Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DEVCOM (The Developing Communicator: Pragmatics, Sense Conventions and Non-Literal Uses of Language)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-03-01 do 2023-08-31
Children are born communicators. Already from their first months of life, they detect communication directed at them in the form of eye contact, speech and behaviour. Around 9 months they start engaging in acts of joint attention, and rely on their understanding of speakers’ intentions when learning their first words around 18 months. This early communicative competence (also called their ‘pragmatics’) underlies the ability of 2-year-olds to track speakers’ knowledge when understanding and using referential expressions, the ability of 3-year-olds to use pronouns for referents that are given in the discourse, and the ability of preschoolers to distinguish between shared and individual knowledge when they interpret complex noun phrases. However, a puzzling feature of pragmatic development is the difficulties children face with non-literal uses of language (‘non-literal uses’ for short), that is, cases where in order to understand the speaker’s intended meaning they have to go beyond the conventional senses of the words and sentences the speaker has used (e.g. understanding a parent’s metaphorical intention in saying “I love you so much I could eat you up!”). How can children be early experts at a range of pragmatically complex tasks requiring attention to speakers’ intentions, but act like ‘literal listeners’ in other contexts?
Despite a significant growth of new evidence and theories on how children acquire their pragmatic abilities, the field does not yet provide a coherent, overall account of how these abilities develop throughout childhood. First, pre-school children’s pragmatic difficulties – which is evident in their tendency toward literal interpretations of non-literal communicative intentions – are not explained by the main pragmatic theories. Second, research on children’s abilities with non-literal uses tends to focus on a narrow set of issues and cases, disregarding potentially clarifying insights from other domains of creative uses of language. Third, children’s abilities with non-literal uses have often been investigated using experimental paradigms that are challenging to them, leading to underestimates of their competence. In order to advance the field of pragmatic development research, there is an urgent need to address these issues in a systematic way.
The overarching objective of the DEVCOM project is to provide an account of the stages and factors involved in children’s developing competence with non-literal uses of language, thereby contributing to a coherent understanding of children’s pragmatic development. The project will break new ground by adopting a global perspective on children’s pragmatic difficulties, investigating the novel hypothesis that children’s growing sensitivity to sense conventions which determine the publicly accepted meaning of words in their language, impedes their pragmatic reasoning with non-literal uses during the pre-school years. According to this hypothesis, preschoolers’ tendency for literal interpretation is not the result of poor pragmatic abilities, but arises because attending to conventional senses serves a crucial function at a particular stage of language learning. The empirical data will be gleaned from experimental studies with typically developing children aged 2-7 years in three previously unconnected domains of non-literal language use: (1) lexical innovation, where speakers create new word forms from existing ones (e.g. ‘Emma houdinied her way out of the high chair’), (2) lexical modulation, where the conventional sense of an expression is adjusted in context (e.g. ‘The kindergarten is empty’, conveying that there are only a few children left), and (3) figurative language, where the communicated meaning of an expression goes far beyond the conventional one (e.g. ‘John is a lion’, communicating ‘very strong’). Each of these domains highlights the interaction of pragmatic reasoning with sensitivity to sense conventions in a distinct way. Further, the project will investigate the atypical pragmatic development of children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) across the domains in (1)-(3), focusing on the possible role of a sensitivity to sense conventions in this population’s persistent difficulties with non-literal uses. The project will use a set of novel, child-friendly methodologies to test children’s comprehension and production of non-literal uses. The empirical results from the four subprojects will provide input to a novel theoretical account of pragmatic development that resolves the developmental puzzle of non-literal uses of language, with broad implications for the fields of language acquisition, developmental psychology, and philosophy of language.
The project's overarching goal will, if achieved, significantly advance cognitive theories of pragmatic development and provide new insight into the crucial shaping effect of language on human cognition. The project's novel methodology has the potential to yield empirically ground-breaking results which may alter our understanding of the nature of our communicative abilities. More detailed insights into the role of conventions in the acquisition of non-literal uses of language will be useful to professionals working and interacting with children, particularly relevant in educational settings. Gaining better knowledge of the underlying causes of a challenging domain of children's language and communication may inform the development of educational programs and help optimize children's learning contexts and outcomes. Furthermore, increased knowledge about the sources of the difficulties that children with Autism Spectrum Conditions experience with non-literal uses may impact the design of support and intervention programmes to improve the social and academic functioning of this group, contributing to the foundations for an inclusive education in which children with autism have equal opportunities.
