Search Results (3)

This paper investigates the production of numerically-quantified phrases (NQPs) by monolingual and bilingual speakers of Russian, with Hebrew as the dominant language for the latter group. Russian NQPs exhibit a complex system of noun forms, distinguishing between singular (odin gorod ‘one city’), paucal (dva goroda ‘two cities’), and plural (pjat’ gorodov ‘five cities’); the endings of paucal and plural nouns vary depending on nominal declension class, which in turn correlates with gender. Adult and child bilinguals dominant in Hebrew (n = 37 and n = 27, respectively) were compared to monolingual Russian-speaking controls (n = 21 and n = 20, respectively). Production data were collected using a numeral-noun elicitation task, which involved eliciting 24 numerical phrases manipulated for gender (masculine, feminine) and number (paucal, plural). Compared to the monolingual controls, the bilinguals showed lower accuracy, with oversuppliance of nominative plural endings and overtly marked genitive plural endings. These non-target responses indicate the reliance on default forms and phonetically salient inflections, confirming that these factors influence non-target attainment in bilingual (heritage) grammars. The amount of exposure to Russian (as measured by age of bilingualism onset and proficiency) influenced performance significantly, underscoring the role of input in shaping bilingual grammars. The production of NQPs by Hebrew-dominant Russian speakers was similar to that by English-dominant Russian speakers as reported in previous studies, which may appear surprising given that Hebrew is characterized by richer morphology than English, and that may play a role in the maintenance of morphology in the weaker language. We offer some considerations for this lack of effect. Full article

Understanding how children comprehend text by forming links between sentences has been the focus of research for decades. Such research has consistently shown that children use anaphors and resolve ambiguities in a different manner than adults. The present study examined a less-studied anaphoric reference that arises when two numerically quantified expressions (e.g., “three cats… two cats…”) are used in the text. Focusing on 249 six- to eight-year-old children and 50 adults for comparison, the study employed a picture selection task across six experiments to assess interpretative preferences in ambiguous and unambiguous discourses containing numerically quantified expressions. The findings indicate a pronounced difference in interpretative strategies: unlike adults, who predominantly adopted an anaphoric subset reading, children showed a consistent preference for the non-anaphoric reading, even in contexts explicitly disambiguated towards this interpretation. This preference persisted across various experimental manipulations, highlighting challenges in text integration and comprehension among children. Contributing to the developmental trajectory of language comprehension, this study underscores the complexity of cognitive development and linguistic interpretation, revealing significant developmental differences in processing numerically quantified expressions and anaphoric references within discourse. Full article

This paper examines the syntax of additive compound numerals in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), uncovering their unique properties related to number morphology, definiteness, and Case assignment within numeral–noun constructions. These properties necessitate a constituency analysis which reveals that compound numerals have the structure of copulative compounds in MSA, and they are phrases, not functional heads. Drawing on the distinction between inherent, lexical, and structural Cases, this paper posits that the accusative Case on the numerals is an inherent Case, inaccessible to syntactic transformations. Furthermore, the analysis of numeral–noun constructions as numerically quantified phrases (NQPs) explains the assignment of a structural accusative Case or the inherent genitive Case on the quantified noun, based on the overtness of NQ⁰. Finally, the paper addresses the intriguing question of how NQPs in MSA, despite lacking a nominative Case, can assume the subject position and govern agreement in both verbal and verbless sentences. Full article