Production and comprehension of generic singular bare nouns in children Brazilian Portuguese

• Grant number: 16/00849-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2016
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Psycholinguistics
• Principal Investigator: Elaine Bicudo Grolla
• Grantee: Raíssa Silva Santana
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This Project intends to verify the production occurrences of generic bare singulars in children's Brazilian Portuguese. It is also our purpose to study how children acquiring their first language interpret these nominals. During the test, the child will interact with a puppet, being part of a game in which she will teach it how to speak the name of some objects in Brazilian Portuguese. Our experiment's results intend to contribute with literature about Brazilian Portuguese's bare nouns, since there are controversies about bare singular denotation. This controversy refers to the possibility of bare singulars to denote kinds. To some authors (Munn & Schmitt 1999, 2005; Pires de Oliveira et al 2010) this nominal can denote kinds, however, to other researchers (Muller 2000, 2002, 2003), the bare singular have a similar structure to the singular indefinite. In accordance with the authors who assert the possibility of bare singular to denote kinds, our research project intends to verify the possible differences between the production and the interpretation of these nominals by native adults and children. Besides that, we will also verify if to both groups bare nouns and bare plurals can denote kinds. (AU)