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Beyond Knower Levels: Early partial knowledge of number words
David Barner, Rok Žaucer, Jessica Sullivan, Tina Razboršek, Vesna Plesničar, Katie Wagner, Franc Marušič, 2015, published scientific conference contribution abstract

Abstract: Although both syntax and number words can indicate quantity, only numbers can specify large exact quantities. Do children use syntax to bootstrap preliminary meanings of number words before mastering precise meanings? We compared errors across languages on a Give-a-Number task in non-knowers (who have adult meanings for no number words) and subset knowers (who have adult meanings for fewer than five number words). Participants included learners of English, Spanish, French, and two dialects of Slovenian. One dialect, Central Slovenian, has rich number morphology including singular, dual, small plural, and large plural (for 5+). In all languages, subset knowers and some non-knowers demonstrated better than random responding for at least 2 number words beyond the largest number word they comprehended precisely. Additionally, Central Slovenian-learning non- and 1- knowers responded more accurately to requests for higher numbers than their counterparts in other languages, suggesting that rich plural marking may bootstrap number word meanings.
Found in: ključnih besedah
Summary of found: ...knower level, grammatical number, acquisition of number words, bootstrapping...
Keywords: knower level, grammatical number, acquisition of number words, bootstrapping
Published: 21.03.2016; Views: 2465; Downloads: 0
.pdf Fulltext (1,99 MB)

Does Grammatical Structure Accelerate Number Word Learning? Evidence from Learners of Dual and Non-Dual Dialects of Slovenian
Franc Marušič, Rok Žaucer, Vesna Plesničar, Tina Razboršek, Jessica Sullivan, David Barner, 2016, original scientific article

Abstract: How does linguistic structure affect children’s acquisition of early number word meanings? Previous studies have tested this question by comparing how children learning languages with different grammatical representations of number learn the meanings of labels for small numbers, like 1, 2, and 3. For example, children who acquire a language with singular-plural marking, like English, are faster to learn the word for 1 than children learning a language that lacks the singular-plural distinction, perhaps because the word for 1 is always used in singular contexts, highlighting its meaning. These studies are problematic, however, because reported differences in number word learning may be due to unmeasured cross-cultural differences rather than specific linguistic differences. To address this problem, we investigated number word learning in four groups of children from a single culture who spoke different dialects of the same language that differed chiefly with respect to how they grammatically mark number. We found that learning a dialect which features “dual” morphology (marking of pairs) accelerated children’s acquisition of the number word two relative to learning a “non-dual” dialect of the same language.
Found in: ključnih besedah
Keywords: števila, številke, slovnično število, dvojina, narečja, usvajanje, učenje, slovenščina, angleščina, numbers, grammatical number, dual, dialects, acquisition, learning, Slovenian, English
Published: 10.08.2016; Views: 2557; Downloads: 176
.pdf Fulltext (1,38 MB)

Do children derive exact meanings pragmatically? Evidence from a dual morphology language
David Barner, Longlong Wang, Dimitrios Skordos, Amanda Saksida, Jessica Sullivan, Rok Žaucer, Franc Marušič, 2021, original scientific article

Abstract: Number words allow us to describe exact quantities like sixty-three and (exactly) one. How do we derive exact interpretations? By some views, these words are lexically exact, and are therefore unlike other grammatical forms in language. Other theories, however, argue that numbers are not special and that their exact interpretation arises from pragmatic enrichment, rather than lexically. For example, the word one may gain its exact interpretation because the presence of the immediate successor two licenses the pragmatic inference that one implies “one, and not two”. To investigate the possible role of pragmatic enrichment in the development of exact representations, we looked outside the test case of number to grammatical morphological markers of quantity. In particular, we asked whether children can derive an exact interpretation of singular noun phrases (e.g., “a button”) when their language features an immediate “successor” that encodes sets of two. To do this, we used a series of tasks to compare English-speaking children who have only singular and plural morphology to Slovenian-speaking children who have singular and plural forms, but also dual morphology, that is used when describing sets of two. Replicating previous work, we found that English-speaking preschoolers failed to enrich their interpretation of the singular and did not treat it as exact. New to the present study, we found that 4- and 5-year-old Slovenian-speakers who comprehended the dual treated the singular form as exact, while younger Slovenian children who were still learning the dual did not, providing evidence that young children may derive exact meanings pragmatically.
Found in: ključnih besedah
Summary of found: ...lexically exact, and are therefore unlike other grammatical forms in language. Other theories, however, argue... ... Number words allow us to describe exact quantities...
Keywords: Acquisition of quantity expressions, Acquisition of exactness, Pragmatics of grammatical number, Inferences on quantity, Dual, Slovenian
Published: 13.12.2020; Views: 312; Downloads: 0
.pdf Fulltext (1,33 MB)

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