title: Grammatical morphology as a source of early number word meanings.
abstract: How does cross-linguistic variation in linguistic structure affect children's acquisition of early number word meanings? We tested this question by investigating number word learning in two unrelated languages that feature a tripartite singular-dual-plural distinction: Slovenian and Saudi Arabic. We found that learning dual morphology affects children's acquisition of the number word two in both languages, relative to English. Children who knew the meaning of two were surprisingly frequent in the dual languages, relative to English. Furthermore, Slovenian children were faster to learn two than children learning English, despite being less-competent counters. Finally, in both Slovenian and Saudi Arabic, comprehension of the dual was correlated with knowledge of two and higher number words.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alhanouf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Almoammer
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Donlan
authors.forename: Franc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marušič
authors.forename: Rok
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Žaucer
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barner
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D017524:Slovenia
keywords: counting; grammatical number