RESEARCH: MA DISSERTATION
Universal Quantification in Child Language:
Investigating the interpretation of universally quantified sentences
in French-speaking children aged 4 to 6.
The dissertation was awarded a distinction.
ABSTRACT:
This dissertation investigates the interpretation of sentences containing
the universal quantifier. It is known, since the work of Inhelder & Piaget (1964),
that children from 3 to 6 years of age, perform surprisingly nonadult-like
when asked to answer questions or understand sentences containing the
universal quantifier every and all in various languages. To date, there is
little agreement on how this nonadult performance should be accounted for.
The main question is whether children’s nonadult performance is due to a
problem with their linguistic system or if it is due to non-linguistic factors.
After having provided an overview of children’s performance and after having
considered the main accounts of children’s nonadult performance which
have been proposed and considered their theoretical implications, this
dissertation will offer a new account for children’s nonadult performance,
which seeks to explain the two main types of errors children make, non-linguistically
(i.e. without positing any fault in children’s linguistic systems).
A series of experiments will be carried on a group of 10 French-speaking
children aged 4 to 6. Through these experiments we will show that children’s
performance can be improved and can even attain adult-like levels. The results
suggest that children have adult-like competence with universal quantification
and that their errors are due to the experimental materials.
The claim is that when children interpret universally quantified sentences, they
carry out a certain number of inferences aimed at restricting the relevant domain
of quantification. These inferences are carried out on the basis of a very limited
and misleading context offered by the experimental pictures which present a visual
asymmetry (unpaired objects). We claim that it is the visual asymmetry that is
leading children to construct inadequate domains of quantification which surfaces
in the form of nonadult responses.
An electronic version of the dissertation can be requested.