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The conceptual representation of number.

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Plural noun phrases (NPs) are not always represented as multiple items. This study shows that definite plural descriptions do not reliably match multiple objects, challenging simple feature-based theories of plurality.

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Area of Science:

  • Psycholinguistics
  • Cognitive Science
  • Linguistics

Background:

  • Understanding how the human mind represents plural concepts is crucial for psycholinguistics.
  • Previous research often assumes a direct mapping between plural grammatical forms and multiple conceptual representations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the nature of conceptual representations for plural noun phrases (NPs).
  • To examine whether plural definite descriptions are inherently linked to multiple referents.
  • To test theories of plurality, including the unmarked plural hypothesis.

Main Methods:

  • A picture-matching paradigm was employed across two experiments.
  • Participants judged overlap between sentence noun phrases (singular, two-quantified plural, plural definite) and pictures with varying numbers of objects.
  • Experiment 2 manipulated conceptual plurality (collective vs. distributed) to assess its impact on matching.

Main Results:

  • An interaction was observed between NP number/plurality and NP-picture match.
  • For singular and two-quantified NPs, exact number matches led to faster responses.
  • For plural definite descriptions, the number of pictured items did not reliably influence response times, suggesting a less precise representation.

Conclusions:

  • Default conceptual representations for plural definite descriptions are not consistently tied to multiple items.
  • The distinction between singular and plural conceptual representations likely involves more than a simple feature presence/absence.
  • Findings support theories where the plural is semantically unmarked, allowing for singular referents.