ABSTRACT

In English, the sentence Mary didn’t eat pizza or sushi is assigned the neither interpretation (both disjuncts must be false). In Mandarin Chinese, the equivalent sentence is assigned the at least one interpretation (at least one disjunct must be false). The cross-linguistic variation in the interpretation of negative sentences with disjunction has been attributed to the Disjunction Parameter. On one value of this lexical parameter, disjunction is a Positive Polarity Item (+PPI). On the other value, disjunction is not a Positive Polarity Item (-PPI). According to the Semantic Subset Principle (SSP), all child language learners are predicted to initially assign the neither interpretation to negative disjunctive sentences, for reasons of language learnability. The present study investigates the interpretation of negative sentences with disjunction in Catalan. The findings confirm that disjunction is +PPI for adults; children show a bimodal distribution. For some children, disjunction is -PPI, as predicted by the SSP. However, some children adopt the adult +PPI value of the Disjunction Parameter. Children’s level of linguistic maturity, as measured by a sentence repetition task, was correlated with their judgments about negative sentences with disjunction such that children with lower scores tended to adopt the -PPI value. To explain the relatively early parameter resetting by some Catalan-speaking children, as compared to children acquiring other languages where disjunction is +PPI, we discuss the possible “blocking effect” of an alternative lexical expression in Catalan, which unambiguously conveys the neither interpretation.

摘要

在英语中，“玛丽没有吃披萨或寿司”这句话没有被赋予两种解释（两者都必须是错误的）。在普通话中，对等句子至少被分配一个解释（至少一个析取必须为假）。带有析取词的否定句子在解释中的跨语言变异已归因于析取参数。在此词汇参数的一个值上，析取是“正极性项目”（+ PPI）。在另一个值上，析取不是正极性项目（-PPI）。根据语义子集原则（SSP），预计所有儿童语言学习者都会出于语言易学性的考虑而将这两种解释都最初分配给否定的析取句子。本研究调查了加泰罗尼亚语否定句与析取句的解释。研究结果证实，成人的析取为+ PPI。儿童表现出双峰分布。根据SSP的预测，对于某些儿童，析取为-PPI。然而，一些孩子采用了“分离参数”的成人+ PPI值。通过句子重复任务衡量的儿童语言成熟度与他们对否定否定句子的判断相关联，因此得分较低的儿童倾向于采用-PPI值。为了解释一些讲加泰罗尼亚语的孩子相对较早的参数重置，而不是与那些使用其他语言加+ PPI的孩子比较，我们讨论了加泰罗尼亚语中另一种词汇表达的可能“阻塞效应”，它明确传达了 与否定句与否定句的判断相关，因此得分较低的孩子倾向于采用-PPI值。为了解释一些讲加泰罗尼亚语的孩子相对较早的参数重置，而不是与那些使用其他语言加+ PPI的孩子比较，我们讨论了加泰罗尼亚语中另一种词汇表达的可能“阻塞效应”，它明确传达了 与否定句与否定句的判断相关，因此得分较低的孩子倾向于采用-PPI值。为了解释一些讲加泰罗尼亚语的孩子相对较早的参数重置，而不是与那些使用其他语言加+ PPI的孩子比较，我们讨论了加泰罗尼亚语中另一种词汇表达的可能“阻塞效应”，它明确传达了既没有解释。