A Comparison of Pragmatic Language in Boys with Autism and Fragile X Syndrome

PubMed Central

Klusek, Jessica; Martin, Gary E.; Losh, Molly

2014-01-01

Purpose Impaired pragmatic language (i.e., language use for social interaction) is a hallmark feature of both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common known monogenic disorder associated with ASD. However, few cross-population comparisons of ASD and FXS have been conducted, and it is unclear whether pragmatic language profiles in these conditions overlap. Method This study used semi-naturalistic and standardized assessment methods to characterize pragmatic language abilities of 29 school-aged boys with idiopathic ASD, 38 with FXS and comorbid ASD, 16 with FXS without ASD, 20 with Down syndrome and 20 with typical development. Results Similar severity of pragmatic language deficits was observed in both of the groups with ASD (idiopathic and fragile X-associated). ASD comorbidity had a detrimental effect on the pragmatic language skills of boys with FXS. Some different patterns emerged across the two pragmatic assessment tools, with more robust group differences observed in pragmatics assessed in a semi-naturalistic conversational context. Conclusions These findings have implications for pragmatic language assessment and intervention, as well as for understanding the potential role of the fragile X gene, Fragile X Mental Retardation-1, in the pragmatic language phenotype of ASD. PMID:24686468

Cognitive Approach to Assessing Pragmatic Language Comprehension in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryder, Nuala; Leinonen, Eeva; Schulz, Joerg

2008-01-01

Background: Pragmatic language impairment in children with specific language impairment has proved difficult to assess, and the nature of their abilities to comprehend pragmatic meaning has not been fully investigated. Aims: To develop both a cognitive approach to pragmatic language assessment based on Relevance Theory and an assessment tool for…

Pragmatics in acquisition.

PubMed

Clark, Eve V

2014-07-01

Recent research has highlighted several areas where pragmatics plays a central role in the process of acquiring a first language. In talking with their children, adults display their uses of language in each context, and offer extensive feedback on form, meaning, and usage, within their conversational exchanges. These interactions depend critically on joint attention, physical co-presence, and conversational co-presence - essential factors that help children assign meanings, establish reference, and add to common ground. For young children, getting their meaning across also depends on realizing language is conventional, that words contrast in meaning, and that they need to observe Grice's cooperative principle in conversation. Adults make use of the same pragmatic principles as they solicit repairs to what children say, and thereby offer feedback on both what the language is and how to use it.

Semantics, pragmatics, and formal thought disorders in people with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Salavera, Carlos; Puyuelo, Miguel; Antoñanzas, José L; Teruel, Pilar

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to analyze how formal thought disorders (FTD) affect semantics and pragmatics in patients with schizophrenia. The sample comprised subjects with schizophrenia (n = 102) who met the criteria for the disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition Text Revision. In the research process, the following scales were used: Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for psychopathology measurements; the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC) for FTD, Word Accentuation Test (WAT), System for the Behavioral Evaluation of Social Skills (SECHS), the pragmatics section of the Objective Criteria Language Battery (BLOC-SR) and the verbal sections of the Wechsler Adults Intelligence Scale (WAIS) III, for assessment of semantics and pragmatics. The results in the semantics and pragmatics sections were inferior to the average values obtained in the general population. Our data demonstrated that the more serious the FTD, the worse the performances in the Verbal-WAIS tests (particularly in its vocabulary, similarities, and comprehension sections), SECHS, and BLOC-SR, indicating that FTD affects semantics and pragmatics, although the results of the WAT indicated good premorbid language skills. The principal conclusion we can draw from this study is the evidence that in schizophrenia the superior level of language structure seems to be compromised, and that this level is related to semantics and pragmatics; when there is an alteration in this level, symptoms of FTD appear, with a wide-ranging relationship between both language and FTD. The second conclusion is that the subject's language is affected by the disorder and rules out the possibility of a previous verbal impairment.

