ERIC Number: EJ1382388
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1547-5441
EISSN: EISSN-1547-3341
Available Date: N/A
The Role of Perspective-Taking in Children's Quantity Implicatures
Wilson, Elspeth; Lawrence, Rebecca; Katsos, Napoleon
Language Learning and Development, v19 n2 p167-187 2023
Young children excel at pragmatic inferences known as ad hoc quantity implicatures: they can infer, for example, that a speaker who said "the card with apples" meant the card with "nothing but" apples. However, it is not known whether children take into account the speaker's perspective in deriving such inferences, as adults are able to do, and as the received theories of pragmatics claim. In two experiments, we tested children (5-7 years, N = 33 and N = 25) and adults using a picture-matching director task, in which participants played a game giving cards to the speaker, with some cards being in common ground and some in privileged ground. We found that adults can both derive implicatures when all information is in common ground and not derive them when relevant information is in privileged ground. Children also derive ad hoc implicatures when relevant information is in common ground but, crucially, fail to not derive them when it is in privileged ground. Children's difficulty with integrating perspective-taking with pragmatic inferencing challenges the received theories about the necessity of perspective-taking in pragmatics.
Descriptors: Perspective Taking, Pragmatics, Inferences, Language Acquisition, Linguistic Theory, Task Analysis, Games, Adults, Pictorial Stimuli, Difficulty Level, Elementary School Students, Foreign Countries, Comparative Analysis, Prediction, Ambiguity (Context)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (Cambridge)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A