2.
Beyond Knower Levels: Early partial knowledge of number wordsKatie Wagner,
Franc Marušič,
Vesna Plesničar,
Tina Razboršek,
Jessica Sullivan,
Rok Žaucer,
David Barner, 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.
Keywords: knower level, grammatical number, acquisition of number words, bootstrapping
Published in RUNG: 21.03.2016; Views: 5784; Downloads: 0
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