"Most" is easy but "least" is hard: Novel determiner learning in 4-year-olds

Angela Xiaoxue He, Alexis Wellwood

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Some linguistic features are more readily learned than others,and are thereby more likely to be maintained in diachronic language change, giving rise to typological universals. Less readily learned features may give rise to typological gaps. We consider an apparent typological gap—that a morphologically superlative determiner (e.g., gleebest in gleebest of the cows) with a negative meaning is cross-linguistically unattested—and ask whether it reflects an underlying learning bias. We find 4-year-olds know that such determiners indicate quantity (replicating Wellwood, Gagliardi, & Lidz, 2016), but only when positive (‘most’), but not negative (‘least’). Importantly, the observed bias is not specific to the apparent typologicalgap: same-age children showed difficulty learning the negative meaning of a non-superlative determiner, though such meanings are attested. The data thus suggest that children are generally biased against negativity, consistent with much prior work on conceptual bias and language learning/processing.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
EditorsJ. Culbertson, A. Perfors, H. Rabagliati, V. Ramenzoni
PublishereScholarship University of California
Pages1056-1063
Number of pages8
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2022
Event44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society - Toronto, Canada
Duration: 27 Jul 202230 Jul 2022
https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/cogsci-2022/ (Conference website)
https://escholarship.org/uc/cognitivesciencesociety (Conference proceedings)

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Volume44
ISSN (Print)1069-7977

Conference

Conference44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityToronto
Period27/07/2230/07/22
Internet address

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '"Most" is easy but "least" is hard: Novel determiner learning in 4-year-olds'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this