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Article published In:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2023
Edited by Sterre Leufkens and Marco Bril
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 40] 2023
► pp. 120–136

Everything is not equal in adult and child Dutch

The scope of universal quantifiers with negation

| Utrecht University

An investigation into the production of universal quantifiers with negation in the CHILDES database of Dutch shows several scopal properties that have not been discussed before. First, it shows a crucial distinction between child and adult Dutch. A universal quantifier with scope over negation has an isomorphic interpretation in adult Dutch, but an inverse scope interpretation in child Dutch. This raises the question why children do not adopt the surface scope interpretation. Second, it indicates a possible answer to the puzzle why languages often avoid a universal quantifier under the scope of negation. I will discuss the idea that the explanation may lie in the type of reading of a quantifier, collective/distributive and specific/non-specific. It might also explain why no language has a lexicalized negated universal pronoun *neverything.

Keywords: scope, universal quantifiers, negation, adult and child Dutch, CHILDES
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Negation under the scope of a quantifier
    • 1.2A quantifier under the scope of negation
  • 2.Universal quantifiers under the scope of negation
    • 2.1A problem with PF ¬ > ∀x
    • 2.2Collective, distributive, and non-specific/specific readings of quantifiers
    • 2.3Restrictions on PF ¬ > ∀x
    • 2.4The data in adult and child Dutch
  • 3.Negation under the scope of a universal quantifier: Isomorphic interpretation
    • 3.1The data in adult and child Dutch
    • 3.2No blocking by a lexicalized neg+existential
  • 4.Negation under the scope of a universal quantifier: Inverse scope interpretation
    • 4.1The data in child Dutch and Dutch dialects
    • 4.2Why inverse scope in child Dutch?
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 3 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00083.van
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