可能世界领域中的强读与弱读：一个否定极性情态词与儿童的辖域赋值

Strong and Weak Readings in the Domain of Worlds: A Negative Polar Modal and Children's Scope Assignment.

作者信息

Koring Loes, Meroni Luisa, Moscati Vincenzo

机构信息

ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Australian Hearing Hub, 16 University Avenue, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia.

Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.

出版信息

J Psycholinguist Res. 2018 Dec;47(6):1193-1217. doi: 10.1007/s10936-018-9573-8.

DOI:10.1007/s10936-018-9573-8

PMID:29569098

Abstract

This study investigates children's interpretation of sentences with two logical operators: Dutch universal modal hoeven and negation (niet). In adult Dutch, hoeven is an NPI that necessarily scopes under negation, giving rise to a NOT > NECESSARY reading. The findings from a hidden-object task with 5- and 6-year-old children showed that children's performance is suggestive of an interpretation of sentences with hoeft niet in which the modal scopes over negation (NECESSARY > NOT). This is in line with the Semantic Subset Principle that dictates that children should opt for the strongest possible reading in case of potential scope ambiguities. The full pattern of results, however, seems to be determined, in addition, by a particular strategy children use when facing uncertainty called Premature Closure.

摘要

本研究调查了儿童对带有两个逻辑运算符的句子的理解

荷兰语全称情态动词hoeven和否定词（niet）。在成年荷兰语中，hoeven是一个必然位于否定词之下的否定极项，会产生“并非>必然”的解读。一项针对5岁和6岁儿童的藏物任务的研究结果表明，儿童对含有hoeft niet的句子的理解表现出一种情态动词位于否定词之上的解读（“必然>并非”）。这符合语义子集原则，该原则规定，在存在潜在辖域歧义的情况下，儿童应选择最强的解读。然而，完整的结果模式似乎还由儿童在面对不确定性时使用的一种特定策略——过早闭合所决定。