Does the Conceptual Distinction Between Singular and Plural Sets Depend on Language?

Abstract

Previous studies indicate that English-learning children acquire thedistinction between singular and plural nouns between 22 and 24 months ofage. Also, their use of the distinction is correlated with the capacity todistinguish nonlinguistically between singular and plural sets in a manualsearch paradigm (D. Barner, D. Thalwitz, J. Wood, S. Yang, & S. Carey,2007). The authors used 3 experiments to explore the causal relationbetween these 2 capacities. Relative to English, Japanese and Mandarin hadimpoverished singular–plural marking. Using the manual search task, inExperiment 1 the authors found that by around 22 months of age, Japanesechildren also distinguished between singular and plural sets. Experiments 2and 3 extended this finding to Mandarin-learning toddlers. Mandarinlearners who were 20–24 months of age did not yet comprehend Mandarinsingular–plural marking (i.e., yige vs. yixie, or –men), yet they diddistinguish between singular and plural sets in manual search. Theseexperiments suggest that knowledge of singular–plural morphology is notnecessary for deploying the nonlinguistic distinction between singular andplural sets.

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