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