Previous studies indicate that English-learning children acquire the distinction between singular and plural nouns between 22- and 24-months. Also, their use of the distinction is correlated with the capacity to distinguish non-linguistically between singular and plural sets in a manual search paradigm (). Three experiments explored the causal relation between these two capacities. Relative to English, Japanese and Mandarin have impoverished singular-plural marking. Using the manual search task, Experiment 1 found that by around 22-months, Japanese children also distinguish between singular and plural sets. Experiments 2 and 3 extended this finding to Mandarin-learning toddlers. Twenty- to 24-month-old Mandarin-learners did not yet comprehend Mandarin singular-plural marking (i.e., yige vs. yixie, or –men), yet they did distinguish between singular and plural sets in manual search. These experiments suggest that knowledge of singular-plural morphology is not necessary for deploying the non-linguistic distinction between singular and plural sets.
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