Semantic composition and pragmatic reasoning in preschool children’s interpretation of negated gradable adjectives

Abstract

Absolute gradable adjectives (e.g., dry ) and relative gradable adjectives (e.g., tall ) interact differently with negation, with only negated absolute gradable adjectives semantically entailing their antonyms (e.g., not dry ⊨ wet ). This study examined how 4- and 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children and adults interpreted these two types of negative expressions. Results showed that all groups interpreted negated absolute gradable adjectives as entailing their antonyms. In contrast, their interpretation of negated relative gradable adjectives diverged: 5-year-olds equated such expressions with their antonyms (e.g., not tall ≈ short ), while 4-year-olds and adults treated them as semantically distinct. These findings indicate that children are sensitive to the semantic differences between absolute and relative gradable adjectives and their interactions with negation. While context-independent absolute gradable adjectives consistently prompted literal interpretations of their negation, the context dependency and semantic indeterminacy of relative gradable adjectives triggered children and adults to engage in different pragmatic reasoning about the intended meanings.