This dissertation aimed to examine the ethnic socialization context in the upbringing of Chinese-Dutch children, specifically three social-contextual factors: parents, children’s books, and the... Show moreThis dissertation aimed to examine the ethnic socialization context in the upbringing of Chinese-Dutch children, specifically three social-contextual factors: parents, children’s books, and the COVID pandemic. Results reveal that Chinese-Dutch children evaluate their ingroup and the White outgroup most positively, followed by the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) outgroup, and the Black outgroup least positively. Stronger maternal endorsement of multiculturalism is associated with lower child ethnic prejudice (in terms of less ingroup preference). In addition, results demonstrate maternal self-report ethnic-racial socialization strategies and the observed behaviors that reflect color-evasiveness and white normativity. Furthermore, results show an overrepresentation of White authors, illustrators, and characters, and a preference for light skin color in East Asian characters in illustrations in Chinese children’s books, suggesting a form of current postcolonial influences on Chinese children’s literature. Furthermore, results indicate ethnicity-related attitude differences among mothers participating after than before the COVID outbreak, with higher perceived discrimination and stronger ethnic identity. A lower ingroup rejection among Chinese-Dutch children was found in the post-COVID-outbreak group than in the pre-COVID-outbreak group. This dissertation can foster a better understanding of the interethnic relations in the underrepresented Chinese group and elucidate the ethnicity-related consequences of the pandemic in this group. Show less
Mandarin is a wh-in-situ language, in which wh-words remain in their base position as declarative counterparts do. Mandarin is also a wh-indeterminate language, in which wh-words like shénme... Show moreMandarin is a wh-in-situ language, in which wh-words remain in their base position as declarative counterparts do. Mandarin is also a wh-indeterminate language, in which wh-words like shénme can have interrogative interpretation ‘what’ (wh-interrogative) or non-interrogative existential interpretation ‘something’ (wh-existential). Due to the wh-in-situ and wh-indeterminate nature, clausal typing (how to classify clauses as wh-questions) in Mandarin and the licensing of wh-indeterminates have been two intriguing topics. This dissertation investigates clausal typing in Mandarin and the licensing of Mandarin wh-indeterminates, from the perspectives of prosody and processing. By conducting a series of studies, we find that prosody plays an essential role in marking and typing wh-questions and listeners can anticipate clause-types by utilizing prosody since the clause onset. Hence we propose an extended clausal typing hypothesis, recognizing the role of prosody in clausal typing and making the original clausal typing hypothesis more complete, cross-linguistically speaking. As for the licensing of wh-existentials, we provide evidence and analysis that wh-existentials can also be licensed in veridical contexts with certain constraints, in addition to the commonly assumed nonveridical contexts. Regarding the licensing of wh-interrogatives, our processing evidence supports that a covert dependency is required between the wh-interrogative and the interrogative operator(Q) at CP-Spec. Show less
