Meaning in the objects
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Katharina Rohlfing
Abstract
In this paper, I am arguing that objects being present in the external situation ground the linguistic meaning. Furthermore, I will show that the nature of objects can change not only linguistic but also gestural behavior. Instead of simply excluding materialistic factors, I therefore suggest a careful inclusion of object knowledge into experimental conditions. I also argue that we have to calculate the risk of eliminating important components for children’s reasoning, when we adapt this method to studies on children’s language development. Children are good learners because they are biased towards certain solutions (Dabrowska 2005). For this reason, it seems to be problematic to create novel or abstract situations in which children cannot draw from their nonlinguistic experiences.
Abstract
In this paper, I am arguing that objects being present in the external situation ground the linguistic meaning. Furthermore, I will show that the nature of objects can change not only linguistic but also gestural behavior. Instead of simply excluding materialistic factors, I therefore suggest a careful inclusion of object knowledge into experimental conditions. I also argue that we have to calculate the risk of eliminating important components for children’s reasoning, when we adapt this method to studies on children’s language development. Children are good learners because they are biased towards certain solutions (Dabrowska 2005). For this reason, it seems to be problematic to create novel or abstract situations in which children cannot draw from their nonlinguistic experiences.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
- The development of conversational competence in children with Specific Language Impairment 19
- The impact of literal meaning on what-is-said 43
- Discourse under control in ambiguous sentences 63
- Pragmatic children 79
- Adult response uniformity distinguishes semantics from pragmatics 101
- Numerals and scalar implicatures 129
- Meaning in the objects 151
- Blocking modal enrichment ( tatsächlich ) 177
- The hepatitis called … 199
- The role of QUD and focus on the scalar implicature of most 221
- Index 239
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
- The development of conversational competence in children with Specific Language Impairment 19
- The impact of literal meaning on what-is-said 43
- Discourse under control in ambiguous sentences 63
- Pragmatic children 79
- Adult response uniformity distinguishes semantics from pragmatics 101
- Numerals and scalar implicatures 129
- Meaning in the objects 151
- Blocking modal enrichment ( tatsächlich ) 177
- The hepatitis called … 199
- The role of QUD and focus on the scalar implicature of most 221
- Index 239
