title: The conceptual representation of number.
abstract: The experiments reported here investigated the format of plural conceptual representations using a picture-matching paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences that ended with a singular noun phrase (NP), a two-quantified plural NP, or a plural definite description [The parents handed the child the (two) crayon/s] and then saw a picture of one or multiple referents for the NP. Judgement times to confirm that there was overlap between the pictured object(s) and a noun in the sentence showed an interaction between the NP's number and NP-picture match. For singular NPs and two-quantified NPs, participants were reliably faster to respond "yes" to a picture that had the exact number of objects specified by the NP, but for plural definite descriptions, the effect of the number of pictured items was not reliable. Experiment 2 extended this finding to conceptual plurals. Participants read sentences biased toward either a collective (Together the men carried a box-box is interpreted as singular) or distributed (Each of the men carried a box-box is likely interpreted as plural) reading. Experiment 2 showed the same interaction between NP conceptual plurality and NP-picture match as that in Experiment 1. These results suggest that: (a) our default conceptual representations for plural definite descriptions are no more similar to images of small sets of multiple items than to images of singular items; and (b) the difference between singular and plural conceptual representations is unlikely to be simply the presence or absence of a plural feature. The results are consistent with theories in which plurality is unmarked, such that some plural NPs can refer to singular referents [e.g., Sauerland, U., Anderssen, J., & Yatsushiro, J. (2005). The plural is semantically unmarked. In S. Kepser & M. Reis (Eds.), Linguistic evidence (pp. 413-434). Berlin: de Gruyter].
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , The Ohio State University , Marion , OH , USA.
authors.forename: Nikole D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Patson
authors.forename: Gerret
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: Tessa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Warren
mesh_terms: D001244:Association; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities
keywords: Conceptual representations; Language comprehension; Number; Plurals; Semantics