Ailís Cournane
Biographic Data
| ID | 1666237 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ailís Cournane |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ailís |
| FAMILY NAME | Cournane |
| SIGNATURE | COURNANE A |
| AFFILIATIONS | New York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4288-4049 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Bilinguals process incoming words using distributions across both languages
How does the bilingual experience affect online processing? The distribution of lexical items shared between monolinguals and bilinguals can differ greatly. One critical difference is how code-switching allows more variability in the relative co-occurrence of words. The current study uses a visual world paradigm to test whether the relative distribution between Spanish gender-marked determiners (“el,” “la”) and the non-marked English determiner (…
Word learning challenges explain nonadult possibility language comprehension in preschoolers
This article presents two experiments testing English children's understanding of the "force" of modals, asking whether they understand that can expresses possibility and have_to expresses necessity. Prior studies show that children tend to over-accept necessity modals in possibility situations and argue this behavior stems from conceptual difficulties reasoning about open possibilities. However, these studies typically test modal force using epi…
Mapping modal verbs to meanings
Modals (e.g., can, must) vary along two dimensions of meaning: “force” (i.e., possibility or necessity), and “flavor” (i.e., possibilities relative to knowledge [epistemic], goals [teleological], or rules [deontic] ...). Comprehension studies show that children struggle with both force and flavor dimensions of modals. However, given the complex one-to-many mappings from forms to meanings, it is not clear what force or flavor children assign to th…
Diachrony and Diachronica
Figuring Out Root and Epistemic Uses of Modals
This paper investigates how children figure out that modals like must can be used to express both epistemic and “root” (i.e. non epistemic) flavors. The existing acquisition literature shows that children produce modals with epistemic meanings up to a year later than with root meanings. We conducted a corpus study to examine how modality is expressed in speech to and by young children, to investigate the ways in which the linguistic input childre…
If they must, they will
Modal verbs like must express two distinct non-actual meanings: deontic (e.g. obligation) and epistemic (e.g. likelihood inference). How do young children understand these modals? What factors affect their interpretation as deontic or epistemic? We report a picture preference task testing preschool children‟s interpretations of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) morati 'must' as deontic or epistemic. Prior work on English must shows that despite an e…
Finding the force
Revisiting the epistemic gap
This paper revisits the longstanding observation that children produce modal verbs (e.g., must, could) with their root meanings (e.g., abilities, obligations) by age 2, typically a year or more earlier than with their epistemic meanings (e.g., inferences). Established explanations for this "Epistemic Gap" argue that epistemic language production is delayed because small children can only reason about root meanings. However, root and epistemic use…
A within-subjects comparison of the acquisition of quantity-related inferences
This study directly compares quantity inferences from scalar implicatures (‘Some of the ducks are black’) and uniqueness presuppositions in definites (‘the duck is black’) to exhaustivity inferences in English it-clefts (‘It’s the duck that’s black’) for which the theoretical literature disagrees on the source of inference – pragmatic (like scalar implicatures), or semantic (like presuppositions). We investigate whether within-subjects correlatio…
Leaving Obligations Behind
Does language development drive language change? A common account of language change attributes the regularity of certain patterns to children’s learning biases. The present study examines these predictions for change-in-progress in the use of must in Toronto English. Historically, modal verbs like must start with root (deontic) meanings, eventually developing epistemic (probability) meanings in addition. Epistemic uses increase over successive g…
Learning modals
In this study, we address the mapping problem for modal words: how do children learn the form-to- meaning mappings for words likecouldorhave toin their input languages? Learning modal words poses considerable challenges as their meanings are conceptually complex and the way these meanings are mapped to grammatical forms and structures is likewise complex and cross-linguistically variable. Against a backdrop of how cross-linguistic modal systems c…
A developmental view on incrementation in language change
Acquisition is an intuitive place to look for explanation in language change. Each child must learn their individual grammar(s) via the indirect process of analyzing the output of others’ grammars, and the process necessarily involves social transmission over several years. On the basis of child language learning behaviors, I ask whether it is reasonable to expect the incrementation (advancement) of new variants to be kicked off by and sustained …
Grammatical representations versus productive patterns in change theories
In this paper, I discuss differences between representational change (i. e. in formal features and structures involved in grammatical competence) and change in quantitative patterns (i. e. in the quantitative properties of the language system in use), as relevant to my approach to incrementation. My approach differs from the standard variationist sociolinguistic approach because I argue that representational Language processing differences betwee…
