Quantification in Early Mandarin Children's Language

Based on naturalistic data and experimental results, this study explores the effect on early language acquisition which results from the distinction between universal quantification and existential quantification.The existential quantifier is acquired by Mandarin children earlier than the universal quantifier, while the words quantifying individual entities earlier than those quantifying over possible worlds and D-quantifier earlier than A-quantification.The three sequences are determined by the abstractness in quantificational meaning, the difficulty in calculating the truth value of a proposition containing a quantifier, language-particular principles workable in assigning scope readings and the maturity of children's pragmatic knowledge.