Collaborative Research: Context Dependence across Categories: Bridging Developmental, Experimental, and Theoretical Perspectives

对世界上的实体进行分类的能力是人类认知的基本部分。语言在这一过程中起着核心作用。然而，在许多情况下，在自然语言中，如果没有来自上下文的进一步信息，分类是不可能的。例如，像“高”这样的可分级形容词的情况就是如此，意思随着上下文的不同而变化，甚至与名词一起变化。面对这种变化的、依赖于语境的意义，儿童如何成功地组合他们的词汇并确定指称呢？这个项目通过考察最基本和最早获得的类别之一--计数名词--中出现的上下文依赖来探讨这个问题。对这类名词和相应概念的研究一直是婴儿期、数量/质量和对象/物质区别以及语言类型学研究的中心。因此，这项研究的预期结果将产生广泛和跨学科的影响。特别是，这些发现将为我们深入了解语言和认知在发展过程中相互交织的方式，并加深我们对语境信息如何影响意义的理解。这个项目以一个公认的发现为起点，即幼儿允许将物体碎片与整个物体同等对待，作为相应名词的参照物，如‘叉’或‘杯’。这项研究的关键假设是，这种明显的非成人行为源于儿童难以使用语境信息来丰富与生俱来的语境相关的名义意义。一系列针对儿童和成人的行为实验比较了名词性可分级形容词和可分级形容词，目的是使用这些行为反应来(A)确定发展的语言轨迹，(B)从可分级和语境依赖的更一般方面分离特定类别/概念，以及(C)梳理由语义和语用贡献的部分意义。将在本科生、研究生和博士后层面的指导、实践培训和教育以及社区推广方面做出重大努力。这些发现将通过纳入课堂来促进科学发现，并将在学术场所广泛传播。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The ability to categorize entities in the world is a fundamental part of human cognition. Language plays a central role in this process. Yet in many cases in natural language, categorization is impossible without further information from the context. Such is the case, for example, with gradable adjectives such as 'tall', where meaning shifts from context to context, and even with nouns. How do children succeed at assembling their lexicon and determining reference when faced with such shifting, context-dependent meanings? This project pursues this question by examining the context-dependence that arises in one of the most basic and earliest-acquired categories: count nouns. The study of such nouns and corresponding concepts has stood at the center of research on infancy, the count/mass and object/substance distinctions, and language typology. Thus, the anticipated results from this research will have broad and interdisciplinary impact. In particular, the findings will offer insights into the ways language and cognition are intertwined in the course of development, and deepen our understanding of how contextual information influences meaning. This project takes as its starting point a well-established finding that young children allow object fragments to be treated on par with whole objects as referents for corresponding nouns like 'fork' or 'cup'. The key hypothesis of this research is that this apparent non-adult behavior stems from children's difficulties in using contextual information to enrich an inherently context-dependent nominal meaning. A series of behavioral experiments with children and adults compares nominal gradability with gradable adjectives, with the goal of using these behavioral responses to (a) identify a developmental linguistic trajectory, (b) dissociate category/concept-specific from more general aspects of gradability and context-dependence, and (c) tease apart parts of meaning contributed by semantics and pragmatics. Significant efforts will be directed towards mentoring, hands-on training, and education at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral levels, as well as community outreach. The findings will advance scientific discovery by being incorporated into classes and will be disseminated broadly in scholarly venues.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.