How do children learn the meanings of number words like "one," "two," and "three"? Whereas many words that children learn in early acquisition denote individual things and their properties (e.g., cats, colors, shapes), numerals, like quantifiers, denote the properties of sets. Unlike quantifiers such as "several" and "many," numerals denote…

Is "two" ever a plural marker in child language? By some accounts, children bootstrap the distinction between the words "one" and "two" by observing their use with singular-plural marking ("one ball/two balls"). Others argue that the numeral "two" marks plurality before children begin using numerals to denote precise quantities. We tested the…