5. The acquisition of universal quantifiers in Spanish
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Linda Escobar
Abstract
This chapter deals with experimental research on Spanish children’s interpretation of universal quantifiers. A potentially difficult asymmetry is highlighted: quantifiers in preverbal or postverbal position in contexts of Clitic Left Dislocation. We show that five-year-olds easily obtain the wide scope interpretation of postverbal quantifier subjects, unless they are presented with biased matching pictures (with an impaired object or an impaired agent). We give support to the continuity assumption that children and adults share a common core of linguistic knowledge.
The distribution of the chapter is as follows. In section 1, we present an interesting asymmetry observed in the literature of universal quantifiers in adult Spanish. In section 2, some insightful background on acquisition of quantifiers is provided. Section 3 deals with the methodology of the experiment. The results are left for section 4. Section 5 is intended as the final discussion.
Abstract
This chapter deals with experimental research on Spanish children’s interpretation of universal quantifiers. A potentially difficult asymmetry is highlighted: quantifiers in preverbal or postverbal position in contexts of Clitic Left Dislocation. We show that five-year-olds easily obtain the wide scope interpretation of postverbal quantifier subjects, unless they are presented with biased matching pictures (with an impaired object or an impaired agent). We give support to the continuity assumption that children and adults share a common core of linguistic knowledge.
The distribution of the chapter is as follows. In section 1, we present an interesting asymmetry observed in the literature of universal quantifiers in adult Spanish. In section 2, some insightful background on acquisition of quantifiers is provided. Section 3 deals with the methodology of the experiment. The results are left for section 4. Section 5 is intended as the final discussion.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- 1. Left-dislocated subjects: A construction typical of young French-speaking children? 13
- 2. The development and interaction of Case and Number in early Russian 31
- 3. Verb movement and subject placement in the acquisition of word order: Pragmatics or structural economy? 61
- 4. Three acquisition puzzles and the relation between input and output 87
- 5. The acquisition of universal quantifiers in Spanish 119
- 6. Subject-object asymmetry in children's comprehension of sentences containing logical words 137
- 7. On the "vulnerability" of the left periphery in French/German balanced bilingual language acquisition 161
- 8. The subjects of unaccusative verbs in bilingual Basque/Spanish children 183
- 9. Dominance, mixing and cross-linguistic influence: On their relation in bilingual development 209
- 10. A cross-linguistic analysis of binding in Down syndrome 235
- 11. Balanced bilingual children with two weak languages: A French/German case study 269
- Afterword 295
- Index of subjects 299
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- 1. Left-dislocated subjects: A construction typical of young French-speaking children? 13
- 2. The development and interaction of Case and Number in early Russian 31
- 3. Verb movement and subject placement in the acquisition of word order: Pragmatics or structural economy? 61
- 4. Three acquisition puzzles and the relation between input and output 87
- 5. The acquisition of universal quantifiers in Spanish 119
- 6. Subject-object asymmetry in children's comprehension of sentences containing logical words 137
- 7. On the "vulnerability" of the left periphery in French/German balanced bilingual language acquisition 161
- 8. The subjects of unaccusative verbs in bilingual Basque/Spanish children 183
- 9. Dominance, mixing and cross-linguistic influence: On their relation in bilingual development 209
- 10. A cross-linguistic analysis of binding in Down syndrome 235
- 11. Balanced bilingual children with two weak languages: A French/German case study 269
- Afterword 295
- Index of subjects 299
