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).

摘要

据报道，儿童更喜欢表面范围或角膜歧义句子的“同构”阅读（Musolino 1998等）。关于这种同构效应的建议来源，文献中的现有说法有所不同。一些账户基于学习性考虑（例如，Moscati＆Crain 2014），而另一些则引用了务实和/或处理因素（例如，Gualmini等人，2008； Musolino＆Lidz 2006）。本研究调查同构效应是特定于发展的，还是在具有语言处理限制的其他人群中可观察到的。我们调查了4-6岁儿童，患有Broca失语症的个体以及典型的神经系统成人对照中包含“每个”和否定词的歧义句子的解释。我们观察到儿童和无语症患者的平行表现，两组儿童获得的表面范围读数均大于逆向范围读数。