How do children learn quantifiers?
Lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic
Dimensions are all important
Test Question: Is every girl riding a bike?(yes!, “not this bike”)
Is every man riding a horse?:Answer is “NO” if understand every
does not mean e.g. “some”
c. The Psychological Corporation
“Is every dog eating a bone?”Many children say “no, not
the bunny”
c. The Psychological Corporation
Control No: Is every woman sailing a boat?“yes” [= are women sailing] (Drozd)
Children who give singleton responses to: who bought what are the same as those who make errors on quantification
Wh-exhaustivity errors: 0 1 2+Quantifier errors:
0 84.9 11.2 3.9 1 63.9 23.3 12.9 2 59.8 22.4 17.6
35% children who show one Q error, have 1 or 2 wh- errorswho bought what/ every cowboy rides a horse
40% children who show two Q, errors, have 1 or 2 wh-errors
Children who made 2 errors on “underexhaustive” readings
540 Normal 200 disordered Children
(221) 24.9 % 132 32.5%
= Disordered Children 50% more likely to Make errors
How do children learn every?
• 1. Avoid every N until 4-5years- all used early: “allgone”
– 18 uses among 10 children• (deVilliers and Merchant (2006))
2. Use it incorrectly 25 instances among
3 children: 17 “everytime” “everyday”
8 instances: “every glasses” “every people”
(Strauss (2006))
Every and “Scope”
• 1. Dogs have tails
• 2. All the dogs have tails
• 3. *every dog has tails
• Kremers (2006):– head head head– Picture: boy1 boy2 boy3
Does every boy have three heads?
Preliminary Results:
Small proportion of children to ageSix yrs say “yes”
Hypotheses: every = absent every = plural every = generic every = always
Quantifier: Sentence Bound
The man saw every boy. He played
he = the man
Pronoun: Open to discourse
The man saw them. They played..
“The man watched every baby. He played the piano”. Many children point at B
A B
c. The Psychological Corporation
What to learn?• So the child must learn the meaning of specific quantifiers; the
differences between all, some, none, every.
• The child must recognize that these modify nouns, not whole events e.g. every is not the same as ‘always’.
• The child must learn the limits on how ‘every’ works within a sentence, not across sentences:
The man watched every baby play the piano
is not the same as:
The man watched every baby. He played the piano.
Correct responses of AAE versus MAE speakers on understanding “every”
Understanding Quantifier "Every"
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
4 5 6 7 8 9
Age
av p
ercen
t correct
AAE
MAE
Correct responses of language impaired versus typical children on understanding
“every”
Understanding Quantifier "Every"
0
20
40
60
80
100
4 5 6 7 8 9
Age
Av.
perc
en
t corr
ect
ImpairedTypical
Correct responses of AAE versus MAE speakers on understanding
sentence boundary condition
Quantifier Sentence Boundary Task
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
4 5 6 7 8 9
Age in Years
Av c
orre
ct/
of
7
AAEMAE
Correct responses of language impaired versus typical children on understanding
sentence boundary condition
Quantifier Sentence Boundary Task
2
3
4
5
6
7
4 5 6 7 8 9
Age in Years
Av c
orr
ect/
of
7
Impaired
Typical
Do children also have Weak readings?
Many scandinavians have won the Nobel Prize
= Many Nobel-Prize winners are scandinavian
Many => ranges over object, therefore appears
to be like classical spreading
“not this bike”
If true, then many should be more likely than
every to spread
Many parrots are wearing a hat.Is that right? Why?
From: Smits, Roeper and Hollebrandse (2006)
22%26%
80%
19% 19%
90%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Many
Many of
All
Pro
po
rtio
n o
f si
wtc
hed
an
swer
s
Focus NP
Focus VP
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