The Collective Distributive Preference Hypothesis: Independent Evidence.

Abstract

Previous research on binding principles has shown discrepancies in the results between English children and Dutch children, when quantifiers were used to study bound variables. These discrepancies might be explained by the Collective Distributive Preference Hypothesis. This thesis reports an experiment concerning the interpretive preference for quantifiers, in an attempt to provide independent evidence for the Collective Distributive Preference Hypothesis. A Picture Selection Task was performed with Dutch native speakers and English native speakers, both adults and children. To conclude, at this point in the experiment, there are no significant differences in the interpretive preference for quantifiers between the tested groups. Keywords: Quantifiers, CDPH, Collective Distributive Preference Hypothesis, Quantificational Asymmetry