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A developmental view on incrementation in language change
Acquisition is an intuitive place to look for explanation in language change. Each child must learn their individual grammar(s) via the indirect process of analyzing the output of others’ grammars, and the process necessarily involves social transmission over several years. On the basis of child language learning behaviors, I ask whether it is reasonable to expect the incrementation (advancement) of new variants to be kicked off by and sustained …
Grammatical representations versus productive patterns in change theories
In this paper, I discuss differences between representational change (i. e. in formal features and structures involved in grammatical competence) and change in quantitative patterns (i. e. in the quantitative properties of the language system in use), as relevant to my approach to incrementation. My approach differs from the standard variationist sociolinguistic approach because I argue that representational Language processing differences betwee…
A within-subjects comparison of the acquisition of quantity-related inferences
This study directly compares quantity inferences from scalar implicatures (‘Some of the ducks are black’) and uniqueness presuppositions in definites (‘the duck is black’) to exhaustivity inferences in English it-clefts (‘It’s the duck that’s black’) for which the theoretical literature disagrees on the source of inference – pragmatic (like scalar implicatures), or semantic (like presuppositions). We investigate whether within-subjects correlatio…
Leaving Obligations Behind
Does language development drive language change? A common account of language change attributes the regularity of certain patterns to children’s learning biases. The present study examines these predictions for change-in-progress in the use of must in Toronto English. Historically, modal verbs like must start with root (deontic) meanings, eventually developing epistemic (probability) meanings in addition. Epistemic uses increase over successive g…
Learning modals
In this study, we address the mapping problem for modal words: how do children learn the form-to- meaning mappings for words likecouldorhave toin their input languages? Learning modal words poses considerable challenges as their meanings are conceptually complex and the way these meanings are mapped to grammatical forms and structures is likewise complex and cross-linguistically variable. Against a backdrop of how cross-linguistic modal systems c…
Revisiting the epistemic gap
This paper revisits the longstanding observation that children produce modal verbs (e.g., must, could) with their root meanings (e.g., abilities, obligations) by age 2, typically a year or more earlier than with their epistemic meanings (e.g., inferences). Established explanations for this "Epistemic Gap" argue that epistemic language production is delayed because small children can only reason about root meanings. However, root and epistemic use…
Figuring Out Root and Epistemic Uses of Modals
This paper investigates how children figure out that modals like must can be used to express both epistemic and “root” (i.e. non epistemic) flavors. The existing acquisition literature shows that children produce modals with epistemic meanings up to a year later than with root meanings. We conducted a corpus study to examine how modality is expressed in speech to and by young children, to investigate the ways in which the linguistic input childre…
If they must, they will
Modal verbs like must express two distinct non-actual meanings: deontic (e.g. obligation) and epistemic (e.g. likelihood inference). How do young children understand these modals? What factors affect their interpretation as deontic or epistemic? We report a picture preference task testing preschool children‟s interpretations of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) morati 'must' as deontic or epistemic. Prior work on English must shows that despite an e…
Finding the force
Mapping modal verbs to meanings
Modals (e.g., can, must) vary along two dimensions of meaning: “force” (i.e., possibility or necessity), and “flavor” (i.e., possibilities relative to knowledge [epistemic], goals [teleological], or rules [deontic] ...). Comprehension studies show that children struggle with both force and flavor dimensions of modals. However, given the complex one-to-many mappings from forms to meanings, it is not clear what force or flavor children assign to th…
Diachrony and Diachronica
Bilinguals process incoming words using distributions across both languages
How does the bilingual experience affect online processing? The distribution of lexical items shared between monolinguals and bilinguals can differ greatly. One critical difference is how code-switching allows more variability in the relative co-occurrence of words. The current study uses a visual world paradigm to test whether the relative distribution between Spanish gender-marked determiners (“el,” “la”) and the non-marked English determiner (…
Word learning challenges explain nonadult possibility language comprehension in preschoolers
This article presents two experiments testing English children's understanding of the "force" of modals, asking whether they understand that can expresses possibility and have_to expresses necessity. Prior studies show that children tend to over-accept necessity modals in possibility situations and argue this behavior stems from conceptual difficulties reasoning about open possibilities. However, these studies typically test modal force using epi…
Linguistics (13 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Language Development and Disorders (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (7 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Verb (7 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Modal (6 works)