Pragmatic development

Gabriella Airenti

pp. 3-28

in: Louise Cummings (ed), Research in clinical pragmatics, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

In this chapter, the development of pragmatic abilities in children is described. Pragmatic abilities are a multifaceted skill. It is argued that using and interpreting language in communication is a demanding task that requires inference abilities and relies on different forms of knowledge. Very often, in everyday use of language, the pragmatic meaning of an utterance is not what is literally said. Consequently, interpreting an utterance requires going beyond what is said in order to identify the speaker's communicative intentions. This kind of interpretation requires an inferential process based on contextual knowledge or a common ground that interlocutors are supposed to share. Children begin to participate in communicative interactions very early in life, although full pragmatic development is only achieved throughout the school years. It is described how children at different stages of development deal with aspects of implied meaning in communication.