Children's understanding of dou in Chinese

The quantifier dou (roughly corresponding to English 'all') in Chinese has been the topic of much discussion in the theoretical literature. This study investigated children's knowledge of this quantifier, using a new methodological technique, which we dubbed Question-Statement Task. Two questions were discussed: (i) whether young Mandarin-speaking children know that dou is a universal quantifier that quantifies over the elements to its left, and (ii) whether they know that dou can quantify over wh-words. It was found that by age four Mandarin-speaking children already have the relevant knowledge. These results reflect early availability of adult-like linguistic knowledge of dou-quantification.