Language, procedures, and the non-perceptual origin of number word meanings.
Perceptual representations of objects and approximate magnitudes are often invoked as building blocks that children combine to acquire the positive integers. Systems of numerical perception are either assumed to contain the logical foundations of arithmetic innately, or to supply the basis for their...
| Published in: | Journal of Child Language Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 553 - 591 |
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| Format: | pictorial tables/charts Journal Article |
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Cambridge University Press
May2017
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=123303504&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 123303504 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 03050009 JCL jtl: Journal of Child Language issn: 03050009 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2017 vid: 44 iid: 3 pid: 15979 pub: Cambridge University Press artinfo: ui: 123303504 123303504 123303504 10.1017/S0305000917000058 123303504 ppf: 553 ppct: 38 formats: tig: atl: Language, procedures, and the non-perceptual origin of number word meanings. aug: au: BARNER, DAVID affil: University of California, San Diego sug: subj: Language In Infancy and Childhood Grammar In Infancy and Childhood Linguistics In Infancy and Childhood Learning Methods In Infancy and Childhood Infant Child, Preschool Child Logic Infant: 1-23 months Child, Preschool: 2-5 years Child: 6-12 years ab: Perceptual representations of objects and approximate magnitudes are often invoked as building blocks that children combine to acquire the positive integers. Systems of numerical perception are either assumed to contain the logical foundations of arithmetic innately, or to supply the basis for their induction. I propose an alternative to this framework, and argue that the integers are not learned from perceptual systems, but arise to explain perception. Using cross-linguistic and developmental data, I show that small (~1–4) and large (~5+) numbers arise both historically and in individual children via distinct mechanisms, constituting independent learning problems, neither of which begins with perceptual building blocks. Children first learn small numbers using the same logic that supports other linguistic number marking (e.g. singular/plural). Years later, they infer the logic of counting from the relations between large number words and their roles in blind counting procedures, only incidentally associating number words with approximate magnitudes. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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