Semantics, pragmatics, and formal thought disorders in people with schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Salavera, Carlos; Puyuelo, Miguel; Antoñanzas, José L; Teruel, Pilar

2013-01-01

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze how formal thought disorders (FTD) affect semantics and pragmatics in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: The sample comprised subjects with schizophrenia (n = 102) who met the criteria for the disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition Text Revision. In the research process, the following scales were used: Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for psychopathology measurements; the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC) for FTD, Word Accentuation Test (WAT), System for the Behavioral Evaluation of Social Skills (SECHS), the pragmatics section of the Objective Criteria Language Battery (BLOC-SR) and the verbal sections of the Wechsler Adults Intelligence Scale (WAIS) III, for assessment of semantics and pragmatics. Results: The results in the semantics and pragmatics sections were inferior to the average values obtained in the general population. Our data demonstrated that the more serious the FTD, the worse the performances in the Verbal-WAIS tests (particularly in its vocabulary, similarities, and comprehension sections), SECHS, and BLOC-SR, indicating that FTD affects semantics and pragmatics, although the results of the WAT indicated good premorbid language skills. Conclusion: The principal conclusion we can draw from this study is the evidence that in schizophrenia the superior level of language structure seems to be compromised, and that this level is related to semantics and pragmatics; when there is an alteration in this level, symptoms of FTD appear, with a wide-ranging relationship between both language and FTD. The second conclusion is that the subject’s language is affected by the disorder and rules out the possibility of a previous verbal impairment. PMID:23430043

Exploring the Validity of a Second Language Intercultural Pragmatics Assessment Tool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Timpe-Laughlin, Veronika; Choi, Ikkyu

2017-01-01

Pragmatics has been a key component of language competence frameworks. While the majority of second/foreign language (L2) pragmatics tests have targeted productive skills, the assessment of receptive pragmatic skills remains a developing field. This study explores validation evidence for a test of receptive L2 pragmatic ability called the American…

Measuring Pragmatic Language in Speakers with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Comparing the Children's Communication Checklist-2 and the Test of Pragmatic Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Volden, Joanne; Phillips, Linda

2010-01-01

Purpose: To compare the Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2), a parent report instrument, with the Test of Pragmatic Language (TOPL), a test administered to the child, on the ability to identify pragmatic language impairment in speakers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who had age-appropriate structural language skills. Method: Sixteen…

The development of pragmatic skills in children after hemispherotomy: Contribution from left and right hemispheres.

PubMed

Save-Pédebos, Jessica; Pinabiaux, Charlotte; Dorfmuller, Georg; Sorbets, Sarah Ferrand; Delalande, Olivier; Jambaqué, Isabelle; Bulteau, Christine

2016-02-01

Hemispherotomy (H) is the standard treatment used to cure hemispheric epileptic syndromes in childhood. The postoperative linguistic profile involves hemispheric specialization processes and developmental cognitive plasticity. This research concerns pragmatic aspects of language as a tool for communication which involves both linguistic and extralinguistic communication in context. Our aim was to analyze whether any correlation exists with age at surgery and side of surgery on pragmatic skills following H. Forty children who underwent H (23 females, 16 right H) were evaluated at a mean age of 12.8 years (±2.6) with two receptive tasks (oral comprehension and syntactic judgment), the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) rating scale, and the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) questionnaire in order to evaluate the role of executive functions on pragmatic skills. Children operated on before the age of 18 months were considered the "early" group (5 right H and 9 left H), while those operated on later were called the "late" group (11 right H and 15 left H). The whole group had significant deficits in all three measures. We demonstrated a statistically significant crossed interaction between the side of H and the age at H with pragmatic language impairments (F(1,36)=17.48; p=.0002) and disorders in executive function (F(1,36)=5.80; p=.021) in left early H and in right late H patients. These findings are consistent with the previous studies of pragmatic language impairments concerning adolescents and adults with right hemisphere damage and emphasize the contribution of structural language in the early stage of verbal communication. These results emphasize for the first time that hemispherotomized children have pragmatic language impairments that are independent of receptive language. Our findings are congruent with the recent theory on pragmatic language development in childhood with evidence of a participation of the left hemisphere at the early age followed by right hemispheric specialization and involvement of executive functions, independently of receptive language. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Higher-order language dysfunctions as a possible neurolinguistic endophenotype for schizophrenia: Evidence from patients and their unaffected first degree relatives.

