Sometimes we accept propositions, sometimes we reject them, and sometimes we take propositions to be worth considering but not yet established, as merely possible. The result is a complex representation with logical structure. Is the ability to mark propositions as merely possible part of our innate representational toolbox or does it await development, perhaps relying on language acquisition? Several lines of inquiry show that preverbal infants manage possibilities in complex ways, while others find that preschoolers manage possibilities poorly. Here, we discuss how this apparent conflict can be resolved by distinguishing modal representations of possibility, which mark possibility symbolically, from minimal representations of possibility, which do not encode any modal status and need not have a logical structure.

中文翻译：

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模态概念的获得

有时我们接受命题，有时我们拒绝它们，有时我们认为命题值得考虑但尚未确立，只是可能的。结果是具有逻辑结构的复杂表示。将命题标记为我们先天表征工具箱的可能的一部分的能力还是等待发展，也许依赖于语言习得？多项调查表明，会说话的婴儿以复杂的方式管理可能性，而其他人则发现学龄前儿童管理可能性很差。在这里，我们讨论如何通过区分可能性的模态表示（象征性地标记可能性）与可能性的最小表示（不编码任何模态状态并且不需要逻辑结构）来解决这种明显的冲突。