (113 unique), including 86 protein-coding genes (80 unique), 37 tRNA genes (29 unique), and eight rRNA genes (four unique). Phylogenetic analysis showed that M. champaca var. champaca is affinal to M. baillonii and they form a nomophyletic group with other eight Michelia species. This Michelia clade is sister to the Aromadendron cathcartii clade with high support. All genera mentioned in this analysis are nomophyletic under the system of Magnoliaceae by Sima and Lu