Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production
Upon hearing “Some of Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome,” adults can easily generate a scalar implicature and infer that the intended meaning of the utterance corresponds to “Some but not all Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome.” Comprehension experiments show that preschoolers struggle with t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.556667/full |
| _version_ | 1818959192642289664 |
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| author | Irene Mognon Simone A. Sprenger Sanne J. M. Kuijper Petra Hendriks |
| author_facet | Irene Mognon Simone A. Sprenger Sanne J. M. Kuijper Petra Hendriks |
| author_sort | Irene Mognon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Upon hearing “Some of Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome,” adults can easily generate a scalar implicature and infer that the intended meaning of the utterance corresponds to “Some but not all Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome.” Comprehension experiments show that preschoolers struggle with this kind of inference until at least 5 years of age. Surprisingly, the few studies having investigated children’s production of scalar expressions like some and all suggest that production is adult-like already in their third year of life. Thus, children’s production of implicatures seems to develop at least 2 years before their comprehension of implicatures. In this paper, we present a novel account of scalar implicature generation in the framework of Bidirectional Optimality Theory: the Asymmetry Account. We show that the production–comprehension asymmetry is predicted to emerge because the comprehension of some requires the hearer to consider the speaker’s perspective, but the production of some does not require the speaker to consider the hearer’s perspective. Hence, children’s comprehension of scalar expressions, but not their production of scalar expressions, is predicted to be related to their theory of mind development. Not possessing fully developed theory of mind abilities yet, children thus have difficulty in comprehending scalar expressions such as some in an adult-like way. Our account also explains why variable performance is found in experimental studies testing children’s ability to generate scalar implicatures; moreover, it describes the differences between children’s and adults’ implicature generation in terms of their ability to recursively apply theory of mind; finally, it sheds new light on the question why the interpretation of numerals does not require implicature generation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T11:37:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3bd45a4de6c24f4c9f80584d4f5e23c1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T11:37:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-3bd45a4de6c24f4c9f80584d4f5e23c12022-12-21T19:42:03ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-01-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.556667556667Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature ProductionIrene Mognon0Simone A. Sprenger1Sanne J. M. Kuijper2Petra Hendriks3Center for Language and Cognition Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsCenter for Language and Cognition Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsDepartment of Inclusive and Special Needs Education, Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsCenter for Language and Cognition Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsUpon hearing “Some of Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome,” adults can easily generate a scalar implicature and infer that the intended meaning of the utterance corresponds to “Some but not all Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome.” Comprehension experiments show that preschoolers struggle with this kind of inference until at least 5 years of age. Surprisingly, the few studies having investigated children’s production of scalar expressions like some and all suggest that production is adult-like already in their third year of life. Thus, children’s production of implicatures seems to develop at least 2 years before their comprehension of implicatures. In this paper, we present a novel account of scalar implicature generation in the framework of Bidirectional Optimality Theory: the Asymmetry Account. We show that the production–comprehension asymmetry is predicted to emerge because the comprehension of some requires the hearer to consider the speaker’s perspective, but the production of some does not require the speaker to consider the hearer’s perspective. Hence, children’s comprehension of scalar expressions, but not their production of scalar expressions, is predicted to be related to their theory of mind development. Not possessing fully developed theory of mind abilities yet, children thus have difficulty in comprehending scalar expressions such as some in an adult-like way. Our account also explains why variable performance is found in experimental studies testing children’s ability to generate scalar implicatures; moreover, it describes the differences between children’s and adults’ implicature generation in terms of their ability to recursively apply theory of mind; finally, it sheds new light on the question why the interpretation of numerals does not require implicature generation.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.556667/fullscalar implicatureslanguage acquisitionhorn scalesasymmetriessemantics–pragmatics interfaceoptimality theory |
| spellingShingle | Irene Mognon Simone A. Sprenger Sanne J. M. Kuijper Petra Hendriks Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production Frontiers in Psychology scalar implicatures language acquisition horn scales asymmetries semantics–pragmatics interface optimality theory |
| title | Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production |
| title_full | Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production |
| title_fullStr | Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production |
| title_full_unstemmed | Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production |
| title_short | Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production |
| title_sort | complex inferential processes are needed for implicature comprehension but not for implicature production |
| topic | scalar implicatures language acquisition horn scales asymmetries semantics–pragmatics interface optimality theory |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.556667/full |
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