Quantification the Syntactic Interfaces in Language Acquisition

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Jeffrey Lidz博士将进行为期三年的发展语言学研究，研究英语和卡纳达语（印度南部约有4000万人使用的一种德拉威语）的语法、语义和定量表达（例如，两只鸟，每匹马）的使用。该项目利用不同语言的语法和量化习得来探讨先天知识和语言经验在语言习得中的相对贡献。之前的研究表明，孩子们系统地无法发现对模棱两可句子的两种解释，比如“每匹马都没有跳过篱笆”，他们只把它们理解为没有马跳。这一观察结果适用于学习英语和卡纳达语的儿童，尽管这两种语言之间存在许多明显的差异。这个项目将研究导致这种效果的句法、语义和语用因素，有两个目标。首先，该项目将确定孩子们的错误是由于他们缺乏对定量表达的正确表达，还是由于他们没有能力运用他们的知识。其次，该项目将研究经验在引导儿童最终像成年人一样理解这些句子方面的作用。该项目的研究部分包括对说英语和卡纳那语的儿童进行语言习得实验。该项目还为研究生和本科生制定了培训计划，为他们提供积极参与理论和发展语言学综合研究所需的技能。通过比较儿童学习英语和卡纳达语的习得情况，该项目扩大了理论语言学中通常使用的数据范围，并扩大了美国和印度研究人员之间的合作。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Jeffrey Lidz will conduct three years of developmental linguistic research on the syntax, semantics and use of quantificational expressions (e.g., two birds, every horse) in English and Kannada, a Dravidian language spoken by approximately 40 million people in southern India. The project uses the grammar and acquisition of quantification across diverse languages as a probe into the relative contributions of innate knowledge and linguistic experience in language acquisition. Previous research has shown that children systematically fail to detect both interpretations of ambiguous sentences like "every horse didn't jump over the fence," interpreting them as meaning only that no horses jumped. This observation holds for children learning English and Kannada, despite the many apparent differences between these two languages. This project will examine the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic factors that contribute to this effect, with two aims in mind. First, the project will determine whether children's errors are due their lacking the correct representations of the quantificational expressions or to their abilities to put their knowledge to use. Second, the project will examine the role of experience in leading children towards ultimately understanding such sentences like adults.The research component of the project involves language acquisition experiments with English- and Kannada-speaking children. The project also develops a program of training for graduate and undergraduate students which provides them with the skills required for active involvement in integrated research in theoretical and developmental linguistics. By comparing acquisition in children learning English and Kannada, the project expands the range of data typically used in theoretical linguistics and extends collaborations between American and Indian researchers.