Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:17:47.979Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children's interpretation of referential ambiguities and pragmatic inference*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Serge Bredart
Serge Bredart
Affiliation:
University of Liège
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The verbal responses of 22 second graders, 24 fourth graders and 22 sixth graders to ambiguous and clear messages were recorded. Children's referential choices were analysed. After the ambiguous messages, children (from the age of seven years) chose preferentially a referent with only the feature described in the message rather than a referent with this feature plus another one. The results support the Jackson & Jacobs' hypothesis (1982) that children use an interpretative strategy based on a presupposition about the speaker's co-operation. But the results may also support a hypothesis that children use an information-processing rule not necessarily related to a presupposition about the speaker's co-operation.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , October 1984 , pp. 665 - 672
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Asher, S. R. (1976). Children's ability to appraise their own and another person's communication performance. DevPsych 12. 24–32.Google Scholar
Asher, S. R. (1979). Referential communication. In Whitehurst, G. J. & Zimmerman, B. J. (eds), The functions of language and cognition. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bearison, D. J. & Levey, L. H. (1977). Children's comprehension of referential communication. ChDev 48. 715–20.Google Scholar
Bredart, S. (1983). Pragmatic inference and young children's referential choices after ambiguous messages. Communication at the First European Meeting on the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour,Liège.Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. (eds), Syntax and semantics, Vol. 3. Speech acts. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, S. & Jacobs, S. (1982). Ambiguity and implicature in children's discourse comprehension. JChLang 9. 209–16.Google ScholarPubMed
Patterson, C. J. & Kister, M. C. (1981). The development of listener skills for referential communication. In Dickson, W. P. (ed.), Children's oral communication skills. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, E. J. (1981). The child's understanding of inadequate messages and communication failure: a problem of ignorance or egocentrism? In Dickson, W. P. (ed.), Children's oral communication skills. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Singer, J. B. & Flavell, J. H. (1981). Development of knowledge about communication: children's evaluations of explicitly ambiguous messages. ChDev 52. 1211–15.Google ScholarPubMed