The Interpretation of Generics and Universal Quantifiers in Spanish-speaking Children

Abstract

Among the many linguistic phenomena that can be found in everyday discourse, one that has garnered extensive linguistic, and psychological attention is genericity. Generics are statements such as “cats have whiskers” or “birds fly”, which not only do they express generalisations concerning kinds, but they are also used to convey general knowledge about the world, including beliefs, stereotypes and prejudices. They are prevalent in child-directed speech too. Generic statements possess two characteristic properties that distinguish them from universally quantified statements: first, generics tolerate exceptions and, second, they are not associated with any overt quantifier or determiner. This investigation examined whether Spanish children appreciated these features, using a Truth Value Judgement Task (TVJT). In this study, we have focused on the comprehension of generics and universally quantified statements of 4/5-year olds (N=31) and 8/9-year-olds (N=24). Participants judged generic statements with characteristic properties like Los caballos tienen cuatro patas (‘Horses have four legs.’) or statements with the universal quantifier “all”, such as Todos los caballos tienen cuatro patas (‘All horses have four legs.’), both preceded by a picture representing an exception to the generalisation, which should make participants reject a universally quantified statement while accepting the generic counterpart. We discuss the obtained results in the context of influential proposals by Leslie and colleagues, who argue that generic statements express a default mode of generalisation. We argue that our results do not clearly support these proposals.