Quantity implicature and access to scalar alternatives in language acquisition

Semantics and Linguistic Theory ◽

10.3765/salt.v20i0.2571 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 525 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alan Clinton Bale ◽

Neon Brooks ◽

David Barner

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Word Learning ◽

Number Word ◽

Scalar Implicature ◽

Scalar Implicatures ◽

Relevant Alternatives ◽

Knowing That

When faced with a sentence like "Some of the toys are on the table," adults, but not preschoolers, compute a scalar implicature, taking the sentence to imply that not all the toys are on the table. This paper explores the hypothesis that children fail to compute scalar implicatures because they lack knowledge of the relevant scalar alternatives to words like "some." Four-year-olds were shown pictures in which three out of three objects fit a description (e.g., three animals reading), and were asked to evaluate statements that relied on context-independent alternatives (e.g., knowing that "all" is an alternative to "some" for the utterance "Some of the animals are reading") or contextual alternatives (e.g., knowing that the set of all three visible animals is an alternative to a set of two for the utterance "Only the cat and the dog are reading"). Children failed to reject the false statements containing context-independent scales even when the word "only" was used (e.g., "only some"), but correctly rejected equivalent statements containing contextual alternatives (e.g., "only the cat and dog"). These results support the hypothesis that children’s difficulties with scalar implicature are due to a failure to generate relevant alternatives for specific scales. Consequences for number word learning are also discussed.

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Accessing the unsaid: The role of scalar alternatives in children’s pragmatic inference

10.31234/osf.io/jufdb ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

David Barner ◽

Neon Blue Brooks ◽

Alan Bale

Keyword(s):

Word Learning ◽

Number Word ◽

Scalar Implicature ◽

Knowing That ◽

Pragmatic Inference

When faced with a sentence like, “Some of the toys are on the table”,adults, but not preschoolers, compute a scalar implicature, taking thesentence to imply that not all the toys are on the table. This paperexplores the hypothesis that children fail to compute scalar implicaturesbecause they lack knowledge of relevant scalar alternatives to words like“some”. Four-year-olds were shown pictures in which three out of threeobjects fit a description (e.g., three animals reading), and were asked toevaluate statements that relied on context-independent alternatives (e.g.,knowing that all is an alternative to some for the utterance “Some of theanimals are reading”) or contextual alternatives (e.g., knowing that theset of all three visible animals is an alternative to a set of two for theutterance “Only the cat and the dog are reading”). Children failed toreject the false statements containing context-independent scales even whenthe word only was used (e.g., only some), but correctly rejected equivalentstatements containing contextual alternatives (e.g., only the cat and dog).These results support the hypothesis that children’s difficulties withscalar implicature are due to a failure to generate relevant alternativesfor specific scales. Consequences for number word learning are alsodiscussed.

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Differentiating scalar implicature from exclusion inferences in language acquisition

10.31234/osf.io/u3bj6 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jess Sullivan ◽

Kathryn Davidson ◽

Shirlene Wade ◽

David Barner

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Young Children ◽

Scalar Implicature ◽

Scalar Implicatures ◽

Mutual Exclusivity ◽

Logical Semantics

When acquiring language, children must not only learn the meanings of words, but also how to interpret them in context. For example, children must learn both the logical semantics of the scalar quantifier some and its pragmatically enriched meaning: ‘some but not all’. Some studies have shown that this “scalar implicature” that some implies ‘some but not all’ poses a challenge even to nine-year-olds, while others find success by age three. We asked whether reports of children’s early successes might be due to the computation of exclusion inferences (like contrast or mutual exclusivity) rather than an ability to compute scalar implicatures. We found that young children (N=214; ages 4;0-7;11) sometimes prefer to compute symmetrical exclusion inferences rather than asymmetric scalar inferences when interpreting quantifiers. This suggests that some apparent successes in computing scalar implicature can actually be explained by less sophisticated exclusion inferences.

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Differentiating scalar implicature from exclusion inferences in language acquisition

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000919000096 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 46 (04) ◽

pp. 733-759

Author(s):

Jessica SULLIVAN ◽

Kathryn DAVIDSON ◽

Shirlene WADE ◽

David BARNER

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Young Children ◽

Scalar Implicature ◽

Scalar Implicatures ◽

Mutual Exclusivity ◽

Logical Semantics

AbstractDuring acquisition, children must learn both the meanings of words and how to interpret them in context. For example, children must learn the logical semantics of the scalar quantifier some and its pragmatically enriched meaning: ‘some but not all’. Some studies have shown that ‘scalar implicature’ – that some implies ‘some but not all’ – poses a challenge even to nine-year-olds, while others find success by age three. We asked whether reports of children's successes might be due to the computation of exclusion inferences (like contrast or mutual exclusivity) rather than scalar implicatures. We found that young children (N = 214; ages 4;0–7;11) sometimes compute symmetrical exclusion inferences rather than asymmetric scalar inferences. These data suggest that a stronger burden of evidence is required in studies of implicature; before concluding that children compute implicatures, researchers should first show that children exhibit sensitivity to asymmetric entailment in the task.

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Scalar Implicature

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199601264.013.26 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Papafragou ◽

Dimitrios Skordos

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Experimental Evidence ◽

Future Research ◽

Scalar Implicature ◽

Scalar Implicatures ◽

Open Questions ◽

Pragmatic Inference

We review experimental evidence regarding the development of scalar implicature in children. Scalar implicatures are inferences that arise when utterances like “Mary ate some of the cakes” are interpreted as “Mary ate some but not all of the cakes.” The evidence suggests that, even though the mechanism for generating scalar implicatures in children is in many respects adult-like, children nevertheless face limitations in computing such conversational inferences from what the speaker said. We highlight the importance of the findings for the development of pragmatic inference, language acquisition, and communication in general. We also identify open questions and promising areas for future research.

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Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2020.556667 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Irene Mognon ◽

Simone A. Sprenger ◽

Sanne J. M. Kuijper ◽

Petra Hendriks

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Optimality Theory ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Scalar Implicature ◽

Scalar Implicatures ◽

Intended Meaning ◽

Apply Theory ◽

Bidirectional Optimality Theory ◽

The Asymmetry ◽

Variable Performance

Upon hearing “Some of Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome,” adults can easily generate a scalar implicature and infer that the intended meaning of the utterance corresponds to “Some but not all Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome.” Comprehension experiments show that preschoolers struggle with this kind of inference until at least 5 years of age. Surprisingly, the few studies having investigated children’s production of scalar expressions like some and all suggest that production is adult-like already in their third year of life. Thus, children’s production of implicatures seems to develop at least 2 years before their comprehension of implicatures. In this paper, we present a novel account of scalar implicature generation in the framework of Bidirectional Optimality Theory: the Asymmetry Account. We show that the production–comprehension asymmetry is predicted to emerge because the comprehension of some requires the hearer to consider the speaker’s perspective, but the production of some does not require the speaker to consider the hearer’s perspective. Hence, children’s comprehension of scalar expressions, but not their production of scalar expressions, is predicted to be related to their theory of mind development. Not possessing fully developed theory of mind abilities yet, children thus have difficulty in comprehending scalar expressions such as some in an adult-like way. Our account also explains why variable performance is found in experimental studies testing children’s ability to generate scalar implicatures; moreover, it describes the differences between children’s and adults’ implicature generation in terms of their ability to recursively apply theory of mind; finally, it sheds new light on the question why the interpretation of numerals does not require implicature generation.

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