The Collective-Distributive and Generic
Specific reading of Each and Every
in language acquisition
Rama Novogrodsky and Tom Roeper
Amherst, 2012
Each
Every
 Distributive
 More specific
 More collective
 More generic
“Each means every single one, but
every means them all together”.
(H. 8:11ys)
The current study
 Do children show a bias toward collective reading of
both each and every in the first stage of acquisition?
 Do they show similar pattern when interpreting each
and every in generic/specific contexts?
 When do children give adults’ like distinction between
each and every ? (what is the adult distinction?)
Cognition and language
 The cognitive ability to distribute is shown
early in children’s development
(Avrutin & Thornton, 1994)
 When do children link the specific lexical
quantifier to their cognitive ability
Three experiments
 40 English speaking children aged 3:6-7ys
were tested in 3 different tasks:
 Experiment 1: collective-distributive context.
 Experiment 2: generic-specific context - stories.
 Experiment 3: generic-specific context - pictures.
40 English speaking children
Age
3:6 - 4:5
4:6 - 5:5
5:6 - 6:5
6:6 - 7
Adults
No. of participants
10
13
10
7
~ 80
Collective - Distributive
 Each child heard 6 stories followed by one
question: each or every alternately.
 The task was a within subject design.
 There was counterbalanced for which
quantifier was used first.
Six short stories
“A boy and a girl had 3 balls: a blue one, a
green one, and a red one. The girl grabbed the
blue ball, then the red ball, and then the
green ball, to see which ball would bounce the
best. The boy grabbed all the balls at once
because he wanted to give them to his friend”.
 Who grabbed every ball? Why?
 Who grabbed each ball? Why?
Only one of the questions was asked
Six short stories
“Daniel has 3 dogs: white, brown, and black.
His mother took all the dogs for a walk. The
next day the dogs were fighting, so his father
took the white dog first then the brown dog
and then the black dog”.
 Who took each dog for a walk? Why?
 Who took every dog for a walk? Why?
Only one of the questions was asked
Distributive (‘Each’ question)
…The girl grabbed the blue ball, then the red ball, and then
the green ball, to see which ball would bounce the best….
 I (7ys): The girl, cause she did not grab all of the balls
at once she grabbed each one at a time.
 J (3:8ys): The girl, I don’t know.
…The next day the dogs were fighting, so his father took the
white dog first then the brown dog and then the black dog.
 L (4:8ys): The dad because they were fighting.
 N (7ys): The dad because they wanted to go for walk.
Collective (‘Every’ question)
… The boy grabbed all the balls at once because he wanted to
give them to his friend ….
 R (6ys): The boy. He grabbed it to show it to his
friends.
 L (4:8ys): The one person. Cause he wanted to give it
to his friends.
 A (6:10): The boy because he wanted to give them to
his friend.
Collective (‘Every’ question)
…His mother took all the dogs for a walk...
 I (7ys): The mother cause it was all the dogs at once,
if she took one at a time then the other would get
bored.
 O (6:6ys): The mother because she wanted them to
go for a walk.
 S (6:3): The mom because I think every dog need to
walk in the morning.
Collective (every question)
Adults gave us also ‘Both’ response for the ‘every’ question
 Both of them. The girl grabbed every ball to see
which one would bounce best. The boy grabbed
every ball to give to his friend.
 Both. Daniel’s mother took every dog at the same
time. Daniel’s father also took every dog – not all at
the same time, but in succession.
Results of the Each questions
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Each-Other
=
Each-Both
Each-Collective
Each-Distributive
3:6 - 4:5 4:6 - 5:5 5:6 - 6:5
6:6 - 7
Adults
Results of the Each questions
 Adults interpret each as distributive in 75% of
the cases.
 Children show developmental trajectory
toward this pattern.
 At the age of 6:6 – 7ys children performance is
adults’ like.
 Adults did not give collective interpretation
for the each questions.
Results of the Every questions
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Every-Other
Every-Both
Every-distributive
Every-Collective
3:6 - 4:5 4:6 - 5:5 5:6 - 6:5 6:6 - 7
Adults
Results of the every questions
 Adults interpreted every as both collective and
distributive.
 Children show developmental trajectory toward a
collective reading.
 May be children at the ages 5;6-6;5 and 6;6-7
understand that the task only allow one
response.
 However if this was the case their explanations would
have indicated something like “The boy because...but
it can also be the girl”.
Summary of experiment 1
 No bias toward collective or distributive
readings at the young age.
 Learning effect within the task.
 At the ages of 6-7ys children present
distributive reading for each similar to the
adults preference.
Summary of experiment 1
 Unlike adults, at the age of 6-7ys children were
reluctant to give both responses.
 Tt this stage every has lost its distributive meaning
for children, and it is not till a later stage that they
get it back and permit both collective and
distributive interpretations for every.
 Perhaps they have the distributive meaning of
every but they tend to give the collective
interpretation due to the characteristic of the
task .
