Children's interpretation of disjunction in questions in Japanese

Nobuaki Akagi; Takuya Goro; Rosalind Thornton; Stephen Crain

Children's interpretation of disjunction in questions in Japanese

Nobuaki Akagi, Takuya Goro, Rosalind Thornton, Stephen Crain

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution › peer-review

Abstract

The present study investigates children's understanding of a yes-no question (YNQ) with a disjunctive phrase (disjP). In English, a question like 'Did the pig eat a carrot or a pepper?' is ambiguous, with both a YNQ interpretation and an alternative question (AltQ) interpretation. The Japanese counterpart, however, can only be interpreted as a YNQ. The aim of this study was to see whether Japanese-speaking children comply with this restriction on the interpretation of 'YNQ+disjP' questions, or tolerate an AltQ interpretation to such questions, as in English. Considering our findings, we conclude that an AltQ interpretation of 'YNQ+disjP' is available to Japanese-speaking children, despite the absence of evidence for this analysis in the primary linguistic data. The findings are interpreted as evidence supporting the continuity hypothesis (Crain and Pietroski 2002).

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Selected Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2010)
Editors	Mihaela Pirvulescu, Maria Cristina Cuervo, Ana T. Perez-Leroux, Jeffrey Steele, Nelleke Strik
Place of Publication	Somerville, MA, USA
Publisher	Cascadilla Proceedings Project
Pages	1-11
Number of pages	11
ISBN (Print)	9781574734478
Publication status	Published - 2011
Event	Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (4th : 2010) - Toronto, Canada Duration: 1 Sept 2010 → 3 Sept 2010

Conference

Conference	Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (4th : 2010)
City	Toronto, Canada
Period	1/09/10 → 3/09/10

Cite this

Akagi, Nobuaki ; Goro, Takuya ; Thornton, Rosalind et al. / Children's interpretation of disjunction in questions in Japanese. Selected Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2010). editor / Mihaela Pirvulescu ; Maria Cristina Cuervo ; Ana T. Perez-Leroux ; Jeffrey Steele ; Nelleke Strik. Somerville, MA, USA : Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 2011. pp. 1-11

@inproceedings{aba54d3ced42433285c58f84fcc1728d,

title = "Children's interpretation of disjunction in questions in Japanese",

abstract = "The present study investigates children's understanding of a yes-no question (YNQ) with a disjunctive phrase (disjP). In English, a question like 'Did the pig eat a carrot or a pepper?' is ambiguous, with both a YNQ interpretation and an alternative question (AltQ) interpretation. The Japanese counterpart, however, can only be interpreted as a YNQ. The aim of this study was to see whether Japanese-speaking children comply with this restriction on the interpretation of 'YNQ+disjP' questions, or tolerate an AltQ interpretation to such questions, as in English. Considering our findings, we conclude that an AltQ interpretation of 'YNQ+disjP' is available to Japanese-speaking children, despite the absence of evidence for this analysis in the primary linguistic data. The findings are interpreted as evidence supporting the continuity hypothesis (Crain and Pietroski 2002).",

author = "Nobuaki Akagi and Takuya Goro and Rosalind Thornton and Stephen Crain",

year = "2011",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781574734478",

pages = "1--11",

editor = "Mihaela Pirvulescu and Cuervo, {Maria Cristina} and Perez-Leroux, {Ana T.} and Jeffrey Steele and Nelleke Strik",

booktitle = "Selected Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2010)",

publisher = "Cascadilla Proceedings Project",

note = "Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (4th : 2010) ; Conference date: 01-09-2010 Through 03-09-2010",

}

Akagi, N, Goro, T, Thornton, R & Crain, S 2011, Children's interpretation of disjunction in questions in Japanese. in M Pirvulescu, MC Cuervo, AT Perez-Leroux, J Steele & N Strik (eds), Selected Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2010). Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville, MA, USA, pp. 1-11, Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (4th : 2010), Toronto, Canada, 1/09/10.

Children's interpretation of disjunction in questions in Japanese. / Akagi, Nobuaki; Goro, Takuya; Thornton, Rosalind et al.
Selected Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2010). ed. / Mihaela Pirvulescu; Maria Cristina Cuervo; Ana T. Perez-Leroux; Jeffrey Steele; Nelleke Strik. Somerville, MA, USA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 2011. p. 1-11.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Children's interpretation of disjunction in questions in Japanese

AU - Akagi, Nobuaki

AU - Goro, Takuya

AU - Thornton, Rosalind

AU - Crain, Stephen

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - The present study investigates children's understanding of a yes-no question (YNQ) with a disjunctive phrase (disjP). In English, a question like 'Did the pig eat a carrot or a pepper?' is ambiguous, with both a YNQ interpretation and an alternative question (AltQ) interpretation. The Japanese counterpart, however, can only be interpreted as a YNQ. The aim of this study was to see whether Japanese-speaking children comply with this restriction on the interpretation of 'YNQ+disjP' questions, or tolerate an AltQ interpretation to such questions, as in English. Considering our findings, we conclude that an AltQ interpretation of 'YNQ+disjP' is available to Japanese-speaking children, despite the absence of evidence for this analysis in the primary linguistic data. The findings are interpreted as evidence supporting the continuity hypothesis (Crain and Pietroski 2002).

AB - The present study investigates children's understanding of a yes-no question (YNQ) with a disjunctive phrase (disjP). In English, a question like 'Did the pig eat a carrot or a pepper?' is ambiguous, with both a YNQ interpretation and an alternative question (AltQ) interpretation. The Japanese counterpart, however, can only be interpreted as a YNQ. The aim of this study was to see whether Japanese-speaking children comply with this restriction on the interpretation of 'YNQ+disjP' questions, or tolerate an AltQ interpretation to such questions, as in English. Considering our findings, we conclude that an AltQ interpretation of 'YNQ+disjP' is available to Japanese-speaking children, despite the absence of evidence for this analysis in the primary linguistic data. The findings are interpreted as evidence supporting the continuity hypothesis (Crain and Pietroski 2002).

M3 - Conference proceeding contribution

SN - 9781574734478

SP - 1

EP - 11

BT - Selected Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2010)

A2 - Pirvulescu, Mihaela

A2 - Cuervo, Maria Cristina

A2 - Perez-Leroux, Ana T.

A2 - Steele, Jeffrey

A2 - Strik, Nelleke

PB - Cascadilla Proceedings Project

CY - Somerville, MA, USA

T2 - Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (4th : 2010)

Y2 - 1 September 2010 through 3 September 2010

ER -

Children's interpretation of disjunction in questions in Japanese

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