Publications

Publication details [#59343]

Matthews, Danielle, ed. 2014. Pragmatic Development in First Language Acquisition. (Trends in Language Acquisition Research 10). John Benjamins. vi, 394 pp.
Publication type
Book – edited volume
Publication language
English

Annotation

Pragmatic development is increasingly seen as the foundation stone of language acquisition more generally. From very early on, children demonstrate a strong desire to understand and be understood that motivates the acquisition of lexicon and grammar and enables ever more effective communication. In the 35 years since the first edited volume on the topic, a flourishing literature has reported on the broad set of skills that can be called pragmatic. This volume aims to bring that literature together in a digestible format. It provides a series of succinct review chapters on 19 key topics ranging from preverbal skills right up to irony and argumentative discourse. Each chapter equips the reader with an overview of current theories, key empirical findings and questions for new research.