PubMed

Pawełczyk, Agnieszka; Łojek, Emila; Żurner, Natalia; Gawłowska-Sawosz, Marta; Pawełczyk, Tomasz

2018-05-31

The purpose of the study was to examine the presence of pragmatic dysfunctions in first episode (FE) subjects and their healthy first degree relatives as a potential endophenotype for schizophrenia. Thirty-four FE patients, 34 parents of the patients (REL) and 32 healthy controls (HC) took part in the study. Pragmatic language functions were evaluated with the Right Hemisphere Language Battery, attention and executive functions were controlled, as well as age and education level. The parents differed from HC but not from their FE offspring with regard to overall level of language and communication and the general knowledge component of language processing. The FE participants differed from HC in comprehension of inferred meaning, emotional prosody, discourse dimensions, overall level of language and communication, language processing with regard to general knowledge and communication competences. The FE participants differed from REL regarding discourse dimensions. Our findings suggest that pragmatic dysfunctions may act as vulnerability markers of schizophrenia; their assessment may help in the diagnosis of early stages of the illness and in understanding its pathophysiology. In future research the adoptive and biological parents of schizophrenia patients should be compared to elucidate which language failures reflect genetic vulnerability and which ones environmental factors. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Effect of "Focus on Form" versus "Focus on Forms" Pragmatic Instruction on Development of Pragmatic Comprehension and Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafieyan, Vahid

2016-01-01

To develop target language pragmatic competence, language learners' attention must be directed toward not only linguistic but also pragmatic aspect of the target language expressions (Schmidt, 2001). Thus, some sorts of pragmatic awareness-raising instruction, using either explicit "Focus on Forms" or implicit "Focus on Form"…

Pragmatic Assessment of Request Speech Act of Iranian EFL Learners by Non-Native English Speaking Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alemi, Minoo; Khanlarzadeh, Neda

2016-01-01

The analysis of raters' comments on pragmatic assessment of L2 learners is among new and understudied concepts in second language studies. To shed light on this issue, the present investigation targeted important variables such as raters' criteria and rating patterns by analyzing the interlanguage pragmatic assessment process of the Iranian…

Pragmatics and adult language disorders: past achievements and future directions.

PubMed

Cummings, Louise

2007-05-01

In this article, the current state of our knowledge of pragmatic disorders in adults with language impairment is assessed. A brief historical background of clinical pragmatics is presented, and the place of adult language pathology within the development of this field is discussed. A comprehensive review is undertaken of pragmatic deficits in adults with language impairments of diverse etiologies. Specifically, pragmatic deficits are examined in adults with left-hemisphere damage, often resulting in aphasia, and in adults with right-hemisphere damage, traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative disorders (principally, Alzheimer's disease). Although many pragmatic phenomena have been examined in these clinical populations, studies have also tended to neglect important areas of pragmatic functioning in adults with these disorders. Several such areas are identified within a wider discussion of how researchers and clinicians can best pursue future investigations of pragmatics in adults with language impairment.

Pragmatic Language Profiles of School-Age Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders and Williams Syndrome

PubMed Central

Philofsky, Amy; Fidler, Deborah J.; Hepburn, Susan

2015-01-01

Purpose To describe and compare the pragmatic language profiles of school-age children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and Williams syndrome (WS) on a standardized measure to determine whether a standard pragmatics tool can differentiate between 2 groups of children with opposing social presentations and pragmatic language difficulties. Method Twenty-two parents of school-age children with ASD, 21 parents of school-age children with WS, and 19 parents of school-age typically developing children rated their child on the Children’s Communication Checklist—Second Edition (CCC–2; D. Bishop, 2003), a standardized pragmatic language assessment tool. Results Both clinical groups demonstrated impairment in overall communication and pragmatic language functioning, but children with WS performed significantly better on overall pragmatic language functioning, and the magnitude of the effect was medium. Profile examination revealed equivalent performances between ASD and WS on most CCC–2 subscales; however, significantly better performances on the Coherence, Stereotyped Language, Nonverbal Communication, and Social Relations subscales were observed in WS. Conclusions The CCC–2 appears to provide an effective means to identify and characterize pragmatic language difficulties using a standardized approach in children with ASD and WS. PMID:17971496