Generic – Specific
 39 children were tested
 Each child heard 10 stories: 5 followed by each
question and 5 followed by every.
 The task was a within subject design.
 There was counterbalanced for which quantifier
was tested first and each and every were not
tested at the same day.
Stories
Once upon a time, there was a big lake full of
turtles. In the morning, the turtles climbed out to
sit in the sun. Johnny visited the lake, and he was
amazed: the turtles had blue shells. He wondered
about that and said to himself: All the turtles in
this lake have a blue shell. He looked again, and
yes, all the turtles he saw had blue shells. He
thought the shells were blue to help them hide in
the shady water.
 Filler question: what color did the shells have?
 Do you think each turtle has a blue shell? Why?
 Do you think every turtle has a blue shell? Why?
Stories
As you already know this boy, Johnny, loves animals
and he wants to learn more about them. Once he
visited to the fire station and saw four fire dogs, all the
same kind of dog. He looked at the dogs and amazingly,
the first dog wagged his tail in a strange way up and
down! He looked again, and the second dog wagged
his tail up and down and so did the third and the fourth
dogs.
 Filler question: where did Johnny visit?
 Do you think each dog can wag his tail up and down?
Why?
 Do you think each dog can wag his tail up and down?
Why?
Specific interpretation
 K (5;11): Yes. So they can hide in the water.
 M (4;04) yes. Because that helps them to hide
in the water.
 I (6;10) Yes. Maybe the color of the water
went into the shell from the holes and the
shells turned blue
Generic interpretation
 A (6;10): No, because some have different
color shell.
 J (6;05): No, because in real life it doesn’t. The
color is usually brown and green. blue
 S (6;03) No, because it won’t look good in the
color it’s a little silly and it’s kind of silly it’s
not good in the water cause other big animals
can attack.
Results
 7 children gave mixed results.
 20 children gave generic interpretation for both each
and every (9/10 or 10/10 stories).
 10 children gave specific interpretation for both each
and every (9/10 or 10/10 stories).
 1 child gave generic interpretation for every and
specific interpretation for each
 One child gave the opposite pattern: each = generic,
every = specific.
Adults: each specific 100%
every generic 87%
Results
Number of children
1
1
7
Mixed
10
Generic
Specific
Generic-Specific
Opposite
20
Generic – Specific
a picture task
Context: Cats have a tail. But, sometimes in a funny
story, they might be different.
Does each cat have two tails?
29
Does every cat have two tails?
( without a picture)
 In a pilot study adults were biased by the
picture and interpreted every ~ each
30
 Elephants have a trunk. But, sometimes in a
funny story, they might be different.
 Does every elephant have two trunks?
(Without a picture)
 Adults answered “no”.
31
Does each elephant have two trunks?
 adults answered “yes”
32
Results
 17 each = specific, every = generic
2 of them presented the adult bias.
 12 presented a generic pattern:
Does each cat have two tails? No with a picture.
 10 presented a specific pattern
Does every elephant have two tails? Yes without a
picture.
 1 child was excluded form this task.
Comparing the results of experiments
1 and 2
Age
3:06
3:08
3:08
4:02
4:05
6:08
Coll-Dis Gen-Spec
Mixed Mixed
Mixed Mixed
Mixed Mixed
Mixed Mixed
Mixed Mixed
Mixed Mixed
Age
4:09
4:11
5:00
5:03
6:00
6:00
6:01
6:05
6:10
6:11
Mixed= Mixed responses
CE = Collective reading for each and every
DE = Distributive reading for each and every
Generic = generic reading for each and every
Specific = specific reading for each and every
Adult = Collective for every and specific for each
Opposite = Collective for each and distributive for every
Coll-Dis
CE
CE
CE
Adult
CE
Adult
CE
CE
Adult
Adult
Gen-Spec
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Age
4:04
4:09
5:06
5:11
6:05
6:06
6:10
7:00
Coll-Dis
DE
~Adult
Adult
DE
DE
Adult
DE
Adult
Gen-Spec
specific
Specific
Specific
Specific
Opposite
Specific
Specific
Specific
But… also some inconsistency results
Age
3:09
3:11
4:00
4:08
4:09
5:00
5:01
5:01
5:02
5:04
5:06
6:03
7:00
Coll-Dis
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Mixed
Gen-Spec
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Adult
Generic
Generic
Generic
Generic
Specific
Generic
Generic
Specific
Open questions
 Do children show bias toward one of the
interpretations before the age of 3?
 When do children grasp (acquire) the inner
distributive reading of every (collective)?
 Is there a relationship between the collectivedistributive and generic-specific reading of
each and every in child language
development?
Roeper, Pearson, Grace (2011)
Goals: find an account which
A. Captures the semantic distinctions
B. Fits syntactic variation between each/every.
C. Captures the acqusiition path
(C) may be a very serious constraint on the system.
