Cover not available
Part of
Semantics in Language Acquisition
Edited by Kristen Syrett and Sudha Arunachalam
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 24] 2018
► pp. 249–274

Chapter 11
The meaning of question words in statements in child Mandarin

| Macquarie University
| Tsinghua University
This paper reports the findings of three experiments investigating children’s emerging knowledge of the semantics of information-seeking questions and declarative statements in Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin is particularly revealing about the semantic relationship between questions and statements, because it is a wh-in-situ language where question words appear in the same surface syntactic position in both questions and statements. The non-interrogative meanings that Mandarin-speaking children assign to question words lend weight to a unified approach to the semantics of existential expressions, including Free Choice Expressions, Negative Polarity Items, and disjunction words. When Mandarin question words appear in statements, children interpret them to be the semantic equivalents of existential expressions. The findings, therefore, support the unified approach to the semantics of existential expressions.
Keywords: questions, statements, existential expressions, English, Mandarin Chinese, child language acquisition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Non-interrogative uses of question words in English
  • 3. Wh-questions are derived from existential structures
  • 4. Wh-questions are semantically equivalent to existential statements
  • 5.Two analyses of polarity sensitive expressions
  • 6.The conjunctive/universal interpretation of ∃-expressions
  • 7.Question words in Mandarin
  • 8.The basic meaning of mandarin question words
  • 9.Experiment 1: Question words as existential expressions
  • 10.Experiment 2: Question words in the antecedent of conditionals
  • 11.Experiment 3: Question words license conjunctive/universal inferences
  • 12.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 2 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.24.11ste
References (37)
References
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caponigro, I., Pearl, L., Brooks, N., & Barner, D. (2012). Acquiring the meaning of free relative clauses and plural definite descriptions. Journal of Semantics, 29, 261–293.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carlson, G. N. (1980). Polarity any is existential. Linguistic Inquiry, 11, 799–804.Google Scholar
Cheng, L. L-S. (1997). On the typology of wh-questions. New York, NY: Garland.Google Scholar
(1994). Wh-words as polarity items. Chinese Languages and Linguistics, 2, 615–640.Google Scholar
Chierchia, G. (2013). Logic in grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2017). Scalar implicature and their interface with grammar. The Annual Review of Linguistics, 3, 245–264.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1964). Current issues in linguistic theory. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
(1995). Categories and transformations. In The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N., & Lasnik, H. (1993) The theory of principles and parameters. In J. Jacobs, A. von Stechow, W. Sternefeld, & T. Vennemann (Eds.), Syntax: An international handbook of contemporary research. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Crain, S. (2012). The emergence of meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dayal, V. (2004). Number marking and (in) definiteness in kind terms. Linguistics and Philosophy, 27, 393–450.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fiengo, R., & May, R. (1994). Indices and identity. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fox, D. (1998). Locality in variable binding. In P. Barbosa, D. Fox, P. Hagstrom, M. McGinnis, & D. Pesetsky (Eds.), Is the best good enough? Optimality and Competition in Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/MITWPL.Google Scholar
(2007). Free choice disjunction and the theory of scalar implicatures. In U. Sauerland & P. Stateva (Eds.), Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics (pp. 71–120). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gualmini, A., Meroni, L. & Crain, S. (2000). The inclusion of disjunction in child language: Evidence from modal verbs. In M. Hirotani, A. Coetzee, N. Hall, & J-Y. Kim (Eds.), Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society 30. Amherst, MA: GLSA.Google Scholar
Gualmini, A., Crain, S., & Meroni, L. (2000). Acquisition of disjunction in conditional sentences. In S. C. Howell, S. Fish, & T. Keith-Lucas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 367–378). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Hamblin, C. L. (1973). Questions in Montague English. Foundations of Language, 10, 41–53.Google Scholar
Horn, L. R. (1969). A presuppositional approach to only and even. Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 5, 98–107.Google Scholar
Huang, A., & Crain, S. (2014). Acquisition of the polarity sensitive item renhe ‘any’ in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Child Language, 41, 861–889.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kadmon, N., & Landman, F. (1993). Any. Linguistics and Philosophy, 16, 353–422.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karttunen, L. (1977). Syntax and semantics of questions. Linguistics and Philosophy, 1, 1–44.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klima, E. S. (1964). Negation in English. In J. A. Fodor & J. J. Katz (Eds.), The structure of language: Readings in the philosophy of language. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Ladusaw, W. (1980). Polarity sensitivity as inherent scope relations. New York, NY: Garland.Google Scholar
Lasnik, H. (1972) Analysis of negation in English (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). MIT.Google Scholar
Li, Y-H. A. (1992). Indefinite wh in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 1, 125–155.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Y., & Tang, Z. (1991). Shenme as an NPI from 2-years-old. Wuhan: Middle China Normal University.Google Scholar
Lin, J-W. (1998). On existential polarity wh-phrases in Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 7, 219–255.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES project: Tools for analysing talk (3rd ed.), Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Modyanova, N., & Wexler, K. (2008). Maximal trouble in free relatives. In H. Chan, H. Jacob, & E. Kapia (Eds.), BUCLD 32: Proceedings of the 32nd annual Boston University Conference on Child Language Development (pp. 287–298). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Munn, A., Miller, K., & Schmitt, C. (2006). Maximality and plurality in children’s interpretation of definites. In D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston University Conference on Child Language Development (pp. 377–387). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. (1960). Word and object. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Shimoyama, J. (2011). Japanese indeterminate negative polarity items and their scope. Journal of Semantics, 28, 413–450.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Su, Y., Zhou, P., & Crain, S. (2012). Downward entailment in child Mandarin. Journal of Child Language, 39, 957–990.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tieu, L., Romoli, J., Zhou, P., & Crain, S. (2016). Children’s knowledge of free choice inferences and scalar implicatures. Journal of Semantics, 33, 269–298.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thornton, R., & Wexler, K. (1999). Principle B, VP ellipsis, and interpretation in child grammar. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Zhou, P., & Crain, S. (2011). Children’s knowledge of the quantifier dou in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 40, 155–176.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Crain, Stephen, Iain Giblin & Rosalind Thornton
2021. The Deep Forces That Shape Language and the Poverty of the Stimulus. In A Companion to Chomsky, ► pp. 462 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.