What Does it Take for Children to Link Words to Their Grammar? A Study on Learning Universal Quantification

Bhattacharjee, P. and Mukhopadhyay, L. (2021) What Does it Take for Children to Link Words to Their Grammar? A Study on Learning Universal Quantification. Language and Language Teaching, 10 (1). pp. 19-24. ISSN 2277-307X

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Abstract

It is a matter of great wonder how children can link words with grammar and make appropriate sentences. Achieving this in a second language is equally remarkable. For example, words or phrases used to express quantification—every, all, some, none—refer to some numbers or sets of individuals/objects that do not have ready referents in the real world, unlike the referents of lexical noun phrases (NPs) such as “Rita”, “the blue book”. So, learning the meaning of quantification noun phrases (QNPs) or their scope in sentences is a complex task. In this paper, we will report a study conducted on thirty 5 to 7-year-old ESL learners' understanding of the scope of “every”. The implications of the findings for ESL teaching are briefly discussed.

Item Type:	Articles in APF Magazines
Authors:	Bhattacharjee, P. and Mukhopadhyay, L.
Document Language:	Language English
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Determiners, 'Every' as a universal quantifier, Numerical quantifiers, Universal grammar
Subjects:	Language
Divisions:	Azim Premji University > University Publications > Language and Language Teaching
Full Text Status:	Public
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/2720
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