Vol 1: Pragmatic Development — Scalar Implicature and Theory of Mind

Flashcards cover core concepts from Pragmatic Development about how pragmatic meaning is inferred, practices for testing implicatures, and key findings on child language development and theory-of-mind.

Pragmatics

The study of how context influences meaning, including speaker meaning beyond the literal words and how listeners interpret intended message.

Implicature

A meaning inferred from a speaker's utterance that goes beyond its literal content, often due to conversational maxims being followed or violated.

Cooperative Principle

Grice’s idea that speakers and listeners cooperate to make conversations effective, guiding what is said in context.

Maxims

Rules guiding conversational contribution: Quality, Quantity, Relevance (Relation), and Manner.

Quality (maxim)

Be truthful and have evidence for what you say.

Quantity (maxim)

Be as informative as required; do not say more or less than needed.

Relation/Context (Relevance) (maxim)

Be relevant to the topic of discussion.

Manner (maxim)

Be clear, orderly, and avoid ambiguity.

Scalar implicature

An implicature that arises when a weaker term on a scale is used instead of a stronger one (e.g., Some instead of All).

Stronger scalar alternative

The more informative term on a scale that could have been used (e.g., All on the some/all scale).

Logical scale

A scale involving logical terms like some/all used to test implicatures.

Numerical scale

A scale involving numerical terms like two/three used to test implicatures.

Verbal scale

A scale involving verb-related terms like start/finish used to test implicatures.

Ad hoc scale

A context-created scale used to probe implicatures in specific situations.

Ad hoc implicature

Implicature derived from context-specific scales rather than fixed linguistic scales.

Contextual support

Additional contextual cues that help listeners derive implicatures.

Theory of Mind (ToM)

Understanding others’ mental states and beliefs; often described as mindreading.

Mindreading

Inferring others’ thoughts, beliefs, and intentions in social interaction.

Folk psychology

Common-sense understanding of mental states and behaviors used to explain and predict actions.

Truth Value Judgment Task (TVJT)

A task where participants judge whether a statement is true, false, or indeterminate, used to assess implicature processing.

Grice

Philosopher who proposed the Cooperative Principle and the four maxims of conversation.

Reading the mind

Another way to refer to Theory of Mind and the ability to infer others’ mental states.

Scalar implicature development (age)

Research suggesting different ages for acquiring implicatures: roughly ad hoc (around 3), numerical (around 4), logical (around 5).

Barner et al. 2011 (numerical scales)

Research indicating numerals on scales (e.g., two/three) can yield implicatures and are learned relatively early.

Papafragou & Musolino 2003

Research on when children acquire scalar implicatures, showing developmental timelines for different scales.

Skordos & Papafragou 2016

Work showing that access to the stronger scalar alternative affects children’s ability to generate implicatures, with age-related effects.

Katsos & Bishop 2011

Studies using binary and ternary truth judgments to probe children’s sensitivity to implicatures and how task type affects results.

Stiller et al. 2015

Research on scalar implicature task demands and how contextual support can aid children in generating implicatures.