Do children derive exact meanings pragmatically? Evidence from a dual morphology language

Number words allow us to describe exact quantities like sixty-three and (exactly) one. How do we derive interpretations? By some views, these are lexically exact, therefore unlike other grammatical forms in language. Other theories, however, argue that numbers not special their interpretation arises from pragmatic enrichment, rather than lexically. For example, the word one may gain its because presence of immediate successor two licenses inference implies “one, two”. To investigate possible role enrichment development representations, looked outside test case number morphological markers quantity. In particular, asked whether children can an singular noun phrases (e.g., “a button”) when language features “successor” encodes sets two. this, used a series tasks compare English-speaking who have only plural morphology Slovenian-speaking forms, but also dual morphology, is describing Replicating previous work, found preschoolers failed enrich did treat it as exact. New present study, 4- 5-year-old Slovenian-speakers comprehended treated form while younger Slovenian were still learning not, providing evidence young meanings pragmatically.