DEVCOM Pragmatics, Sense Conventions and Non-Literal Uses of Language

Status
Completed
Duration
01.09.2020–31.08.2025

The project will provide an account of the stages and factors involved in children’s developing competence with non-literal uses of language.

Father and son is talking. Photo.

Contact

About the project

How can children be early experts at a range of pragmatically complex tasks that require attention to speakers intentions, but act like 'literal listeners' in other contexts?

The project "Pragmatics, Sense Conventions and Non-Literal Uses of Language" (DEVCOM) combine insights and methods from linguistics, philosophy and psychology to investigate this puzzle in children's language and communication development. 

Overarching goal: 

To fill a critical gap in cognitive theories on pragmatic development, that is, children's acquisition of the cognitive abilities enabling the expression and comprehension of communicative intentions.

A novel hypothesis: 

DEVCOM will investigate the hypothesis that children’s growing sensitivity to sense conventions, which determine the publicly accepted meaning of words in their language, impedes children’s pragmatic reasoning with non-literal uses in the pre-school years.

Previously unconnected domains of non-literal language:

DEVCOM will investigate children’s performance in three domains of non-literal language use: 1) lexical innovation, 2) lexical modulation and 3) figurative uses of langauge, each of which highlights the interaction of pragmatic reasoning with sensitivity to sense conventions in a distinct way.

A novel methodological framework: 

DEVCOM will use a set of novel, child-friendly methodologies combining explicit and implicit measures, assuming that while children’s performance on explicit measures (e.g., picture selection) is liable to be affected by a growing sensitivity to sense conventions, implicit measures (e.g., eye-tracking) may be more revealing of their actual pragmatic abilities. The empirical data will be gleaned from experimental studies with typically developing children aged 2-7 years, and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Subprojects

Subproject 1: The development of lexical innovation 

Examines children's production and comprehension of cases where speakers create new word forms from existing ones (e.g., to gun for 'to shoot', hat-mouse for 'mouse with a hat').

Subproject 2: The development of lexical modulation 

Investigates children's comprehension of lexical narrowing and approximation, where the communicated meaning involves an adjustment of the conventional sense (e.g., temperature for 'higher than normal temperature', empty for 'almost empty').

Subproject 3: The development of figurative uses of language 

Investigates children's comprehension of hyperbole and metaphor (e.g, a ton for 'a lot', lion for 'brave'), where there is a large different between the conventional senses an the meaning communicated by the speaker. 

Subproject 4: The atypical development of non-literal uses 

Uses a selection of comprehension tasks from Subproject 1-3 to investigate the performance of Spanish-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This is a collaboration with the Lindy Lab (lindy-lab.eus) at the University of the Basque Country.

Participants

Involved research groups

Funding

European Research Counsil

Funded by the European Union (ERC, Starting Grant, 853211). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Collaborators

Scientific Advisory Board 

Newsletter

Events

Workshop on Pragmatic Development

This (hybrid) workshop explores how neurotypical children and autistic individuals infer intended meaning in context. It will bridge developmental perspectives and address various communication challenges across neurodiverse populations. It is also linked to a PhD trial lecture at UiO later in the day (see this disputation webpage for more information).

Time and place: May 22, 2025 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM, Henrik Wergelands hus, MultiLing meeting room 421

Speakers

  • Professor Danielle Matthews, University of Sheffield
  • Professor Patricia Ganea, University of Toronto
  • Associate Professor Valentina Petrolini, University of Bologna
  • Professor Vikram Jaswal, University of Virginia

Event schedule

  • Welcome & Introduction
  • Talk 1 (zoom): Danielle Matthews - "How and when do children come to understand linguistic conventions as such?"
  • Talk 2: Patricia Ganea - "Imagining alternative worlds: Counterfactual reasoning in development"
  • Talk 3: Valentina Petrolini - "Social Cognition, Social Motivation, or a Secret Third Thing? Insights from Autistic Camouflaging"
  • Talk 4: Vikram Jaswal - "Inferring intent from nonspeaking autistic children's behavior: A qualitative study"
  • General Discussion & Panel Q&A

Organiser

Ingrid Lossius Falkum and Mary Beth Neff

The Developing Communicator conference 2024

Time and place: May 29, 2024 – May 31, 2024, Georg Sverdrups hus, stort møterom (room 2531), University of Oslo

Scope and focus

A central question this conference aims to address is how neurotypical and autistic children learn to infer the intended meaning of a speaker's utterance, focusing on, but not limited to, non-literal uses of language.

This question spans a broad range of topics within developmental pragmatics including comprehension and production of tropes such as metaphor, metonymy, irony, as well as accounts for why non-literal forms may pose particular challenges for neurotypical or autistic children (e.g. sensitivity to sense conventions, cognitive abilities).

Program 

May 29th
  • Opening talks by Ingrid Lossius Falkum (UiO) and Agustín Vicente (UPV/EHU)
May 30th
  • Keynote by Mikhail Kissine, title: Language and communication in autism
  • Symposium 1: Language in autism spectrum conditions (ASC)
  • Poster session
  • Symposium 2: Non-literal uses of language in ASC

May 31st

  • Keynote by Danielle Matthews, title: How children learn to use language through interaction.
  • Symposium 3: Metaphor and pragmatic development
  • Symposium 4: Irony Development
  • Closing remarks

Keynote speakers

  • Professor Danielle Matthews (University of Sheffield)
  • Professor Mikhail Kissine (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Detailed program and abstracts

About us

Over the past three years, the DEVCOM: Pragmatics, Sense Conventions and Non-Literal Uses of Language research group has strived to understand how children can be early experts at a range of pragmatically complex tasks that require attention to speakers' intentions, yet act like 'literal listeners' in other contexts.

We have also strived to understand whether the driving force of literalism is shared or differing between neurotypical and autistic children, for whom a literalist interpretation style is more constant throughout development.

As the DEVCOM project is coming to an end in 2025, it is now timely to invite all interested to join us in engaging discussions around some of the recent research that has been conducted in developmental pragmatics.

Organiser

DEVCOM: Pragmatics, Sense Conventions and Non-Literal Uses of Language

DEVCOM Christmas Workshop

The DEVCOM team is organizing a 'Christmas Workshop on Developmental Pragmatics' on December 7th, and everyone is welcome to join! As special guests, we will be joined by Ira Noveck (CNRS, Paris 7) and Filippo Domaneschi (University of Genova).

Time and place: Dec. 7, 2022 9:15 AM – 4:20 PM, NHA Undervisningsrom 107

Program

  • Introduction
  • Ingrid Lossius Falkum: Explaining the development of nonliteral uses of language
  • Claire Prendergast: Losing the thread: How 3- and 5-yearolds predict the outcome of a story when non-literal language is used to update events.
  • Mary Beth Neff: Exploring the parallels between children's 'reality' and 'literal' biases in their referential communication development
  • Line Sjøtun Helganger: Children's production of Polarity Focus and the answer particle jo
  • Biu Rainey: Innovation, Convention, and Grammatical Class: young children’s understanding of deverbal nouns
  • Emma Krane Mathisen: Processing differences between single and extended metaphors and similes
  • Camilo R. Ronderos: When children are more pragmatic than adults: the case of imprecision
  • Nicholas E. Allott: The U-shaped curve: Why do 5-yearolds have more difficulty with figurative use than younger children?
  • Closing remarks
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Published Oct. 16, 2024 8:44 AM - Last modified Jan. 7, 2026 12:46 PM