Chapter published in:
Semantics in Language Acquisition
Edited by Kristen Syrett and Sudha Arunachalam
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 24] 2018
► pp. 326–349

Chapter 14
Four-year-old children compute scalar implicatures in absence of epistemic reasoning

| University of California, San Diego
| University of California, San Diego
| University of Southern California
| Concordia University
Children exhibit sophisticated mental state (epistemic) reasoning abilities from an early age, but it remains unclear what role these abilities play in the development of pragmatic inference in language acquisition. Here, we examined the role of epistemic reasoning in scalar implicature. Experiment 1 found that most 4-year-olds successfully computed a sub-type of scalar implicature (ad hoc implicatures), despite failing to compute so-called “ignorance implicatures”, a type of epistemic inference that Gricean models of pragmatics deem necessary for scalar implicature. In Experiment 2, we tested 4- and 5-year-old children, and replicated the finding that children compute ad hoc implicatures more readily than ignorance implicatures, and that children’s difficulties with ignorance implicature are unrelated to performance on Theory of Mind tasks.
Keywords: pragmatics, scalar implicature, ignorance implicature, language acquisition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Experiment 1
    • 2.1Method
      • 2.1.1Participants
      • 2.1.2Procedure & Stimuli
        • 2.1.2.1Ignorance task
        • 2.1.2.2 Ad hoc implicature task
    • 2.2Results
  • 3.Experiment 2
    • 3.1Method
      • 3.1.1Participants
      • 3.1.2Procedure & stimuli
    • 3.2Results
  • 4.General discussion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 02 August 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.24.14bar
References
Baillargeon, R., Scott, R. M., & He, Z.
(2010) False-belief understanding in infants. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14, 110–118.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, D. A.
(1991) Infants’ contribution to the achievement of joint reference. Child Development, 62, 874–890.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bale, A., & Barner, D.
(2013) Grammatical alternatives and pragmatic development. In A. Falaus (Ed.), Alternatives in semantics. Houndmills: Palgrave.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Barner, D., & Bachrach, A.
(2010) Inference and exact numerical representation in early language development. Cognitive Psychology, 60, 40–62.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Barner, D., Brooks, N., & Bale, A.
(2011) Accessing the unsaid: The role of scalar alternatives in children’s pragmatic inference. Cognition, 188, 87–96.Google Scholar
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S.
(2014) lme4: Linear mixed-effects models using Eigen and S4. R package version, 1(7), 1–23.Google Scholar
Bates, D., Kliegl, R., Vasishth, S., & Baayen, H.
(2015) Parsimonious mixed models. arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.04967.Google Scholar
Bates, D., Kliegl, R., Vasishth, S., & Baayen, R. H.
(2015a) Parsimonious mixed models. arXiv:1506.04967.Google Scholar
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S
(2015b) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Behne, T., Carpenter, M., Call, J., & Tomasello, M.
(2005) Unwilling versus unable: infants’ understanding of intentional action. Developmental Psychology, 41, 328–337.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, P.
(2000) How children learn the meanings of words. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Braine, M. D. S., & Rumain, B.
(1983) Logical reasoning. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. III: Cognitive development (4th ed., J. H. Flavell & E. M. Markman (Vol. Eds.), pp. 263–340). New York, NY: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Carpenter, M., Akhtar, N., & Tomasello, M.
(1998) Fourteen- to 18-month-old infants differentially imitate intentional and accidental actions. Infant Behavior and Development, 21, 315–330.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chierchia, G.
(2004) Scalar implicatures, polarity phenomena, and the syntax/pragmatics interface. In A. Belletti (Ed.), Structures and beyond (pp. 39–103). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2006) Broaden your views: Implicatures of domain widening and the “locality” of language. Linguistic Inquiry, 37, 535–590.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chierchia, G., Crain, S., Guasti, M. T., Gualmini, A., & Meroni, L.
(2001) The acquisition of disjunction: Evidence for a grammatical view of scalar implicatures. In A. H-J. Do, L. Domínguez, & A. Johansen (Eds.), BUCLD 25: Proceedings of the 25th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 157–168). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Chierchia, G., Fox, D., & Spector, B.