(B) may have a significant role in dictating the order in
which semantic variations occur
Question: will a notion of semantic or syntactic complexity
agree with the acquisition path
General Problem: Kulikowski (1981) formal semantics of "uh-oh" = > very complex
General Sequence:
A. Stage 1: no presence of quantifier:
I see every boy = I see boy [Kind]
a. Some evidence from DELV:
Man and three boys=> Picture (a) man plays piano, (b)
boys play piano
A man saw every boy. He played the piano
=> children go for (b) when disordered, and younger
B. Hypothesis:
1) individuation => Nouns and/or Verb for each/every
Then: experience exhaustification = "you didn't
pick up every toy"
2) Accommodation or non-accommodation for both =
= Fix specificity context for each/every
a. Evidence: children do not distinguish
each/every at first
b. = BOTH are context specific or generic
C. Distributivity Operator => applies to sentence
= both NOuns, or NOun+ verb = floated binomial each
Current Hypothesis: a) The boys picked up each one
b) the boys picked up one each
(B) => (A)
verb
Possibility 1: each as adverb, links to individuated (pluractional)
Possibility 2: each = Sentential Operator
Adult/Child contrast [= related to Suzi Lima's results on partial distributivity]
case
A. Each vase is in a jar = adults prefer one to one/ children prefer collective
Appendix: from Roeper, Pearson, Grace (2011)
Cases involving partial distributity [See Suzi Lima’s work]
Evidence: children are not assigning complete distributivity here
Experimental Results
Adults N = 40
• http://www.kwiksurvey etc.
• Native English speakers
• Ages 20 to 71 (20+)
• Residence UK (6), Canada
(3) and U.S. (31)
Children = 38
• Ages 5-9 (most 6-8)
• Average 7;4
• Grade K-3
• Middle to lower middleclass school district in
western MA
A. Every flower is in a vase.
B. Each flower is in a vase.
C. One flower is in one vase.
Overt Spreading:
“no, looks like each flower in each vase”
“but it still has empty vase; could be C if there was just one
flower in each, in all the vases”
“flowers in all, each has flowers”
“one in each, others have 2 or 3”
“flowers in all, each has flowers”
Each: 1. Adults:90% prefer B (only 17% say all allright)
=> prefer distributivity, accept partial
2 Child: •••reject distributivity 70%
Not distributive for most children
=> reject B 82%
32% show spreading = each object =C
24% = A = collective, no distributivity
Verbatims:
13 children articulate spreading
10 articulate distributivity
Conclusion: spreading =/= distributivity necessarily
only 1/3 associate distributivity with each
Adult preferences – Every flower is in a
vase.
Every
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
All ok
Prefer A
Prefer B
Prefer C
Adult preferences – Each flower is in a
vase.
Each
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
All OK
B Best
only B
Rejects B
Children’s Every
(with adult shaded as reference)
1
0.8
0.6
Adult
Child
0.4
0.2
0
All ok
Prefer A
Prefer B
Prefer C
Children’s Each
(with adult shaded as reference)
Adult
Child
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
All OK
B Best
only B
Rejects B
(only) 4 children focused on flowers
for every
• “All the flowers have vases that they’re in.”
(5;4)
• “There are empty vases, [clearly a concern] but
where there are flowers, they are in a vase.”
(8;1)
Most children focused on vases
• [C], “the only one where vases are filled with
flowers” (8;0)
• “these two vases don’t have flowers” (6;2)
• “not A or B, no flowers in those two vases” (7;8)
• “no, two vases empty there” (6;5)
• “no, the others have empty vases” (6;11) (7;4)
(8;4)
• “no, because some of the vases are empty” (7;9)
• “not A, only one filled vase” (8;2)
Spontaneously SPREAD the quantifier
to vases.
• “[C], it’s the only one with flowers in every
vase.” (9;4)
• “Not B, there’s just one in each [vase]” (6;1)
• “No, they don’t have flowers in all vases.” (9)
• (for every flower in a vase), “could be 1 flower
in each vase” (9)
SPREAD a quantifier to vases even with “each”
“looks like each flower is in each vase” (8;0)
• “all vases are full” (8)
• “flowers in all [vases]” (7;9)
• “could be C, if there was just one flower in each,
in all the vases” (7;1)
• “one [flower] in each [vase]” (8;1)
“these two vases don’t have flowers” (6;2)
• “not A or B, no flowers in those two vases” (7;8)
• ??? Each flower has its own vase?
They did not like empty vases.
• Little concern for distributivity…..
(only) 4 children described arrangement for each
• “B is a little better because it’s spread out” (8;1*)
• “B – each flower has its own vase.” (9;0)
• “C has too many flowers; A they’re all in one” (6;5)
• “Could be C if there was just one flower in each, in
all the vases.” (7;1)
• **(one appealed to config for every—”only C, all in same is
wrong; 1 in 1 is wrong”) (7;7)
• But 14 children didn’t distinguish each and every
(either gave same answer, or said “I already
told you” when asked why about the second
sentence)
Each is clearly not distributive for the
children
• (To the extent that it’s confounded with
“every” might be more likely exhaustive as
well.)
Thank you !