The Effect of Numerical Syntax on Number Comparison in Children
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While much is documented and theorized about how children acquire the meaning of small numbers expressed in simplex numerals (number words that cannot be decomposed further), relatively little is known about how children come to understand complex numerals (that are composed of simplex numerals). We aimed to investigate how children make sense of complex numerals by assessing how they compare large numbers. In a novel task, children compared the numerical values of two large numbers that differed only in one syntactic position (e.g., four hundred twenty chairs vs. six hundred twenty chairs). Together in two studies, with Korean- and English-speaking children, we demonstrate that children including those with limited counting fluency (e.g., not counting past 49 or 99) are able to compare large numbers in the hundreds and the hundred-thousands and that this ability correlates with their counting fluency. At the same time, children find it more difficult to compare two complex-numeral phrases (as the example above) than two simplex-numeral phrases with the same number of words (e.g., four little yellow chairs vs. six little yellow chairs). These results suggest that syntactic complexity of complex numerals influences children’s numerical thinking, which is consistent with the idea that children’s implicit understanding of numerical syntax contributes to building generative number concepts.
Abstract
While much is documented and theorized about how children acquire the meaning of small numbers expressed in simplex numerals (number words that cannot be decomposed further), relatively little is known about how children come to understand complex numerals (that are composed of simplex numerals). We aimed to investigate how children make sense of complex numerals by assessing how they compare large numbers. In a novel task, children compared the numerical values of two large numbers that differed only in one syntactic position (e.g., four hundred twenty chairs vs. six hundred twenty chairs). Together in two studies, with Korean- and English-speaking children, we demonstrate that children including those with limited counting fluency (e.g., not counting past 49 or 99) are able to compare large numbers in the hundreds and the hundred-thousands and that this ability correlates with their counting fluency. At the same time, children find it more difficult to compare two complex-numeral phrases (as the example above) than two simplex-numeral phrases with the same number of words (e.g., four little yellow chairs vs. six little yellow chairs). These results suggest that syntactic complexity of complex numerals influences children’s numerical thinking, which is consistent with the idea that children’s implicit understanding of numerical syntax contributes to building generative number concepts.