The Role of Input in Acquisition of Tone Sandhi Rules in Mandarin Chinese

摘要

This paper sets to explore the acquisition of tone sandhi in Mandarin Chinese and the role of adult's input. From the observation of three subjects, tone acquisition order accords with previous researchers and TS rules acquisition order are TS3/TS4 > TS2 > TS1, which shows that the order of TS acquisition is influenced by tone acquisition. It is also shown that not until the age of three does the subject complete acquiring tonal system in Mandarin. Adult's input is found to play a vital role in acquisition of tone sandhi rules; specifically the output-as-input hypothesis correctly explains the correlation between successful acquisition and subject's simultaneous repetition to adult's input.