Reference & Audience Design (Pragmatic Development II)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the lecture on Pragmatic Development, Reference, and Audience Design.

Pragmatics

The study of how context and speaker intention shape meaning beyond the literal content of utterances.

Grice’s Theory of Conversation

A view that language use is guided by cooperative principles and maxims, with listeners deriving meaning via implicature.

Cooperative Principle

The assumption that participants in conversation strive to communicate effectively and cooperatively.

Maxim of Quantity

A Gricean guideline suggesting speakers provide as much information as is needed, no more and no less.

Scalar implicature

A pragmatic inference where a term on a scale (e.g., some vs all) implies a richer alternative (not all).

Scale

A ranked set of terms used in making inferences about what is meant (e.g., all, some, few).

Theory of Mind

Understanding others’ beliefs, desires, and intentions; a foundation for interpreting implicatures.

Reference

The relation between expressions (words/phrases) and the entities they stand for.

Reference assignment

Linking referring expressions to their intended referents in discourse.

Common ground

Information known and acknowledged by both speaker and listener, enabling effective reference.

Privileged ground

Knowledge that a speaker has but the listener does not.

Audience Design

Adjusting language to suit the listener’s knowledge, perspective, or needs.

Referential communication tasks

Experiments where speakers describe items so listeners can identify the referent.

Visual world paradigm

An eye-tracking method using a visual display to study language processing as people listen.

Eye-tracking

Measuring where and when a person looks to infer attentional focus during language tasks.

Typicality

How representative a referent’s properties are within its category (typical vs atypical).

Modification

Using descriptive qualifiers (e.g., tall) to disambiguate a referent.

Contrastive context

A setting where a contrast between items helps disambiguate reference.

Non-contrastive context

A setting with no explicit contrast to guide reference.

Disambiguation

Process of clarifying which referent is intended when reference is ambiguous.

Definite descriptions

Phrases like 'the dog' that pick out a specific referent in context.

Pronouns

Words like he, she, it used to refer back to previously mentioned referents.

Deictic expressions

Context-dependent terms like this/that/here/there whose reference shifts with context.

Referential choice

Deciding among definite descriptions, pronouns, or demonstratives to refer to a referent.

Eye gaze in word learning

Infants use a speaker’s gaze to map labels to objects when mapping is ambiguous.

Common ground vs privileged ground distinction (in practice)

Using shared knowledge vs knowledge only one participant has to guide reference.

Disambiguation tasks (contrastive displays)

Disambiguation experiments where contrast helps determine the intended referent.

Generic-listener adjustment

Adjustments based on what a typical listener would infer, not specific knowledge.

Particular-listener adjustment

Adjustments tailored to a specific listener’s knowledge or perspective (e.g., visual access).

Nadig & Sedivy 2002

Found common ground influences how people modify referring expressions; used visual-world data.

Brown & Dell 1987

Showed adults’ adjustments are driven by comprehension demands; atypical-instrument mentions rise with task demands.

Grigoroglou & Papafragou 2019

Demonstrated that children’s audience design is context-dependent and more robust with interactive tasks.

O’Neill 1996

Evidence that 2-year-olds adjust naming to the listener’s perspective.

Matthews, Lieven, Theakston & Tomasello 2006

Found 3–4-year-olds tailor referring expressions when listeners cannot see the event; 2-year-olds do less.

Davies & Katsos 2010

Showed developmental trends in children’s use of informative vs. under-informative referring expressions.