Cover not available
Part of
Studies in Chinese and Japanese Language Acquisition: In honor of Stephen Crain
Edited by Mineharu Nakayama, Yi-ching Su and Aijun Huang
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 60] 2017
► pp. 41–62

Chapter 2
Negation, uncertainty, and the Truth Value Judgment Task

| Tsuda University
This article discusses a variant of the Truth Value Judgment Task (TVJT), which I call the uncertainty mode. In a TVJT experiment conducted with children, a puppet manipulated by an experimenter presents the test sentences to the participant. In the uncertainty mode of TVJT, the crucial test sentences are presented as a guess regarding what has happened in an experimental story, rather than as a description or as a prediction. The crucial feature of this experimental design is that the experimental story employs a certain structure so that the puppet can access only incomplete information at the time when he provides the test sentence. This methodology allows the researcher to create a pragmatic context in which negation and uncertainty expressions, such as disjunction or indefinite pronouns, can be felicitously used. I will review the background from which the uncertainty mode emerged, as well as the advantages of this variant of the TVJT.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Negation and felicity
  • 3.Disjunction and felicity
  • 4.The uncertainty mode
  • 5.Extension: Uncertainty mode without negation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.60.03gor
References (35)
References
Boster, C.T. & Crain, S. 1993. On children’s understanding of every and or. In Conference Proceedings of Early Cognition and the Transition to Language, University of Texas, April 23–25. Austin TX: Center for Cognitive Science.Google Scholar
Chierchia, G., Crain, S., Guasti, M.T. & Thornton, R. 1998. ‘Some’ and ‘or’: A study on the emergence of Logical Form. In Proceedings of the 22nd Boston University Conference on Language Development, A. Greenhill, M. Hughes, H. Littlefield & H. Walsh (eds), 97–108. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Chierchia, G., Crain, S., Guasti, M. T., Gualmini, A. & Meroni, L. 2001. The acquisition of disjunction: Evidence for a grammatical view of scalar implicatures. In Proceedings of the 25th Boston University Conference on Language Development, A. H.-J. Do, L. Dominguez & A. Johansen (eds), 157–168. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Crain, S. 2012. The Emergence of Meaning. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crain, S. & Thornton, R. 1998. Investigations in Universal Grammar: A Guide to Experiments on the Acquisition of Syntax and Semantics. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Crain, S., Thornton, R., Boster, C., Conway, L., Lillo-Martin, D. & Woodams, E. 1996. Quantification without qualification. Language Acquisition 5: 83–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crain, S., Gardner, A., Gualmini, A. & Rabbin, B. 2002. Children’s command of negation. In Proceedings of the 3rd Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics, Y. Otsu (ed), 71–95. Tokyo: Hituzi.Google Scholar
Drozd, K. 2000. Children’s weak interpretation of universally quantified sentences. In Conceptual Development and Language Acquisition, M. Bowerman & S. Levinson (eds), 340–376. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Drozd, K. & van Loosbroek, E. 1998. Weak quantification, plausible dissent, and the development of children’s pragmatic competence. In Proceedings of the 23rd Boston University Conference on Language Development, S.C. Howell, S.A. Fish & T. Keith-Lucas (eds), 184–195. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, P. 1998. The truth value judgment task. In Methods for Assessing Children’s Syntax, D. McDaniel, H. Smith Cairns & C. McKee (eds), 211–231. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Goro, T. 2004. The emergence of Universal Grammar in the emergence of language: The acquisition of Japanese logical connectives and positive polarity. Ms, University of Maryland at College Park.Google Scholar
2007. Language-specific Constraints on Scope Interpretation in First Language Acquisition. PhD dissertation, University of Maryland at College Park.Google Scholar
2015. Acquisition of scope. In Handbook of Japanese Psycholinguistics, M. Nakayama (ed), 149–180. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goro, T. & Akiba, S. 2004. The acquisition of disjunction and positive polarity in Japanese. In Proceedings of the 23rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, V. Chand, A. Kelleher, A.J. Rodriguez & B. Schmeiser (eds), 251–264. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Grice, H.P. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Syntax and Semantics, 3: Speech Act, P. Cale & J.L. Morgan (eds), 41–58. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gualmini, A. 2001. The unbearable lightness of scalar implicatures. Ms, University of Maryland at College Park.Google Scholar
