J Psycholinguist Res (2011) 40:155–176 DOI 10.1007/s10936-010-9161-z Children’s Knowledge of the Quantifier Dou in Mandarin Chinese Peng Zhou · Stephen Crain Published online: 9 November 2010 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract The quantifier dou (roughly corresponding to English ‘all’) in Mandarin Chinese has been the topic of much discussion in the theoretical literature. This study investigated children’s knowledge of this quantifier using a new methodological technique, which we dubbed the Question-Statement Task. Three questions were addressed: (i) whether young Mandarin-speaking children know that dou is a universal quantifier that quantifies over the elements to its left, (ii) whether they know that dou is an adverb of quantification (Q-adverb) which can (unselectively) bind any variable in its domain, and (iii) whether they know that dou can quantify over wh-words. The main finding was that, by age four, Mandarin-speaking children have the relevant knowledge. The results reflect the early availability of adult-like linguistic knowledge of dou-quantification. Keywords Dou-quantification · Universal Quantifier · Wh-words · Child language · Mandarin chinese Introduction The quantifier dou (roughly corresponding to English ‘all’) in Mandarin Chinese has been the topic of much discussion in the literature on theoretical linguistics. Its syntax and seman- tics remain controversial. However, it is generally acknowledged that dou is a distributive universal quantifier that binds expressions that precede it, and that dou is an adverb of quantifi- cation (Q-adverb) which can (unselectively) bind multiple expressions, including wh-words. This paper reports the findings of two experiments investigating Mandarin-speaking chil- dren’s knowledge of this quantifier. Three issues were addressed in these experiments. One is whether or not young Mandarin-speaking children know that dou is a universal quantifier. The second issue is whether they know that dou is a Q-adverb. And the last one is whether P. Zhou (B ) · S. Crain Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia e-mail: peng.zhou@mq.edu.au 123