(2012) The grammatical view of scalar implicatures and the relationship between syntax and semantics. In C. Maienborn, K. von Heusinger, & P. Portner. (Eds.), Semantics: An international handbook of natural language meaning (Vol. 1). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Clark, E.
(1990) On the pragmatics of contrast. Journal of Child Language, 17, 417–431.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de Marchena, A., Eigsti, I. M., Worek, A., Ono, K. E., & Snedeker, J.
(2011) Mutual exclusivity in autism spectrum disorders: Testing the pragmatic hypothesis. Cognition, 119, 96–113.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Diesendruck, G., & Markson, L.
(2001) Children’s avoidance of lexical overlap: A pragmatic account. Developmental Psychology, 37, 630–641.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Foppolo, F., Guasti, M. T., & Chierchia, G.
(2012) Scalar implicatures in child language: Give children a chance. Language Learning and Development, 8, 365–394.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fox, D.
(2007) Free choice and the theory of scalar implicatures. In U. Sauerland & P. Stateva (Eds.), Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fox, D. & Hackl, M.
(2006) The universal density of measurement. Linguistics and Philosophy, 29, 537–586.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, V. C.
(1989) Contrast: A semantic constraint? Journal of Child Language, 16, 685–702.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gazdar, G.
(1979) Pragmatics: Implicature, presupposition, and logical form. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Geurts, B.
(2009) Scalar implicature and local pragmatics. Mind and Language, 24, 51–79.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Grice, P.
(1975) Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics (Vol. 3). New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gualmini, A., Crain, S., Meroni, L., Chierchia, G., & Guasti, M. T.
(2001) At the semantics/pragmatics interface in child language. In R. Hastings, B. Jackson, & Z. Zvolenszky (Eds.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory XI. Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hirschberg, J.
(1985) A theory of scalar implicature (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Hochstein, L., Bale, A., Fox, D., & Barner, D.
(2016) Ignorance and inference: Do problems with Gricean epistemic reasoning explain children’s difficulty with scalar implicature? Journal of Semantics, 33(1), 107–135.Google Scholar
Horn, L.
(1972) On the semantic properties of logical operators in English (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of California, Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Katsos, N., & Bishop, D.
(2011) Pragmatic tolerance: Implications for the acquisition of informativeness and implicature. Cognition, 120, 67–81.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Katzir, R.
(2007) Structurally-defined alternatives. Linguistics and Philosophy, 30, 669–690.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Landman, F.
(1998) Plurals and maximalization. In S. Rothstein (Ed.), Events and grammar (pp. 237–271). Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S.
(2000) Presumptive meaning. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M.
(2008) Twelve-month-olds communicate helpfully and appropriately for knowledgeable and ignorant partners. Cognition, 108, 732–739.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Markman, E. M., & Wachtel, G. F.
(1988) Children’s use of mutual exclusivity to constrain the meanings of words. Cognitive Psychology, 20, 121–157.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Markman, E. M., Wasow, J. L., & Hansen, M. B.
(2003) Use of the mutual exclusivity assumption by young word learners. Cognitive psychology, 47(3), 241–275.Google Scholar
Meyer, M.
(2013) Ignorance and grammar (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). MIT.Google Scholar
Miller, K., Schmitt, C., Chang, H., & Munn, A.
(2005) Young children understand some implicatures. In A. Brugos, M. Clark-Cotton, & S. Ha (Eds.), BUCLD 29: Proceedings of the 29th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 389–400). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Noveck, I.
(2001) When children are more logical than adults: Experimental investigations of scalar implicature. Cognition, 78, 165–188.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
O’Neill, D. K.
(1996) Two-year-old children’s sensitivity to a parent’s knowledge state when making requests. Child Development, 67, 659–677.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Onishi, K. H., & Baillargeon, R.
(2005) Do 15-month-old infants understand false beliefs? Science, 308, 255–258.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Papafragou, A., & Musolino, J.
(2003) Scalar implicatures: Experiments at the semantics-pragmatics interface. Cognition, 86, 253–282.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Papafragou, A., & Tantalou, N.
(2004) Children’s computation of implicatures. Language Acquisition, 12, 71–82.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Paris, S.
(1973) Comprehension of language connectives and propositional logical relationships. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 16, 278–291.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pouscoulous, N., Noveck, I., Politzer, G., & Bastide, A.
