Lexical Pragmatics and Theory of Mind: The Acquisition of Connectives

209 Pages·2010·1.4 MB·English

by  Sandrine Zufferey

Lexical Pragmatics and Theory of Mind
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Volume 201
Lexical Pragmatics and Theory of Mind. The acquisition of connectives
by Sandrine Zufferey
Lexical Pragmatics
and Theory of Mind
The acquisition of connectives
Sandrine Zufferey
University of Geneva
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zufferey, Sandrine.
  Lexical pragmatics and theory of mind : the acquisition of connectives / Sandrine Zufferey.
p. cm. (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, issn 0922-842X ; v. 201)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.  Grammar, Comparative and general--Connectives. 2.  Language acquisition. 3.  Pragmat-
ics. 4.  Discourse analysis.  I. Title.
P302.27.Z84 2010
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Table of content
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
chapter 1
The concept of theory of mind in pragmatics 5
1.1 Defining theory of mind 6
1.1.1 The false belief task 7
1.1.2 Problems and controversies related to the false belief task 8
1.1.3 Acquired concept or innate mental module? 10
1.1.4 Arguments from the neuroscience of theory of mind 13
1.2 Theory of mind and theories of verbal communication 15
1.2.1 The code model of communication 15
1.2.2 Grice’s model of communication 16
1.2.3 Relevance theory 19
1.2.4 A specialized sub-module of theory of mind dedicated
to verbal communication? 22
1.3 Summary 24
chapter 2
The co-acquisition of language and theory of mind 27
2.1 The main stages of language acquisition 28
2.2 The development of theory of mind abilities 30
2.2.1 The main stages of theory of mind development 30
2.2.1.1 Very young children (0–18 months) 31
2.2.1.2 18 months 32
2.2.1.3 From 18 months to 3 years 33
2.2.1.4 From 3 to 6 years 33
2.2.1.5 After 6 years 35
2.2.2 What do the developmental stages of theory of mind tell us
about the nature of this cognitive ability? 35
2.2.3 Individual differences in theory of mind development 38
vi Lexical Pragmatics and Theory of Mind
2.3 Interdependence of language and theory of mind 39
2.3.1 Pragmatic competence: Between language and theory of mind 40
2.3.2 The role of language in theory of mind development 42
2.3.2.1 Language as a trigger for theory of mind abilities 43
2.3.2.2 Are some aspects of language specifically related
to theory of mind? 45
2.3.2.3 What the study of adult aphasics can tell us about
the relation between language and theory of mind 47
2.3.3 Theory of mind development as a pre-requisite
for language acquisition 48
2.3.4 The development of language and theory of mind:
A mutual influence scenario 49
2.4 Summary 50
chapter 3
Insights from autism on language and theory of mind 53
3.1 Autism: A definition 53
3.1.1 The biological basis of autism 54
3.1.2 The autistic spectrum 55
3.1.2.1 Asperger syndrome 56
3.1.2.2 Semantic-pragmatic disorder 56
3.2 Language and communication impairments in autism 58
3.2.1 Handling the formal aspects of language 58
3.2.2 Pragmatic abilities 60
3.2.2.1 The social side of pragmatics 61
3.2.2.2 The cognitive side of pragmatics 61
3.3 The mindblindness hypothesis 63
3.3.1 The nature of theory of mind impairment in autism 63
3.3.2 Language and communication deficits related
to theory of mind 64
3.4 The weak central coherence hypothesis 66
3.4.1 A cognitive style biased towards the treatment of details 66
3.4.2 Communicative impairments due to weak central coherence 67
3.5 Other pathologies associated with a deficit in theory of mind 68
3.5.1 Schizophrenia 69
3.5.2 Right-hemisphere damage 70
3.6 Summary 71
Table of content vii
chapter 4
Language as a window into children’s developing theory of mind 73
4.1 Theory of mind in language 74
4.1.1 Evidentials 74
4.1.2 Modal verbs 77
4.1.3 Words for mental states 78
4.1.4 Syntax and theory of mind 79
4.2 Acquiring the language of theory of mind 82
4.2.1 Methodological considerations 82
4.2.2 The acquisition of mental state terms 83
4.2.3 The acquisition of modal verbs 86
