An experimental study of verb-doubling and
domain minimization in Cantonese

Abstract of B.CogSci Thesis

LIU Yu Hong, Simon

In daily conversation, Cantonese is one language which will have a verb-doubling, or double-verb structure. The verb will be repeated after the object in the form [SVOV]. In some verb-doubling sentence, the sentence is still grammatical if we use a single verb. [SVOV] to [SVO]. What makes us use one structure but not others? In my research, based on Hawkins' (2004) domain minimization concept, if the VP is dominating the sentence, we will add a verb in order to cut the long VP to two shorter VP for increase the EIC ratio in speech production. It is better for the speaker.

In the research, there are two experiments, one using the translation paradigm while another is using the elicited production paradigm. Participants are required to translate an English sentence to Cantonese and the elicited production paradigm requires the participants to repeat the content of the sentence by answering probe questions. Both experiments have similar result that the complexity of sentence affects the sentence construction in production. People will construct the sentence in a more efficient way. This is consistent with our hypothesis in double-verb structure, to minimize the domain for better speech production. However, since the translation paradigm is a fresh idea, further research should be done in verifying the reliability of this paradigm.

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