Adult response uniformity distinguishes semantics from pragmatics
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Leah R. Paltiel-Gedalyovich
Abstract
This paper reports data from 17 adult and 141 child Hebrew-speakers from experiments testing knowledge of the semantics and pragmatics of coordination, using a variant of the Truth-Value Judgment Task (Crain & Thornton 1998). Adults showed uniformity in judgments of semantic meaning, the truth-conditions of conjunction (ve/’and’, aval/’but’) and disjunction (o/’or’) and the non truth-conditional contrast associated with aval/’but’. By contrast, judgments of the pragmatic meanings, the scalar quantity implicatures associated with the use of disjunction, and the pseudo-scalar quantity implicature associated with the use of aval/’but’ implicatures, varied. Children from the age of 5 showed uniform adultlike knowledge of semantic, truth-conditional meaning, while the non-truth-conditional semantic and pragmatic meanings were not demonstrated even at the age of 9;6. I argue that it is uniformity which distinguishes semantics from pragmatics for adults. For children, it has been argued that earlier acquisition distinguishes semantics from pragmatics (e.g. Hyams 1996). I argue that the distinction between semantic and pragmatic meanings in age of acquisition is a reflection of the relational complexity of these meanings, for instance as measured by Halford, Wilson & Philllips’ (1998) relational complexity metric, and is not related to their classification as semantic or pragmatic meaning.
Abstract
This paper reports data from 17 adult and 141 child Hebrew-speakers from experiments testing knowledge of the semantics and pragmatics of coordination, using a variant of the Truth-Value Judgment Task (Crain & Thornton 1998). Adults showed uniformity in judgments of semantic meaning, the truth-conditions of conjunction (ve/’and’, aval/’but’) and disjunction (o/’or’) and the non truth-conditional contrast associated with aval/’but’. By contrast, judgments of the pragmatic meanings, the scalar quantity implicatures associated with the use of disjunction, and the pseudo-scalar quantity implicature associated with the use of aval/’but’ implicatures, varied. Children from the age of 5 showed uniform adultlike knowledge of semantic, truth-conditional meaning, while the non-truth-conditional semantic and pragmatic meanings were not demonstrated even at the age of 9;6. I argue that it is uniformity which distinguishes semantics from pragmatics for adults. For children, it has been argued that earlier acquisition distinguishes semantics from pragmatics (e.g. Hyams 1996). I argue that the distinction between semantic and pragmatic meanings in age of acquisition is a reflection of the relational complexity of these meanings, for instance as measured by Halford, Wilson & Philllips’ (1998) relational complexity metric, and is not related to their classification as semantic or pragmatic meaning.
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
