| Title |
Children interpret some disjunctions conjunctively: Evidence from child Romanian |
| Authors |
Bleotu, Adina Camelia ; Tieu, Lyn ; Benz, Anton ; Cremers, Alexandre Malo Eric ; Bîlbîie, Gabriela ; Panaitescu, Mara ; Ivan, Rudmila Rodica ; Nicolae, Andreea Cristina |
| DOI |
10.1093/jos/ffaf011 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
Journal of semantics.. Oxford : Oxford University Press (OUP). 2025, Early Access, p. [1-42].. ISSN 0167-5133. eISSN 1477-4593 |
| Keywords [eng] |
disjunction ; first language acquisition ; Romanian ; conjunction ; ambiguity ; implicature ; experimental pragmatics |
| Abstract [eng] |
Studies show that adults interpret simple forms of disjunction (The mouse carried an apple or an orange) inclusively (The mouse carried one, possibly both) or exclusively (The mouse carried one but not both), while they generally interpret complex disjunction (e.g. either…or) exclusively (Tieu et al. 2017; Nicolae et al. 2025). Children, however, who tend to interpret simple forms of disjunction inclusively or conjunctively (The mouse carried both) (Paris 1973; Braine and Rumain 1981; Singh et al. 2016; Huang and Crain 2020; Skordos et al. 2020), reportedly interpret complex disjunctions in the same way (Tieu et al. 2017; see also Sauerland and Yatsushiro 2018). While previous studies have focused on one simple and one complex disjunction (e.g., Tieu et al. 2017; Sauerland and Yatsushiro 2018), the present study investigates multiple simple disjunctions (neutral and prosodically marked sau) and complex disjunctions (sau…sau, fie…fie) in child Romanian. We ask whether children’s conjunctive interpretation of disjunction is an experimental artifact that arises in contexts where the disjunctive statement mentions all visible objects in the display (and is thus potentially underinformative). If so, then this interpretation should disappear in contexts where the disjunctive statement is made more informative. We also ask what role prosodic and morphological markedness play in the interpretation of disjunction. We conducted two Truth Value Judgment Tasks in prediction mode in order to address these questions. In Experiment 1, the visual displays contained two objects, and the disjunctive test sentences mentioned both. While adults were exclusive, children were mostly inclusive with sau-based disjunctions, but they were conjunctive and inclusive with fie…fie. In Experiment 2, the visual displays contained two additional unmentioned objects. Children were primarily inclusive with sau-based disjunctions, showing no sensitivity to prosodic/morphological markedness, but there was also evidence for conjunctive interpretations from children who oscillated between interpretations. Importantly, while children were less conjunctive with fie…fie in Experiment 2 compared to Experiment 1, a considerable number of conjunctive responses were still observed. Our findings support the view that the conjunctive interpretation, albeit not the dominant one, is nonetheless a genuine semantic/pragmatic interpretation in development. |
| Published |
Oxford : Oxford University Press (OUP) |
| Type |
Journal article |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
2025 |
| CC license |
|
