Learning and Interpreting Words for Kinds: Adults' and Children's Understanding of Generic Language.

TL;DRAbstract

Many languages distinguish generic utterances (e.g., “Tigers are ferocious”) from non-generic utterances (e.g., “Those tigers are ferocious”). Generic sentences refer to kinds rather than to specific individuals. Thus, generics pose a problem of induction even more striking than that of individual reference. Three studies examined how generic language specially links properties and categories. In Study 1, I assessed comprehension of generics vis-à-vis the quantifier terms “all” and “some”. Generic utterances are distinct in that they are generally true, unlike indefinites (e.g., “Bats live in caves” is generic; “I saw some bats in the cave” is indefinite), but need not be true of all category members, unlike universal quantifiers (e.g. “all”). Four-year-olds and adults appropriately distinguished “some” (e.g. “Do some girls have curly hair?”) from “all” (e.g., “Do all girls have curly hair?”), from generic (e.g., “Do girls have curly hair?”), although 3-year-olds did not. Three-year-ol

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