Shifting Standards: Children’s Understanding of Gradable Adjectives*
نویسندگان
چکیده
Two studies demonstrate that children have knowledge of scalar distinctions between three sub-classes of gradable adjectives: relative (big, long), absolute with a maximal standard (full), and absolute with a minimal standard (spotted). Performance on these adjectives is compared with controls (shape, color, mood). Children appropriately shift the standard of comparison with context-dependent, relative gradable adjectives, and do not do so for the others. Reasons for non-adult-like performance with full are discussed. Evidence is presented that children know about the presuppositions of singular definite descriptions, suggesting that children as young as three have an accurate semantic representation of the.
منابع مشابه
Meaning and Context in Gradable Adjectives i Meaning and Context in Children’s Understanding of Gradable Adjectives
This work provides the first experimental evidence that adults and children as young as three years of age distinguish between three types of gradable adjective meanings – relative, absolute maximum standard, and absolute minimum standard – based on the role of the context in setting the standard of comparison. These results lend support to a typology of gradable adjectives determined by abstra...
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