Context Sensitivity and the Semantics of Count Nouns in the Evaluation of Partial Objects by Children and Adults

Autor/inn/en	Syrett, Kristen; Aravind, Athulya
Titel	Context Sensitivity and the Semantics of Count Nouns in the Evaluation of Partial Objects by Children and Adults
Quelle	In: Journal of Child Language, 49 (2022) 2, S.239-265 (27 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Syrett, Kristen) ORCID (Aravind, Athulya)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0305-0009
DOI	10.1017/S0305000921000027
Schlagwörter	Semantics; Context Effect; Nouns; Language Processing; Linguistic Theory; Language Acquisition; Child Language; Child Behavior; Children; Adults; Comparative Analysis + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Semantik; Sprachverarbeitung; Linguistische Theorie; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; Child; Kind; Kinder
Abstract	Previous research has documented that children count spatiotemporally-distinct partial objects as if they were whole objects. This behavior extends beyond counting to inclusion of partial objects in assessment and comparisons of quantities. Multiple accounts of this performance have been proposed: children and adults differ qualitatively in their conceptual representations, children lack the processing skills to immediately individuate entities in a given domain, or children cannot readily access relevant linguistic alternatives for the target count noun. We advance a new account, appealing to theoretical proposals about underspecification in nominal semantics and the role of the discourse context. Our results demonstrate that there are limits to which children allow partial objects to serve as wholes, and that under certain conditions, adult performance resembles that of children by allowing in partial objects. We propose that children's behavior is in fact licensed by the inherent context dependence of count nouns. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01