Children’s Computation of Scalar Implicatures Induced by Universal Quantifiers in Negative Sentences

概要

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This paper is concerned with children’s computation of scalar implicatures (SIs) induced byuniversal quantifiers in negative sentences. Based on the results of an experiment, Terunuma(2008) has claimed that Japanese-speaking children assign non-adultlike interpretation tonegative sentences containing a universal quantifier marked by the contrastive topic particlewa ‘CTop’ because they fail to compute SIs induced by universal quantifiers. Terunuma’s(2008) SI-based account, together with Chierchia et al.’s (2001) claim on the acquisition ofSIs, predicts that Japanese-speaking children would assign adult-like interpretation to thesentences in question when the processing load of computing SIs is small enough. Presentingthe results of a new experiment that investigates whether this prediction is borne out, thispaper shows that Terunuma’s (2008) SI-based account (and Chierchia et al.’s (2001) claim)can be maintained because 4- or 5-year-old children’s responses in the experiment do notcontradict Terunuma’s (2008) account.
Tokyo University English Linguistics Association,東京大学英語学研究会,Daito Bunka Universityの論文