Mental Verbs and Pragmatic Language Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spanoudis, George; Natsopoulos, Demetrios; Panayiotou, Georgia

2007-01-01

Background: Pragmatic language impairment has recently been the subject of a number of studies that attempted to illuminate classification and diagnostic issues, and identify the profile of children with pragmatic language difficulties. Although much progress has been made, the nature of pragmatic difficulties remains unclear. Aims: To contrast…

Pragmatic Language Assessment: A Pragmatics-as-Social Practice Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyter, Yvette D.

2007-01-01

Pragmatic language skills are important for developing relationships with others, and for communicating with a range of interlocutors in a variety of contexts, including preschool and elementary school classrooms. Pragmatic language difficulties frequently are a primary area of disability for children diagnosed with autism, Asperger's syndrome,…

The Teaching of Pragmatics by Native and Nonnative Language Teachers: What They Know and What They Report Doing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Andrew D.

2016-01-01

The paper focuses on how nonnative teachers of a target language (NNTs) deal with pragmatics in their classes. It starts with a discussion of what pragmatics entails. Next, issues relating to the teaching of pragmatics are identified, such as the language background of the teacher, comparisons between second- (L2) and foreign-language (FL)…

Pragmatic Language Assessment in Williams Syndrome: A Comparison of the Test of Pragmatic Language--2 and the Children's Communication Checklist--2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffmann, Anne; Martens, Marilee A.; Fox, Robert; Rabidoux, Paula; Andridge, Rebecca

2013-01-01

Purpose: Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) are recognized as having a strong desire for social relationships, yet many of them have difficulty forming and maintaining peer relationships. One cause may be impairments in pragmatic language. The current study compared the assessment of pragmatic language skills in individuals with WS using the…

Second Language Learners' Divergence from Target Language Pragmatic Norms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gomez-Laich, Maria Pia

2016-01-01

Pragmatic competence is an indispensable aspect of language ability in order for second and foreign language (L2/FL) learners to understand and be understood in their interactions with both native and nonnative speakers of the target language. Without a proper understanding of the pragmatic rules in the target language, learners may run the risk…

Pragmatics in pre-schoolers with language impairments.

PubMed

Geurts, Hilde; Embrechts, Mariëtte

2010-01-01

Pragmatic assessment methods are very diverse and differ in informant type. Some rely on parents, others on teachers/professionals and some directly test pragmatic abilities in the children themselves. A widely used pragmatic parent questionnaire is the Children's Communication Checklist--2 (CCC-2). However, it is not known how scores on the CCC-2 relate to direct measures of pragmatics. The aim of the current study is determine whether children's language patterns on pragmatics obtained with a parent questionnaire were converging with findings when the children were directly tested with a pragmatic test. The CCC-2 and the Nijmegen Pragmatics Test (NPT) were applied to 24 pre-schoolers (aged 4-7 years) with various language impairments and 33 age-matched typically developing pre-schoolers. Both pragmatic language instruments clearly differentiated between pre-schoolers with language impairments and those without language impairments. However, the obtained correlations between the different measures were low to moderate. The specificity of each of the instruments was sufficient, but the sensitivity was generally poor. The instruments were not always converging, but when the instruments did converge the obtained results were valid. However, the obtained high specificity and relatively low sensitivity values for each of the instruments showed that better cut-off scores are needed. When only one of the instruments indicated the absence or presence of language impairments, one needs to be careful in concluding whether or not there are indeed language impairments.

