Funding information Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Grant/Award Number: BCS‐1551628 Abstract In this study, we address the mapping problem for modal words: how do children learn the form‐to‐ meaning mappings for words like could or have to in their input languages? Learning modal words poses considerable challenges as their meanings are conceptually complex and the way these meanings are mapped to grammatical forms and structures is likewise complex and cross‐linguistically variable. Against a backdrop of how cross‐linguistic modal systems can vary, we focus on new work highlighting the developmental roles of the following: (a) syntactic categories of modal words, (b) interrelationships between modal ‘force’ (possibility and necessity) and ‘flavour’ (root and epistemic), (c) semantic representations for modal forms and (d) children's own emerging modal systems, as a whole, which show that the way they map forms to the ‘modal meaning space’ (considering both force and flavour dimensions) diverges from how adults do, even if the same forms are present. Modality provides a rich natural laboratory for exploring the interrelationships between our conceptual world of possibilities, how concepts get packaged by the syntax–semantics of grammatical systems, and how child learners surmount these form‐meaning mapping challenges.

中文翻译：

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学习方式：语法视角

资助信息行为与认知科学系，授予/奖励编号：BCS‐1551628摘要在本研究中，我们解决了情态词的映射问题：孩子如何学习像可能或必须这样的词的从形式到含义的映射他们的输入语言？学习情态词带来了巨大的挑战，因为它们的含义在概念上是复杂的，并且这些含义被映射为语法形式和结构的方式同样是复杂的并且是跨语言的。在跨语言情态系统如何变化的背景下，我们专注于强调以下内容的发展作用的新工作：（a）情态词的句法类别，（b）情态“力”（可能和必要性）之间的相互关系以及“味道”（根源和认知），（c）情态形式的语义表示，以及（d）儿童自身新兴的情态系统，整体上表明，他们将形式映射到“情态意义空间”的方式（考虑力和味觉维度）与成人的方式有所不同，即使存在相同的形式。情态提供了一个丰富的自然实验室，用于探索可能性的概念世界之间的相互关系，概念如何通过语法系统的语法语义学进行打包以及儿童学习者如何克服这些形式意义的映射挑战。