Shifting Standards: Children’s Understanding of Gradable Adjectives

Kristen Syrett · EVAN DAVID BRADLEY · Christopher Kennedy · Jeffrey L. Lidz

70 citations0/0 files storedRutgers University Community Repository (Rutgers University)

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Language Development and Disorders Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation Child and Animal Learning Development

Abstract

Two studies demonstrate that children have knowledge of scalar distinctions between three sub-classes of gradable adjectives: relative (big, long), absolute with a maximal standard (full), and absolute with a minimal standard (spotted). Performance on these adjectives is compared with controls (shape, color, mood). Children appropriately shift the standard of comparison with context-dependent, relative gradable adjectives, and do not do so for the others. Reasons for non- adult-like performance with full are discussed. Evidence is presented that children know about the presuppositions of singular definite descriptions, suggesting that children as young as three have an accurate semantic representation of the.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 70 citations exist upstream.

References

1997Structure mapping in analogy and similarity.2005Scale Structure, Degree Modification, and the Semantics of Gradable Predicates 1999Projecting the Adjective: The Syntax and Semantics of Gradability and Comparison 1973WHAT'S IN A WORD? ON THE CHILD'S ACQUISITION OF SEMANTICS IN HIS FIRST LANGUAGE11This research was supported in part by NSF Grant GS-1880 to the Language Universals Project, Stanford University, and in part by NSF Grant GS-30040 to the author.1944Grading, A Study in Semantics 2004Total Adjectives vs. Partial Adjectives: Scale Structure and Higher-Order Modifiers 2001Seeing Pink Elephants: Fourteen-Month-Olds' Interpretations of Novel Nouns and Adjectives 1996Commonalities and differences in similarity comparisons

Cited by

2015Absolute and Relative Adjectives and their Comparison Classes 2011Once again on norms and comparison classes 2019Quantification 2016Aesthetic adjectives lack uniform behavior*2019Constraint-Based Pragmatic Processing

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.