Very large numbers words such as “hundred,” “thousand,” “million,” “billion,” and “trillion” pose a learning problem for children because they are sparse in everyday speech and children's experience with extremely large quantities is scarce. In this study, we examine when children acquire the relative ordering of very large number words as a first step toward understanding their acquisition. In Study 1, a hundred and twenty-five 5–8-year-olds participated in a verbal number comparison task involving very large number words. We found that children can judge which of two very large numbers is more as early as age 6, prior to entering first grade. In Study 2, we provided a descriptive analysis on the usage of very large number words using the CHILDES database. We found that the relative frequency of large number words does not change across the years, with “hundred” uttered more frequently than others by an order of magnitude. We also found that adults were more likely to use large number words to reference units of quantification for money, weight, and time, than for discrete, physical entities. Together, these results show that children construct a numerical scale for large number words prior to learning their precise cardinal meanings, and highlight how frequency and context may support their acquisition. Our results have pedagogical implications and highlight a need to investigate how children acquire meanings for number words that reference quantities beyond our everyday experience.

中文翻译：

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一百万多于一千：儿童对超大数词的习得

“百”、“千”、“百万”、“十亿”和“万亿”等非常大的词给孩子们带来了学习问题，因为它们在日常言语中是稀疏的，而且孩子们对极大量的词的经验是稀缺的。在这项研究中，我们检查儿童何时获得大量单词的相对顺序，作为理解他们获得的第一步。在研究 1 中，125 名 5-8 岁的儿童参与了一项涉及非常大的数字单词的口头数字比较任务。我们发现，孩子们早在 6 岁时就可以判断两个非常大的数字中哪个数字更大，也就是在进入一年级之前。在研究 2 中，我们使用 CHILDES 数据库对大量单词的使用情况进行了描述性分析。我们发现大数词的相对频率多年来没有变化，“hundred”的出现频率比其他单词高出一个数量级。我们还发现，与离散的物理实体相比，成年人更有可能使用大量词来指代金钱、重量和时间的量化单位。总之，这些结果表明，儿童在学习大量单词的精确基本含义之前就构建了一个数字量表，并强调了频率和上下文如何支持他们的习得。我们的结果具有教学意义，并强调需要调查儿童如何获得超出我们日常经验的数字词的含义。我们还发现，与离散的物理实体相比，成年人更有可能使用大量词来指代金钱、重量和时间的量化单位。总之，这些结果表明，儿童在学习大量单词的精确基本含义之前就构建了一个数字量表，并强调了频率和上下文如何支持他们的习得。我们的结果具有教学意义，并强调需要调查儿童如何获得超出我们日常经验的数字词的含义。我们还发现，与离散的物理实体相比，成年人更有可能使用大量词来指代金钱、重量和时间的量化单位。总之，这些结果表明，儿童在学习大量单词的精确基本含义之前就构建了一个数字量表，并强调了频率和上下文如何支持他们的习得。我们的结果具有教学意义，并强调需要调查儿童如何获得超出我们日常经验的数字词的含义。并强调频率和背景如何支持他们的收购。我们的结果具有教学意义，并强调需要调查儿童如何获得超出我们日常经验的数字词的含义。并强调频率和背景如何支持他们的收购。我们的结果具有教学意义，并强调需要调查儿童如何获得超出我们日常经验的数字词的含义。