Pragmatic Language Impairment: Case Studies of Social and Pragmatic Language Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Catherine; Baxendale, Janet; Lloyd, Julian; Aldred, Catherine

2005-01-01

The current position on speech and language intervention for children who have pragmatic language impairment (PLI) is limited by a lack of evidence to support practice. Two intervention outcome case studies of children with PLI, aimed at establishing efficacy, are presented in this paper. Standardized language tests and conversational sampling…

Pragmatic Language Development in Language Impaired and Typically Developing Children: Incorrect Answers in Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryder, Nuala; Leinonen, Eeva

2014-01-01

This study focused on young children's incorrect answers to pragmatically demanding questions. Children with specific language impairment (SLI), including a subgroup with pragmatic language difficulties (PLD) and typically developing children answered questions targeting implicatures, based on a storybook and short verbal scenarios.…

Narrative Competence in Children with Pragmatic Language Impairment: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ketelaars, Mieke P.; Jansonius, Kino; Cuperus, Juliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-01-01

Background: Children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI) show impairments in the use of language in social contexts. Although the issue has been gaining attention in recent literature, not much is known about the developmental trajectories of children who experience pragmatic language problems. Since narrative competence is an important…

Cooperative Groups: Engaging Elementary Students with Pragmatic Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stockall, Nancy

2011-01-01

In this article, the author suggests that children with language impairments have difficulty working in groups because of deficits in the area of pragmatic language. Pragmatic language skills are identified and suggestions for intervention in the general education classroom are discussed. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Neural Correlates of Language Comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorders: When Language Conflicts with World Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tesink, Cathelijne M. J. Y.; Buitelaar, Jan K.; Petersson, Karl Magnus; van der Gaag, Rutger Jan; Teunisse, Jan-Pieter; Hagoort, Peter

2011-01-01

In individuals with ASD, difficulties with language comprehension are most evident when higher-level semantic-pragmatic language processing is required, for instance when context has to be used to interpret the meaning of an utterance. Until now, it is unclear at what level of processing and for what type of context these difficulties in language…

Early pragmatic language difficulties in siblings of children with autism: implications for DSM-5 social communication disorder?

PubMed

Miller, Meghan; Young, Gregory S; Hutman, Ted; Johnson, Scott; Schwichtenberg, A J; Ozonoff, Sally

2015-07-01

We evaluated early pragmatic language skills in preschool-age siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and examined correspondence between pragmatic language impairments and general language difficulties, autism symptomatology, and clinical outcomes. Participants were younger siblings of children with ASD (high-risk, n = 188) or typical development (low-risk, n = 119) who were part of a prospective study of infants at risk for ASD; siblings without ASD outcomes were included in analyses. Pragmatic language skills were measured via the Language Use Inventory (LUI). At 36 months, the high-risk group had significantly lower parent-rated pragmatic language scores than the low-risk group. When defining pragmatic language impairment (PLI) as scores below the 10(th) percentile on the LUI, 35% of the high-risk group was identified with PLI versus 10% of the low-risk group. Children with PLI had higher rates of general language impairment (16%), defined as scores below the 10(th) percentile on the Receptive or Expressive Language subscales of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning, relative to those without PLI (3%), but most did not evidence general language impairments. Children with PLI had significantly higher ADOS scores than those without PLI and had higher rates of clinician-rated atypical clinical best estimate outcomes (49%) relative to those without PLI (15%). Pragmatic language problems are present in some siblings of children with ASD as early as 36 months of age. As the new DSM-5 diagnosis of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SCD) is thought to occur more frequently in family members of individuals with ASD, it is possible that some of these siblings will meet criteria for SCD as they get older. Close monitoring of early pragmatic language development in young children at familial risk for ASD is warranted. © 2014 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Early Pragmatic Language Difficulties in Siblings of Children with Autism: Implications for "DSM-5" Social Communication Disorder?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Meghan; Young, Gregory S.; Hutman, Ted; Johnson, Scott; Schwichtenberg, A. J.; Ozonoff, Sally