Despite a significant growth of new evidence and theories on how children acquire their pragmatic abilities, the field does not yet provide a coherent, overall account of how these abilities develop throughout childhood. First, pre-school children’s pragmatic difficulties – which is evident in their tendency toward literal interpretations of non-literal communicative intentions – are not explained by the main pragmatic theories. Second, research on children’s abilities with non-literal uses tends to focus on a narrow set of issues and cases, disregarding potentially clarifying insights from other domains of creative uses of language. Third, children’s abilities with non-literal uses have often been investigated using experimental paradigms that are challenging to them, leading to underestimates of their competence. In order to advance the field of pragmatic development research, there is an urgent need to address these issues in a systematic way.
The overarching objective of the DEVCOM project is to provide an account of the stages and factors involved in children’s developing competence with non-literal uses of language, thereby contributing to a coherent understanding of children’s pragmatic development. The project will break new ground by adopting a global perspective on children’s pragmatic difficulties, investigating the novel hypothesis that children’s growing sensitivity to sense conventions which determine the publicly accepted meaning of words in their language, impedes their pragmatic reasoning with non-literal uses during the pre-school years. According to this hypothesis, preschoolers’ tendency for literal interpretation is not the result of poor pragmatic abilities, but arises because attending to conventional senses serves a crucial function at a particular stage of language learning. The empirical data will be gleaned from experimental studies with typically developing children aged 2-7 years in three previously unconnected domains of non-literal language use: (1) lexical innovation, where speakers create new word forms from existing ones (e.g. ‘Emma houdinied her way out of the high chair’), (2) lexical modulation, where the conventional sense of an expression is adjusted in context (e.g. ‘The kindergarten is empty’, conveying that there are only a few children left), and (3) figurative language, where the communicated meaning of an expression goes far beyond the conventional one (e.g. ‘John is a lion’, communicating ‘very strong’). Each of these domains highlights the interaction of pragmatic reasoning with sensitivity to sense conventions in a distinct way. Further, the project will investigate the atypical pragmatic development of children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) across the domains in (1)-(3), focusing on the possible role of a sensitivity to sense conventions in this population’s persistent difficulties with non-literal uses. The project will use a set of novel, child-friendly methodologies to test children’s comprehension and production of non-literal uses. The empirical results from the four subprojects will provide input to a novel theoretical account of pragmatic development that resolves the developmental puzzle of non-literal uses of language, with broad implications for the fields of language acquisition, developmental psychology, and philosophy of language.
The project's overarching goal will, if achieved, significantly advance cognitive theories of pragmatic development and provide new insight into the crucial shaping effect of language on human cognition. The project's novel methodology has the potential to yield empirically ground-breaking results which may alter our understanding of the nature of our communicative abilities. More detailed insights into the role of conventions in the acquisition of non-literal uses of language will be useful to professionals working and interacting with children, particularly relevant in educational settings. Gaining better knowledge of the underlying causes of a challenging domain of children's language and communication may inform the development of educational programs and help optimize children's learning contexts and outcomes. Furthermore, increased knowledge about the sources of the difficulties that children with Autism Spectrum Conditions experience with non-literal uses may impact the design of support and intervention programmes to improve the social and academic functioning of this group, contributing to the foundations for an inclusive education in which children with autism have equal opportunities.
Stage 1: Kick-off (September 2020-February 2021) was dedicated to recruitment of team members, setting up a project website (https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/devcom/) literature reviews, development and refinement of theoretical hypotheses. We organized a kick-off workshop on 7 January 2020 with the Scientific Advisory Board, where team members presented and got feedback on their research plans.
Stage II: Experimental Designs (March 2021-August 2022) and Stage III: Data Collection, Analysis and Writing Up (September 2022-February 2024): We have designed, piloted, and run a set of experimental studies with children and adults, recruited from around the Oslo area. We have so far run several studies that test children’s comprehension of lexical innovation (noun-noun compounds and denominal verbs), imprecise uses of adjectives, metonymy, and different types of metaphor. Our preliminary results provide some evidence that younger children may be ‘more pragmatic’ than older children, whose focus on literal, conventional meanings appear to be stronger.
