Inference and exact numerical representation in early language development

Barner, David; Bachrach, Asaf

doi:10.31234/osf.io/2q4h8

Cited by 15 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This reasoning has driven a number of authors to consider other factors that might cause children's failure in SI tasks (Barner & Bachrach, 2010;Huang & Snedeker, 2009;Noveck, 2001). These include difficulties accessing the relevant lexical alternatives (e.g., "all" when "some" is Downloaded by [New York University] at 15:22 23 July 2015 mentioned; Barner & Bachrach, 2010Chierchia et al, 2001), and knowing that one alternative in SI tasks negates others .…”

Section: Implicature In Developmentmentioning

confidence: 96%

Ad-hoc Implicature in Preschool Children

Stiller

Goodman

Frank

2014

Language Learning and Development

196

165

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If a speaker tells us that "some guests were late to the party," we typically infer that not all were. Implicatures, in which an ambiguous statement ("some and possibly all") is strengthened pragmatically (to "some and not all"), are a paradigm case of pragmatic reasoning. Inferences of this sort are difficult for young children, but recent work suggests that this mismatch may stem from issues in understanding the relationship between lexical items such as "some" and "all" rather than broader pragmatic deficits. We tested children's ability to make nonquantificational pragmatic inferences by constructing contextually derived "ad-hoc" implicatures, using sets of pictures with contrasting features. We found that 4-year-olds and some 3-year-olds were able to make implicatures successfully using these displays. Hence, apparent failures in scalar implicature are likely due to difficulties specific to the constructions and tasks used in previous work; these difficulties may have masked aspects of children's underlying pragmatic competence.

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Section: Implicature In Developmentmentioning

confidence: 96%

Ad-hoc Implicature in Preschool Children

Stiller

Goodman

Frank

2014

Language Learning and Development

196

165

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“…Related to this, children start marking the singular/plural distinction in language around the same time at which they start succeeding at tasks involving the wider ability to distinguish between collections with one and those with more than one item (Barner et al, 2007;Barner and Bachrach, 2010). This means that the relation between the grammatical singular/plural distinction and concept acquisition also links to this wider ability.…”

Section: An Empirical Reason For Conceptual Autonomymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are the Natural Numbers Fundamentally Ordinals?

Assadian

Buijsman

2018

Philos Phenomenol Research

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There are two ways of thinking about the natural numbers: as ordinal numbers or as cardinal numbers. It is, moreover, well-known that the cardinal numbers can be defined in terms of the ordinal numbers. Some philosophies of mathematics have taken this as a reason to hold the ordinal numbers as (metaphysically) fundamental. By discussing structuralism and neo-logicism we argue that one can empirically distinguish between accounts that endorse this fundamentality claim and those that do not. In particular, we argue that if the ordinal numbers are metaphysically fundamental then it follows that one cannot acquire cardinal number concepts without appeal to ordinal notions. On the other hand, without this fundamentality thesis that would be possible. This allows for an empirical test to see which account best describes our actual mathematical practices. We then, finally, discuss some empirical data that suggests that we can acquire cardinal number concepts without using ordinal notions. However, there are some important gaps left open by this data that we point to as areas for 1 future empirical research.With just a little reflection it is clear that there are two roles which the natural numbers play. First of all, they can function as cardinal numbers. The natural numbers can be used to specify the number of objects falling under a concept. This is the role in which they appear when a number is given in answer to the question 'how many Fs are there?'. Second, the natural numbers can function as ordinal numbers. In this case they specify the position of an item in an ordering, for example, to say that a particular person finished third. If one wants to be even more explicit that the same number is used in such a case, consider that the same thing can be said with 'this person ended up being number three'. Rather than giving the size of a set, ordinal numbers give the position, and so answer questions of the form 'which F is this?'.The dual role of the natural numbers has long been known, just as it has long been known that it is possible to define cardinal numbers in terms of ordinal numbers. Cantor (1883) introduced the necessary machinery for defining a cardinal number based on an ordinal number in a well-ordering. According to Cantor (1895) the 'general concept' of a cardinal number, "arises from [a set] M when we make abstraction of the nature of its various elements m and of the order in which they are given [...] Since every single element m, if we abstract from its nature,

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“…These pragmatic factors have implications for the course of language development because, in the previous literature, some pragmatic inferences have been found to be beyond the reach of children younger than 5 or 6 years old. Investigations of the children's pragmatic inferences, however, have been largely confined to the acquisition of positive (or direct) scalar terms such as some (implying not all), or (implying not and ), and cardinal numbers Gualmini et al 2001;Noveck 2001;Papafragou & Musolino 2003;Musolino 2004Musolino , 2009Guasti et al 2005;Papafragou 2006;Pouscoulous et al 2007; Y. T. Huang & Snedeker 2009;Barner & Bachrach 2010;Barner, Brooks & Bale 2011). The present study opens the door to a wider range of inferences that reside at the semantics/pragmatics interface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Polarity Sensitive Expressions in Child Mandarin

Huang

Crain

2014

Language Acquisition

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In addition to serving as question markers with interrogative force, wh-words such as shenme 'what' in Mandarin Chinese have a noninterrogative meaning. For the noninterrogative meaning, these words have been typically analyzed as negative polarity items, i.e., as wh-pronouns that are similar in meaning to the English NPI any and to its Mandarin counterpart renhe. This accounts for the None reading that is generated in negative statements with wh-words. However, negative sentences with the wh-word shenme 'what' can also be assigned another reading, in certain circumstances. We refer to this as the Insignificance (not much) reading. This reading is not possible for sentences with the NPI renhe. The None reading is the default interpretation for negative sentences with either renhe or shenme because the Insignificance reading of the negated shenme sentences requires contextual support. Like English "not much," the Insignificance reading of negated shenme sentences in Mandarin makes a sentence true in a broader range of circumstances than the corresponding sentence with the NPI renhe. Both the fact that the Insignificance reading requires contextual support and considerations of language learnability in the absence of negative evidence lead us to expect the Insignificance reading to emerge later than the None reading in the course of language development. An experimental study of Mandarin-speaking children of different ages supported this expectation. The youngest group of children only assigned the None reading to negative sentences with shenme as well as to sentences with renhe. However, older children and adults accessed the Insignificance reading.

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Inference and exact numerical representation in early language development

Cited by 15 publications

References 18 publications

Ad-hoc Implicature in Preschool Children

Ad-hoc Implicature in Preschool Children

Are the Natural Numbers Fundamentally Ordinals?

Polarity Sensitive Expressions in Child Mandarin

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