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On the logic of contrast*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Eve V. Clark
Eve V. Clark*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
*
Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
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Abstract

The Principle of Contrast, that different words have different meanings, holds for adult language use. But at what age do children assume Contrast ? Do they rely on it from the start, or do they assume that new words may have the same meaning (the Null Hypothesis) until they discover otherwise ? Both the Null Hypothesis and Contrast have certain consequences. The Null Hypothesis places a heavy burden on languagelearners, whereas children could discover Contrast as part of their experience of rational behaviour. Examples that have been claimed to go counter to Contrast fall into two groups. Those in the first do not in fact violate Contrast at all. Those in the second rely on sameness of extension instead of sameness of meaning, and so are indeterminate as counter evidence. Usage consistent with Contrast, on the other hand, is pervasive in children's speech from an early age.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 317 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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Footnotes

*

Preparation of this paper was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD 5 Roi HD18908) and in part by the Sloan Foundation. I am grateful to Virginia Gathercole whose paper (Gathercole 1987) inspired the present article in response; I would also like to thank Melissa Bowerman and Herbert H. Clark for much discussion over the years that has played an invaluable role in shaping my arguments.

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