(2007) A developmental investigation of processing costs in implicature production. Language Acquisition, 14, 347–375.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Preissler, M. A., & Carey, S.
(2005) The role of inferences about referential intent in word learning: Evidence from autism. Cognition, 97, B13–B23.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
R Core Team
(2014) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. < http://​www​.R​-project​.org/>
Reinhart, T.
(2004) The processing cost of reference-set computation: Acquisition of stress shift and focus. Language Acquisition, 12, 109–155.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rooth, M.
(1992) A theory of focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics, 1(1), 117–121.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Russell, B.
(2011) Topics in the computation of scalar implicatures. PhD diss., Brown University. http://​semanticsarchive. net/Archive/WY1YTRhM/russell2012probabilistic. pdf.Google Scholar
(2011) Topics in the computation of scalar implicatures (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Brown University. Posted on Semantics Archive: <http://​semanticsarchive​.net​/Archive​/WY1YTRhM​/russell2012probabilistic​.pdf>
Sabbagh, M. A., & Baldwin, D. A.
(2001) Learning words from knowledgeable versus ignorant speakers: Links between preschoolers’ theory of mind and semantic development. Child Development, 72, 1054–1070.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sauerland, U.
(2004) Scalar implicatures in complex sentences. Linguistics and Philosophy, 27, 367–391 CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Skordos, D., & Papafragou, A.
(2016) Children’s derivation of scalar implicatures: Alternatives and relevance. Cognition, 153, 6–18.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C.
(1980) Quantifiers and question answering in young children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 30, 191–205.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Southgate, V., Senju, A., & Csibra, G.
(2007) Action anticipation through attribution of false belief by 2-year-olds. Psychological Science, 18, 587–592.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stiller, A., Goodman, N. D., & Frank, M. C.
(2011) Ad-hoc scalar implicature in adults and children. In L. Carlson (Ed.), Proceedings of the 33rd annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Boston, July.Google Scholar
Stiller, A. J., Goodman, N. D., & Frank, M. C.
(2015) Ad-hoc implicature in preschool children. Language Learning and Development, 11(2), 176–190.Google Scholar
Sullivan, J., Davidson, K., & Barner, D.
(2011) Children’s conversational implicatures. Paper presented at the 36th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA.
Sullivan, J.; Davidson, K.; Wade, S.; and Barner, D.
(under review) Differentiating scalar implicature from mutual exclusivity in language acquisition.Google Scholar
Surian, L., Caldi, S., & Sperber, D.
(2007) Attribution of beliefs by 13-month-old infants. Psychological Science, 18, 580–586.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Syrett, K., & Arunachalam, S.
(2016) Young children’s developing expectations about the language of events. In J. A. Scott & D. Waughtal (Eds.), BUCLD 40: Proceedings of the 40th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 375–390). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., & Barton, M. E.
(1994) Learning words in nonostensive contexts. Developmental Psychology, 30, 639–650.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wellman, H. M., & Liu, D.
(2004) Scaling of Theory-of-Mind tasks. Child Development, 75, 523–541.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, A. L., & Markman, E. M.
(1998) Early word learning. In W. Damon, D. Kuhn, & R. Siegler (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 2: Cognition, perception, and language (pp. 371–420). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Wynn, K.
(1992) Children’s acquisition of the number words and the counting system. Cognitive psychology, 24(2), 220–251.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Gotzner, Nicole, Barner, David & Crain, Stephen
2020. Disjunction Triggers Exhaustivity Implicatures in 4- to 5-Year-Olds: Investigating the Role of Access to Alternatives. Journal of Semantics 37:2 ► pp. 219 ff. Crossref logo
Kampa, Alyssa & Anna Papafragou
2020. Four‐year‐olds incorporate speaker knowledge into pragmatic inferences. Developmental Science 23:3 Crossref logo
Sullivan, Jessica, Joseph Alvarez & Blair Goldstein
2022. Preschoolers’ relevance inferences in linguistic and non‐linguistic contexts. Developmental Science 25:2 Crossref logo
WILSON, Elspeth & Napoleon KATSOS
2021. Pragmatic, linguistic and cognitive factors in young children's development of quantity, relevance and word learning inferences. Journal of Child Language ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.