Abstract:

Typologically it is rarely found in a language both double object (DO) and shifted double object (SDO). However, DO/SDO alternations seem prevalent in Chinese Southern dialects and in south-China ethnic languages. Previous studies have mainly focused on structural analyses of these two alternative structures, with little work on precise quantification regarding their usage frequencies and grammatical acceptability. Using a picture-elicitation task and a grammaticality judgment task, we aimed to verify the frequency of use of the DO/SDO alternations in Zhuang. Our results showed that in terms of production rate, significantly more SDO utterances were produced than DO utterances, whereas in terms of grammaticality rating, no significant difference was found between DO and SDO. We conclude that SDO as a basic structure is more prevalent in Zhuang, which is a hallmark of areal typology.