Navigating negative quantificational space

This paper reports the findings from an interconnected set of experiments d esigned to assess children's knowledge of the semantic interactions between negation and quantified NPs. Our main finding is that young children, unli ke adults, systematically interpret these elements on the basis of their po sition in overt syntax. We argue that this observation can be derived from an interplay between fundamental properties of universal grammar and basic learning principles. We show that even when children's semantic knowledge a ppears to differ from that of adults, the observed differences occur within well-defined boundaries, that is, within the limits imposed bq, the theory of universal grammar. Moreover, we point to the (positive) evidence needed by children in their passage to adulthood We conclude that children have i ncomplete rather than inaccurate knowledge, in accordance,with the continui ty hypothesis. Together, these observations support the conclusion that chi ldren draw from an arsenal of innately specified principles in the acquisit ion of the grammar of quantification.