4.2.4 The acquisition of evidential morphology 88
4.2.5 The acquisition of embedded structures 90
4.3 Summary 94
chapter 5
Discourse connectives and theory of mind 97
5.1 The notion of domains of use 98
5.1.1 Sweetser’s tripartite division 98
5.1.2 Alternative proposals 100
5.2 A cognitive analysis of domains of use 103
5.2.1 Domains of use and theory of mind 103
5.2.2 Domains of use and processing cost 104
5.2.3 Previous empirical data on processing cost 107
5.3 Hypotheses regarding the acquisition of domains of use 110
5.4 The domains of use of French causal connectives 113
5.5 The procedural meaning of puisque 115
5.5.1 Previous analyses of puisque 115
5.5.2 Puisque as a marker of echoic use of language 117
5.5.3 Puisque and theory of mind abilities 120
5.6 Summary 122
chapter 6
Empirical study on the acquisition of the French connective parce que 123
6.1 The acquisition of domains of use 123
6.1.1 Kyratzis, Guo and Ervin-Tripp 124
6.1.2 Spooren and Sanders 126
6.1.3 Evers-Vermeul 127
6.1.4 Comparison of results 129
viii Lexical Pragmatics and Theory of Mind
6.2 The acquisition of the French connective parce que: A corpus study 131
6.2.1 Data 131
6.2.2 Methodology 131
6.2.3 Results 134
6.3 Discussion of results 137
6.3.1 Order of acquisition and cognitive complexity 138
6.3.2 The acquisition of epistemic uses and theory
of mind development 139
6.3.3 Cognitive complexity or parental input? 141
6.4 The use of parce que by autistic children 144
6.5 Summary 146
chapter 7
Empirical study on the acquisition of the French connective puisque 147
7.1 Corpus data for the acquisition of puisque 148
7.1.1 Production of puisque between age two and four 148
7.1.2 Parental input for the connective puisque 151
7.2 The acquisition of irony 152
7.2.1 Developmental data 152
7.2.2 Measures used to test the comprehension of irony 154
7.3 The development of second-order theory of mind abilities 157
7.3.1 The Perner and Wimmer test 157
7.3.2 The earliest age of success for second-order theory
of mind tests 158
7.4 Design of an experiment on the acquisition of puisque 161
7.4.1 Subjects 161
7.4.2 Material 161
7.4.3 Procedure 164
7.5 Results 165
7.6 Discussion 167
7.6.1 Comparison with previous studies 167
7.6.2 Puisque versus parce que 169
7.6.3 Correlations between puisque and second-order theory
of mind 170
7.6.4 The role of puisque for the comprehension of irony 170
7.6.5 Developmental effect 171
7.7 Summary 172
Conclusion 173
Bibliography 177
Index 191
Acknowledgments
My first word of thanks goes to Jacques Moeschler, who made me discover and
love pragmatics, and whose advice has been crucial for my work ever since. I
am also greatly indebted to Anne Reboul, who always gave me very stimulating
and insightful feedback on my work during the numerous discussions we have
had over the years. This book is a revised and translated version of my doctoral
dissertation, completed at the University of Geneva in November 2007. In am
therefore grateful to all the members of my thesis committee for their valuable
comments and support: Jacques Moeschler, Anne Reboul, Deirdre Wilson, Ted
Sanders, Ira Noveck and Éric Wehrli. Thanks are also due to the University of
Geneva for the grant that gave me the opportunity to work full-time on this
book for one semester. Many thanks to all those who contributed to the experi-
mental data presented in Chapter 7, either by helping me to create the material
or by allowing me to collect data in several primary schools in Geneva. Finally,
I would like to express gratitude to my parents, to all the members of my family
and to my friends, for their constant love and support. Most of all, I would like
to thank my husband, Andrei Popescu-Belis, for his insightful comments on the
draft manuscript, but more importantly for persuading me that I can do every-
thing. When I defended my thesis in 2007 I was expecting my son Alexandre,
and while I turned it into this book I was expecting my daughter Élise – so a
great many thanks to both of them for accompanying me during this adventure
and for making my life beautiful every day.