Context and the Scalar Implicatures of Indefinites in Child Spanish
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Marissa Vargas-Tokuda
Abstract
In this chapter we review current work on the semantics-pragmatics interface in the adult language and present a description, from earlier work, of the distinct distribution and properties of two Spanish indefinite determiners: unos and algunos. We evaluate the degree to which current theories are able to accommodate these properties and then present the results of two experiments measuring monolingual child Spanish-speakers’ interpretations of them. The experiments show that children are adult-like in their ability to generate implicatures with algunos and cancel them in downward entailing contexts and that they are also aware that there is no implicature generated by unos, despite the similarity of the set interpretations associated with it and those associated with algunos. These findings demonstrate that children are able to surmount considerable learnability obstacles and that, at the age of 5, they have as much access to the logical interpretations of existential quantifiers as they do to their pragmatically-enriched, “some, but not all” interpretation.
Abstract
In this chapter we review current work on the semantics-pragmatics interface in the adult language and present a description, from earlier work, of the distinct distribution and properties of two Spanish indefinite determiners: unos and algunos. We evaluate the degree to which current theories are able to accommodate these properties and then present the results of two experiments measuring monolingual child Spanish-speakers’ interpretations of them. The experiments show that children are adult-like in their ability to generate implicatures with algunos and cancel them in downward entailing contexts and that they are also aware that there is no implicature generated by unos, despite the similarity of the set interpretations associated with it and those associated with algunos. These findings demonstrate that children are able to surmount considerable learnability obstacles and that, at the age of 5, they have as much access to the logical interpretations of existential quantifiers as they do to their pragmatically-enriched, “some, but not all” interpretation.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction xiii
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Part I. Diverse learning conditions and input characteristics
- Syllable-final /s/ lenition and the acquisition of plural morphology in Spanish-speaking children 3
- The article paradigm in Spanish-speaking children with SLI in language contact situations 29
- Development in early Basque-Spanish language mixing 57
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Part II. The developing syntax and semantics of determiner phrases
- Context and the Scalar Implicatures of Indefinites in Child Spanish 93
- Early determination 117
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Part III. The developing syntax of the verb phrase
- Before grammar 143
- Subjects, verb classes and word order in child Catalan 175
- Person and number asymmetries in child Catalan and Spanish 195
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Part IV. The development of inflectional morphology
- Relationships between linguistic and behavioral measures during development 217
- Temporal interface delay and root nonfinite verbs in Spanish-Speaking children with specific language impairment 239
- Specific language impairment in Spanish & Catalan 265
- Variability in the grammatical profiles of Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment 283
- Index 303
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction xiii
-
Part I. Diverse learning conditions and input characteristics
- Syllable-final /s/ lenition and the acquisition of plural morphology in Spanish-speaking children 3
- The article paradigm in Spanish-speaking children with SLI in language contact situations 29
- Development in early Basque-Spanish language mixing 57
-
Part II. The developing syntax and semantics of determiner phrases
- Context and the Scalar Implicatures of Indefinites in Child Spanish 93
- Early determination 117
-
Part III. The developing syntax of the verb phrase
- Before grammar 143
- Subjects, verb classes and word order in child Catalan 175
- Person and number asymmetries in child Catalan and Spanish 195
-
Part IV. The development of inflectional morphology
- Relationships between linguistic and behavioral measures during development 217
- Temporal interface delay and root nonfinite verbs in Spanish-Speaking children with specific language impairment 239
- Specific language impairment in Spanish & Catalan 265
- Variability in the grammatical profiles of Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment 283
- Index 303
