Vincenzo Moscati

When Negation and Epistemic Modality Combine: The Role of Information Strength in Child Language.

Negative sentences with epistemic modals (e.g., John might not come/John can not come) contain two logical operators, negation and the modal, which yields a potential semantic ambiguity depending on scope assignment. The two possible readings are in a subset/superset relation, such that the strong reading (can not) asymmetrically entails the weak reading (might not). In this situation, a potential learnability issue arises. Based on the Semantic Subset Principle, we anticipated that children’s initial interpretations would sometimes differ from those of adults because children are expected to initially prefer strong (can not) readings for sentences that convey weak (might not) readings for adults. This proposal is investigated in two experiments using Standard Italian, which is an ideal testing ground for child language, in view of its simple modal paradigm. The results of these experiments confirm the predictions of the Semantic Subset Principle. Five-year-old Italian-speaking children were found to strongly favor the scope assignment that generates strong (can not) readings, even in cases where adults strongly favor the weak (might not) scope assignment. This result is discussed in relation to some recent alternative proposals (Gualmini & Schwarz, 2009; Musolino, 2006) that do not assume any initial bias toward the strong readings.

Children's on-line processing of epistemic modals

In this paper we investigated the real-time processing of epistemic modals in five-year-olds. In a simple reasoning scenario, we monitored childrens eye-movements while processing a sentence with modal expressions of different force (might/must). Children were also asked to judge the truth-value of the target sentences at the end of the reasoning task. Consistent with previous findings (Noveck, 2001), we found that childrens behavioural responses were much less accurate compared to adults. Their eye-movements, however, revealed that children did not treat the two modal expressions alike. As soon as a modal expression was presented, children and adults showed a similar fixation pattern that varied as a function of the modal expression they heard. It is only at the very end of the sentence that childrens fixations diverged from the adult ones. We discuss these findings in relation to the proposal that children narrow down the set of possible outcomes in undetermined reasoning scenarios and endorse only one possibility among several (Acredolo & Horobin, 1987, Ozturk & Papafragou, 2015).

Beyond the scope of acquisition: A novel perspective on the isomorphism effect from Broca’s aphasia

ABSTRACT Children have been reported to prefer the surface scope or “isomorphic” reading of scopally ambiguous sentences (Musolino 1998, among others). Existing accounts in the literature differ with respect to the proposed source of this isomorphism effect. Some accounts are based on learnability considerations (e.g., Moscati & Crain 2014), while others invoke pragmatic and/or processing factors (e.g., Gualmini et al. 2008; Musolino & Lidz 2006). The present study investigates whether the isomorphism effect is specific to development or rather is observable in other populations with language processing limitations. We investigated the interpretation of ambiguous sentences containing “every” and negation in 4–6-year-old children, individuals with Broca’s aphasia, and neurotypical adult controls. We observed parallel performance in the children and the aphasic group, with both groups accessing more surface scope readings than inverse scope readings. This finding suggests that the preference for isomorphism may not be specific to acquisition and supports accounts that are not specifically based on learnability considerations—for example, processing accounts along the lines of Musolino & Lidz (2006).

Strong and Weak Readings in the Domain of Worlds: A Negative Polar Modal and Children’s Scope Assignment

This study investigates children’s interpretation of sentences with two logical operators: Dutch universal modal hoeven and negation (niet). In adult Dutch, hoeven is an NPI that necessarily scopes under negation, giving rise to a not > necessary reading. The findings from a hidden-object task with 5- and 6-year-old children showed that children’s performance is suggestive of an interpretation of sentences with hoeft niet in which the modal scopes over negation (necessary > not). This is in line with the Semantic Subset Principle that dictates that children should opt for the strongest possible reading in case of potential scope ambiguities. The full pattern of results, however, seems to be determined, in addition, by a particular strategy children use when facing uncertainty called Premature Closure.