Numerical morphology supports early number word learning: Evidence from a comparison of young Mandarin and English learners.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies showed that children learning a language with an obligatory singular/plural distinction (Russian and English) learn the meaning of the number word for one earlier than children learning Japanese, a language without obligatory number morphology (Barner, Libenson, Cheung, & Takasaki, 2009; Sarnecka, Kamenskaya, Yamana, Ogura, & Yudovina, 2007). This can be explained by differences in number morphology, but it can also be explained by many other differences between the languages and the environments of the children who were compared. The present study tests the hypothesis that the morphological singular/plural distinction supports the early acquisition of the meaning of the number word for one by comparing young English learners to age and SES matched young Mandarin Chinese l

SUBMITTER: Le Corre M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5013655 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature