English sentences with VP-conjunctions such as "the six people are eating
and reading" have two construals: an intersective reading which is only
true if each of the six boys is both eating and reading and a
non-intersective reading, true if some of the people are eating, some are
reading and each of them is either reading or eating. We tested the
interpretation of VP-conjunction in adults and 6- to 10-year-old with the
Semantic Choice Task. The results show that both groups are able to adopt
either interpretation, with the adults showing a stronger preference for
intersective scenarios than children.