Quantity judgment studies in Yudja (Tupi): Acquisition and interpretation of nouns

Abstract

This paper explores the acquisition path and interpretation of substance and object nouns in Yudja, a Brazilian indigenous language. Based on quantity judgment tasks (Barner & Snedeker 2005), we show that children accept both cardinal and non-cardinal interpretations for all nouns (object and substance denoting nouns), while adults strongly favor a cardinal interpretation for all nouns, including substance nouns. We will use the results from these studies to support three theoretical claims from the literature. First, that the pattern observed for adults corroborates previous analyses of Yudja according to which maximal self-connected concrete portions of a kind can be considered as atoms and can be counted (Lima 2014). Second, that counting does not require natural atomicity (cf. Rothstein 2010). Third, that the definition of atoms for counting is the result of lexical, syntactic and pragmatic factors and does not depend solely on the lexical meaning of a noun (cf. Srinivasan & Barner 2016).

Concepts of objects and substances in language

“…5 shows, adult participants answered in much the way that English speakers do (see Barner & Snedeker, 2005): They chose by number for object-referring nouns, by volume for substance-referring nouns, with intermediate results for the flexible nouns. 8 However, the results shift dramatically in a similar experiment with speakers of Yudja (Lima, 2018). As we mentioned earlier, Yudja has only count nouns, in the sense that any noun-including those for substances and aggregates-can combine directly with numerals (e.g., the Yudja equivalent of three waters).…”

“…5 Summary of results from cross-linguistic studies of how adults choose BWhich is more?^where one option has a greater number (e.g., of eggs) and the other a greater volume. Intermediate items varied across studies: They were Baggregates^(e.g., clothes, ceramics) in Lima (2018), and items denoted by flexible nouns (in English; e.g., rock, cake) in Barner et al (2009) and Cheung et al (2012). Lima (2018) pitted one against three items in Experiment 1 and two against six in Experiment 2.…”

“…Intermediate items varied across studies: They were Baggregates^(e.g., clothes, ceramics) in Lima (2018), and items denoted by flexible nouns (in English; e.g., rock, cake) in Barner et al (2009) and Cheung et al (2012). Lima (2018) pitted one against three items in Experiment 1 and two against six in Experiment 2. (Color figure online) Papafragou ( 2012) have proposed that the cross-language differences in Fig.…”

“…In Welsh, for example, cacwn denotes hornets, but cacynen an individual hornet. Yet other languages, such as the Brazilian language Yudja, have only count nouns (Lima, 2018). In Yudja, numeric quantifiers can combine with all nouns, referring to individuated portions in the case of substances (e.g., puddles of water).…”

Possible Objects: Topological Approaches to Individuation

“…Instead, their goal is to describe spatial representation in the sense of the “geometric representation of our spatial competence” (p. 2). The theory has played a central role in current semantic theories of countable objects (Grimm, 2012; Lima, 2018), as will be seen later. The goal of the present paper is to find out whether this representation of wholes could be a psychologically real basis for what people take (in their deliberate judgments) to be physical objects.…”