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On the relation between the acquisition of singular–plural morpho‐syntax and the conceptual distinction between one and more than one
Author(s) -
Barner David,
Thalwitz Dora,
Wood Justin,
Yang ShuJu,
Carey Susan
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00591.x
Subject(s) - plural , syntax , psychology , noun , linguistics , relation (database) , set (abstract data type) , representation (politics) , agreement , cognitive psychology , computer science , philosophy , politics , political science , law , programming language , database
We investigated the relationship between the acquisition of singular–plural morpho‐syntax and children's representation of the distinction between singular and plural sets. Experiment 1 tested 18‐month‐olds using the manual‐search paradigm and found that, like 14‐month‐olds ( Feigenson & Carey, 2005 ), they distinguished three objects from one but not four objects from one. Thus, they failed to represent four objects as ‘plural’ or ‘more than one’. Experiment 2 found that children continued to fail at the 1 vs. 4 manual‐search task at 20 months of age, even when told, via explicit morpho‐syntactic singular–plural cues, that one or many balls are being hidden. However, 22‐ and 24‐month‐olds succeeded both with and without verbal cues. Parental report data indicated that most 22‐ and 24‐month‐olds, but few 20‐month‐olds, had begun producing plural nouns in their speech. Also, the success among the older children was due to those children who had reportedly begun producing plural nouns. We discuss a possible role for language acquisition in children's deployment of set‐based quantification and the distinction between singular and plural sets.