Does the conceptual distinction between singular and plural sets depend on language?

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• English-learning children typically acquire singular-plural noun distinctions around 22-24 months.
• This linguistic ability correlates with nonlinguistic discrimination of singular and plural sets.
• The causal relationship between these capacities requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the causal link between nonlinguistic number discrimination and morphological knowledge.
• To investigate early number concept development in languages with less explicit plural marking.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted involving toddlers learning English, Japanese, and Mandarin.
• A manual search task was used to assess nonlinguistic discrimination of singular and plural sets.
• Comprehension of singular-plural morphology was evaluated in Japanese and Mandarin learners.

Main Results:

• Japanese toddlers around 22 months could distinguish singular from plural sets nonlinguistically.
• Mandarin-learning toddlers (20-24 months) also showed nonlinguistic discrimination.
• These Mandarin learners did not yet comprehend Mandarin singular-plural grammatical markers.

Conclusions:

• Knowledge of singular-plural morphology is not a prerequisite for deploying nonlinguistic number distinctions.
• Early number concept development appears to precede the acquisition of specific grammatical markers.
• Cross-linguistic data challenges the necessity of morphological learning for basic quantity discrimination.