2004. Some knowledge children don’t lack. Linguistics 42(5): 957–982. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gualmini, A. & Crain, S. 2002. Why no child or adult must learn De Morgan’s Laws. In Proceedings of the 26th Boston University Conference on Language Development, B. Skarabela, S. Fish & A. H.-J. Do (eds), 243–254. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Gualmini, A., Hulsey, S., Hacquard, V. & Fox, D. 2008. The question-answer requirement for scope assignment. Natural Language Semantics 16: 205–237. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, M. 1997. Indefinite Pronouns. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Higginbotham, J. 1991. Either/or. In Proceedings of NELS 21, T. Sherer (ed), 143–155. Amherst MA: GLSA.Google Scholar
Hoji, H. 1985. Logical Form Constraints and Configurational Structures in Japanese. PhD dissertation, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Jing, C. 2008. Pragmatic Computation in Language Acquisition: Evidence from Disjunction and Conjunction in Negative Context. PhD dissertation, University of Maryland at College Park.Google Scholar
Komine, E. 2012. Japanese children’s interpretation of a disjunction in comparative sentences and negative sentences. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics, Y. Otsu (ed), 103–119. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
Kuno, S. 1973. The Structure of the Japanese Language. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lidz, J. & Musolino, J. 2002. Children’s command of quantification. Cognition 84: 113–154. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Musolino, J. 1998. Universal Grammar and the Acquisition of Semantic Knowledge: An Experimental Investigation into the Acquisition of Quantifier-Negation Interaction in English. PhD dissertation, University of Maryland at College Park.Google Scholar
Musolino, J., Crain, S. & Thornton, R. 2000. Navigating negative quantificational space. Linguistics 38(1): 1–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Musolino, J. & Lidz, J. 2002. Preschool logic: Truth and felicity in the acquisition of quantification. In Proceedings of the 26th Boston University Conference on Language Development, B. Skarabela, S. Fish & A. H.-J. Do (eds), 406–416. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Noveck, I. 2001. When children are more logical than adults: Experimental investigations on scalar implicatures. Cognition 78: 165–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papafragou, A. & Musolino, J. 2003. Scalar implicatures at the semantics-pragmatics interface. Cognition 80: 253–282. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Philip, W. 1991. Spreading in the acquisition of universal quantifiers. In Proceedings of West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 359–374. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
1992. Distributivity and logical form in the emergence of universal quantification. In Proceedings of the Second Conference on Semantic and Linguistic Theory. Ohio State Working Papers in Linguistics 40: 327–346.Google Scholar
1996. The event quantificational account of symmetrical interpretation and a denial of implausible infelicity. In Proceedings of the 20th Boston University Conference on Language Development, A. Stringfellow, D. Cahana-Amitay, E. Hughes & A. Zukowski (eds), 564–575. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Szabolcsi, A. 2002. Hungarian disjunctions and positive polarity. In Approaches to Hungarian 8, I. Kenesei & P. Siptár (eds), 217–241. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado.Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Fujiwara, Yoshiki & Hiroyuki Shimada
2024.  Acquisition of overt and covert and : support for the semantic subset principle . Language Acquisition 31:1 ► pp. 22 ff. DOI logo
Surányi, Balázs & Gulás, Máté
2022. A diszjunkció mint Pozitív Polaritású Elem. Jelentés és Nyelvhasználat 9:1 ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
Gao, Na, Peng Zhou, Rosalind Thornton & Stephen Crain
2021. The interpretation of disjunction in VP ellipsis: The case of Mandarin Chinese. First Language 41:6 ► pp. 737 ff. DOI logo
Shimada, Hiroyuki & Takuya Goro
2021. On the source of children’s conjunctive interpretation of disjunction: Scope, strengthening, or both?. Language Acquisition 28:2 ► pp. 98 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.