On the Source of Children's Conjunctive Interpretation of Disjunction: Scope, Strengthening, or Both?

Autor/inn/en	Shimada, Hiroyuki; Goro, Takuya
Titel	On the Source of Children's Conjunctive Interpretation of Disjunction: Scope, Strengthening, or Both?
Quelle	In: Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 28 (2021) 2, S.98-130 (33 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1048-9223
DOI	10.1080/10489223.2020.1844477
Schlagwörter	Language Acquisition; Japanese; Preschool Children; Form Classes (Languages); Syntax; Error Analysis (Language); Linguistic Theory; Language Tests; Foreign Countries + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Japaner; Japanisch; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Analytischer Sprachbau; Error analysis; Language; Fehleranalyse; Linguistische Theorie; Language test; Sprachtest; Ausland
Abstract	In a body of empirical research, it has been observed that young children from across different linguistic communities adhered to a particular type of nonadult interpretation of disjunction: They appear to interpret disjunction conjunctively. Through three experiments with Japanese-speaking preschoolers, we investigate the source of this nonadult behavior. Specifically, we ask whether children's conjunctive interpretation of disjunction in negative sentences can be reduced to strengthening via implicature. To test this possibility, we presented Japanese children with test sentences in which the crucial disjunctive NP was located in different syntactic positions: accusative-marked object (Experiment 1), nominative-marked subject (Experiment 2), and nominative-marked object (Experiment 3). The results showed that children systematically altered their interpretations of disjunction according to its syntactic position in the test sentence. Importantly, they consistently accepted adultlike disjunctive interpretations of the test sentences in Experiments 2 and 3, but they showed adherence to the conjunctive interpretation in Experiment 1. These behaviors cannot be explained by the strengthening account, suggesting that children's conjunctive interpretation of disjunction in negative sentences is due to their nonadult scope assignment. (As Provided).
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Update	2024/1/01