Several studies investigated preschoolers’ ability to compute scalar and ad-hoc implicatures, but only one compared children's performance with both kinds of implicature with the same task, a picture selection task. In Experiment 1 (N = 58, age: 4;2-6;0), we first show that the truth value judgment task, traditionally employed to investigate children's pragmatic ability, prompts a rate of pragmatic responses comparable to the picture selection task. In Experiment 2 (N = 141, age: 3;8-9;2) we used the picture selection task to compare scalar and ad-hoc implicatures and linked the ability to derive these implicatures to some cognitive and linguistic measures. We found that four- and five-year-olds children performed better on ad-hoc than on scalar implicatures. Furthermore, we found that morphosyntactic competence was associated with success in both kinds of implicatures, while performance on mental state reasoning was positively associated with success on scalar but not ad-hoc implicatures.

Foppolo, F., Mazzaggio, G., Panzeri, F., Surian, L. (2021). Scalar and ad-hoc pragmatic inferences in children: guess which one is easier. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE, 48(2), 350-372 [10.1017/S030500092000032X].

Scalar and ad-hoc pragmatic inferences in children: guess which one is easier

Foppolo, F
;
Panzeri, F;
2021

Abstract

Several studies investigated preschoolers’ ability to compute scalar and ad-hoc implicatures, but only one compared children's performance with both kinds of implicature with the same task, a picture selection task. In Experiment 1 (N = 58, age: 4;2-6;0), we first show that the truth value judgment task, traditionally employed to investigate children's pragmatic ability, prompts a rate of pragmatic responses comparable to the picture selection task. In Experiment 2 (N = 141, age: 3;8-9;2) we used the picture selection task to compare scalar and ad-hoc implicatures and linked the ability to derive these implicatures to some cognitive and linguistic measures. We found that four- and five-year-olds children performed better on ad-hoc than on scalar implicatures. Furthermore, we found that morphosyntactic competence was associated with success in both kinds of implicatures, while performance on mental state reasoning was positively associated with success on scalar but not ad-hoc implicatures.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
acquisition of pragmatics; ad-hoc implicatures; scalar implicatures;
English
10-giu-2020
2021
48
2
350
372
none
Foppolo, F., Mazzaggio, G., Panzeri, F., Surian, L. (2021). Scalar and ad-hoc pragmatic inferences in children: guess which one is easier. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE, 48(2), 350-372 [10.1017/S030500092000032X].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/284304
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