scholarly journals The Pervasive Role of Pragmatics in Early Language

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Bohn ◽  
Michael C. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Social Reasoning ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Computational Framework ◽  
Linguistic Pragmatics ◽  
Developmental Continuity ◽  
Pragmatic Reasoning

Language is a fundamentally social endeavor. Pragmatics is the study of how speakers and listeners use social reasoning to go beyond the literal meanings of words to interpret language in context. In this article, we take a pragmatic perspective on language development and argue for developmental continuity between early nonverbal communication, language learning, and linguistic pragmatics. We link phenomena from these different literatures by relating them to a computational framework (the rational speech act framework), which conceptualizes communication as fundamentally inferential and grounded in social cognition. The model specifies how different information sources (linguistic utterances, social cues, common ground) are combined when making pragmatic inferences. We present evidence in favor of this inferential view and review how pragmatic reasoning supports children's learning, comprehension, and use of language.

scholarly journals The pervasive role of pragmatics in early language

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Bohn ◽  
Michael C. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Social Reasoning ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Computational Framework ◽  
Linguistic Pragmatics ◽  
Developmental Continuity ◽  
Pragmatic Reasoning

Language is a fundamentally social endeavor. Pragmatics is the study of how speakers and listeners use social reasoning to go beyond the literal meanings of words to interpret language in context. In this review, we take a pragmatic perspective on language development and argue for developmental continuity between early non-verbal communication, language learning, and linguistic pragmatics. We link phenomena from these different literatures by relating them to a computational framework (the rational speech act framework), which conceptualizes communication as fundamentally inferential and grounded in social cognition. The model specifies how different information sources (linguistic utterances, social cues, common ground) are combined when making pragmatic inferences. We present evidence in favor of this inferential view and review how pragmatic reasoning supports children’s learning, comprehension, and use of language.

scholarly journals Predicting pragmatic cue integration in adults’ and children’s inferences about novel word meanings

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Bohn ◽  
Michael Henry Tessler ◽  
Megan Merrick ◽  
Michael C. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Pragmatic Information ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Model Predictions ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Pragmatic Reasoning

Language is learned in complex social settings where listeners must reconstruct speakers’ intended meanings from context. To navigate this challenge, children can use pragmatic reasoning to learn the meaning of unfamiliar words. One important challenge for pragmatic reasoning is that it requires integrating multiple information sources. Here we study this integration process. We isolate two sources of pragmatic information (common ground and expectations about informativeness) and – using a probabilistic model of conversational reasoning – formalize how they should be combined and how this process might develop. We use this model to generate quantitative predictions, which we test against new behavioral data from three- to five-year-old children (N = 243) and adults (N = 694). Results show close numerical alignment between model predictions and data. Furthermore, the model provided a better explanation of the data compared to simpler alternative models assuming that children selectively ignore one information source. This work integrates distinct sets of findings regarding early language and suggests that pragmatic reasoning models can provide a quantitative framework for understanding developmental changes in language learning.

Experimental Pragmatics

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond W. Gibbs
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Important Research ◽  
Experimental Pragmatics ◽  
Linguistic Pragmatics ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Discourse Understanding

This chapter describes some of the important research in experimental pragmatics, most notably studies related to recovering speakers’ intentions, inferring conversational implicatures, and the role of common ground in discourse understanding. My aim is to demonstrate the utility of different experimental methods for studying pragmatics, and how research findings in the field are relevant to traditional concerns within the linguistic pragmatics community. But I will also argue that experimental pragmatic studies show great regularities and significant variation, both within and across individuals, in the ways people speak and understand language. My alternative view claims that dynamical, self-organizing processes form the critical background from which meaningful pragmatic actions emerge. The implications of this position for interdisciplinary pragmatic research will be discussed.

Language, Nineteen eighty-four, and 1989

1994 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Buchowski ◽  
David B. Kronenfeld ◽  
William Peterman ◽  
Lynn Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
George Orwell ◽  
Early Language

ABSTRACTThe article examines the fact that the push for democracy and the end of Communist rule in Central Europe was phrased in terms of traditional European notions of freedom and democracy, in spite of longlived Communist attempts to redefine these and related terms in order to make them a Communist reality. Communist language usage was forcefully brought home to the West by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four, especially in his notion of “doublethink”. We use the semantic theory of David Kronenfeld, along with Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance and Jean Piaget's views of how children's cognitive systems develop (including natural language), to derive a theoretical explanation for the failure of the Orwellian prediction and of the Communist linguistic efforts on which it was predicated. The explanation involves Ferdinand de Saussure's central idea that language is an interlinked system which is crucially social, and points to the critical role of childre's early language learning (in mundane, everyday contexts) on the development and structuring of their adult system. (Extensionist semantics, politics and language, cognitive dissonance, Central Europe, Poland, George Orwell, propaganda, language change)

The role of multisensory development in early language learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 48-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina M. Mason ◽  
Michael H. Goldstein ◽  
Jennifer A. Schwade
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Early Language

App-titude: Top Apps for Tots

ASHA Leader ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-32
Author(s):  
Heidi Hanks
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Early Language ◽  
At Home

Leave your flashcards at home and try these five apps for early language learning.

Tertiary English-majored Students’ Perceptions toward the Role of Pronunciation in English Language Learning and their Practicing Strategies

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-279
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
The University

Accurate pronunciation has a vital role in English language learning as it can help learners to avoid misunderstanding in communication. However, EFL learners in many contexts, especially at the University of Phan Thiet, still encounter many difficulties in pronouncing English correctly. Therefore, this study endeavors to explore English-majored students’ perceptions towards the role of pronunciation in English language learning and examine their pronunciation practicing strategies (PPS). It involved 155 English-majored students at the University of Phan Thiet who answered closed-ended questionnaires and 18 English-majored students who participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that students strongly believed in the important role of pronunciation in English language learning; however, they sometimes employed PPS for their pronunciation improvement. Furthermore, the results showed that participants tended to use naturalistic practicing strategies and formal practicing strategies with sounds, but they overlooked strategies such as asking for help and cooperating with peers. Such findings could contribute further to the understanding of how students perceive the role of pronunciation and their PPS use in the research’s context and other similar ones. Received 10th June 2019; Revised 12th March 2020; Accepted 12th April 2020

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