Effects of Individual Differences and Prosodic Focus on the Interpretation of Quantity Scalar Terms in Mandarin-Speaking 3- to 8-Year-Olds

Children show a higher overall pragmatic bias in ad hoc compared to quantifier scalar terms, alongside notable individual differences. Quantifier and ad hoc scalar terms appear to have different initial interpretations, with the former leaning toward a semantic interpretation and the latter toward a pragmatic one. Prosodic focus reduced hesitation and encouraged further processing, although it did not significantly alter interpretation biases. Future studies should employ larger sample sizes and implicit measures to further explore these findings.