As a result of the ERC grant, I have been able to establish The DEVCOM Lab for research in experimental developmental pragmatics at the University of Oslo. In collaboration with the Creativity and Convention in Pragmatic Development project (RCN project no 302083), we have hired a Lab Manager (funded by the RCN) to coordinate the recruitment and testing of participants for our studies. Data collection for several experiments and follow-up studies are ongoing. The collaboration with the Lindy Lab (PI: Agustín Vicente) at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) has been set up and resulted in a publication that discusses the overarching hypothesis of the DEVCOM project about the role of sensitivity to sense conventions in pragmatic reasoning in autism (Vicente & Falkum, 2021). In February-March 2022 postdoc Kristen Schroeder (UiO) visited the Lindy Lab to set up and coordinate the data collection with ASC participants. PhD student Isabel Martín-Gonzales (UPV) visited the UiO from April-June 2022 to work on the analysis of these results.
Several papers presenting the results of our studies are currently being written up or are under review for publication in high-impact journals. Our work has been presented (or has been accepted for presentation) at several international conferences and workshops, including The biennial Meeting of Experimental Pragmatics (XPrag), The International Pragmatics Conference (IPrA) and The Cognitive Science Society (CogSci).
Stage II: Experimental Designs (March 2021-August 2022) and Stage III: Data Collection, Analysis and Writing Up (September 2022-February 2024): We have designed, piloted, and run a set of experimental studies with children and adults, recruited from around the Oslo area. We have so far run several studies that test children’s comprehension of lexical innovation (noun-noun compounds and denominal verbs), imprecise uses of adjectives, metonymy, and different types of metaphor. Our preliminary results provide some evidence that younger children may be ‘more pragmatic’ than older children, whose focus on literal, conventional meanings appear to be stronger.
As a result of the ERC grant, I have been able to establish The DEVCOM Lab for research in experimental developmental pragmatics at the University of Oslo. In collaboration with the Creativity and Convention in Pragmatic Development project (RCN project no 302083), we have hired a Lab Manager (funded by the RCN) to coordinate the recruitment and testing of participants for our studies. Data collection for several experiments and follow-up studies are ongoing. The collaboration with the Lindy Lab (PI: Agustín Vicente) at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) has been set up and resulted in a publication that discusses the overarching hypothesis of the DEVCOM project about the role of sensitivity to sense conventions in pragmatic reasoning in autism (Vicente & Falkum, 2021). In February-March 2022 postdoc Kristen Schroeder (UiO) visited the Lindy Lab to set up and coordinate the data collection with ASC participants. PhD student Isabel Martín-Gonzales (UPV) visited the UiO from April-June 2022 to work on the analysis of these results.
Several papers presenting the results of our studies are currently being written up or are under review for publication in high-impact journals. Our work has been presented (or has been accepted for presentation) at several international conferences and workshops, including The biennial Meeting of Experimental Pragmatics (XPrag), The International Pragmatics Conference (IPrA) and The Cognitive Science Society (CogSci).
Overarching the research of the project is the novel hypothesis that pre-school children’s growing sensitivity to sense conventions might impede their pragmatic reasoning with non-literal uses of language. One major achievement of the project so far is a task that taps into children’s and adults’ sensitivity to conventions in different domains, including language, categorization, artifact use, pretence and rule-based games. Preliminary findings suggest a developmental spurt that starts around the age of 5 with a particular sensitivity to conventions (Iversen, Ronderos & Falkum, in prep). Theoretical work has also been dedicated to the exploration of this hypothesis, focusing on typically-developing children (Allott & Falkum, in prep), and individuals with autism (Vicente & Falkum, 2021).
We expect to further nuance these findings when the empirical results from all the subprojects have been obtained, processed and put together to give a fuller picture of children's abilities with non-literal uses of language (lexical innovation, modulation, figurative use) and pragmatic development more generally.
If we were to find an interference from the development of sensitivity to conventions on pragmatic reasoning with non-literal uses during a specific developmental period, it has the potential to fill a critical gap in cognitive theories of pragmatic development and open up a whole new domain of research.
We expect to further nuance these findings when the empirical results from all the subprojects have been obtained, processed and put together to give a fuller picture of children's abilities with non-literal uses of language (lexical innovation, modulation, figurative use) and pragmatic development more generally.
If we were to find an interference from the development of sensitivity to conventions on pragmatic reasoning with non-literal uses during a specific developmental period, it has the potential to fill a critical gap in cognitive theories of pragmatic development and open up a whole new domain of research.