2015-01-01

Background: We evaluated early pragmatic language skills in preschool-age siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and examined correspondence between pragmatic language impairments and general language difficulties, autism symptomatology, and clinical outcomes. Methods: Participants were younger siblings of children with ASD…

Towards a Convergent Account of Pragmatic Language Deficits in Children with High-Functioning Autism: Depicting the Phenotype Using the Pragmatic Rating Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lam, Yan Grace; Yeung, Siu Sze Susanna

2012-01-01

Despite its prominence, pragmatic characteristic associated with autism is under-explored and thus was not well defined. The present study attempted to depict a relatively comprehensive profile of language pragmatics in children with high-functioning autism (HFA) using the Pragmatic Rating Scale (PRS). Pragmatic behaviors of 26 HFA children were…

Repair in Speech and Language Therapy Interaction: Investigating Pragmatic Language Impairment of Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merrison, Sally; Merrison, Andrew John

2005-01-01

This paper examines the repair skills of three groups of 7 to 11-year old children: 1) children with Pragmatic Language Impairments (the PLI group); 2) children with Specific Language Impairments with no pragmatic difficulties (the SLI group); 3) children with normally developing communication skills (the mainstream group). The data comprise…

Pragmatics & Language Learning. Volume 12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kasper, Gabriele, Ed.; Nguyen, Hanh thi, Ed.; Yoshimi, Dina Rudolph, Ed.; Yoshioka, Jim K., Ed.

2010-01-01

This volume examines the organization of second language and multilingual speakers' talk and pragmatic knowledge across a range of naturalistic and experimental activities. Based on data collected on Danish, English, Hawai'i Creole, Indonesian, and Japanese as target languages, the contributions explore the nexus of pragmatic knowledge,…

Pragmatics & Language Learning. Volume 13

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greer, Tim, Ed.; Tatsuki, Donna, Ed.; Roever, Carsten, Ed.

2013-01-01

"Pragmatics & Language Learning. Volume 13" examines the organization of second language and multilingual speakers' talk and pragmatic knowledge across a range of naturalistic and experimental activities. Based on data collected among ESL and EFL learners from a variety of backgrounds, the contributions explore the nexus of pragmatic…

Development and Standardization of a Test for Pragmatic Language Skills in Egyptian Arabic: The Egyptian Arabic Pragmatic Language Test (EAPLT).

PubMed

Khodeir, Mona S; Hegazi, Mona A; Saleh, Marwa M

2018-03-19

The aim of this study was to standardize an Egyptian Arabic Pragmatic Language Test (EAPLT) using linguistically and socially suitable questions and pictures in order to be able to address specific deficits in this language domain. Questions and pictures were designed for the EAPLT to assess 3 pragmatic language subsets: pragmatic skills, functions, and factors. Ten expert phoniatricians were asked to review the EAPLT and complete a questionnaire to assess the validity of the test items. The EAPLT was applied in 120 typically developing Arabic-speaking Egyptian children (64 females and 56 males) randomly selected by inclusion and exclusion criteria in the age range between 2 years, 1 month, 1 day and 9 years, 12 months, 31 days. Children's scores were used to calculate the means and standard deviations and the 5th and 95th percentiles to determine the age of the pragmatic skills acquisition. All experts have mostly agreed that the EAPLT gives a general idea about children's pragmatic language development. Test-retest reliability analysis proved the high reliability and internal consistency of the EAPLT subsets. A statistically significant correlation was found between the test subsets and age. The EAPLT is a valid and reliable Egyptian Arabic test that can be applied in order to detect a pragmatic language delay. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Pragmatic Language Features of Mothers with the "FMR1" Premutation Are Associated with the Language Outcomes of Adolescents and Young Adults with Fragile X Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klusek, Jessica; McGrath, Sara E.; Abbeduto, Leonard; Roberts, Jane E.

2016-01-01

Purpose: Pragmatic language difficulties have been documented as part of the FMR1 premutation phenotype, yet the interplay between these features in mothers and the language outcomes of their children with fragile X syndrome is unknown. This study aimed to determine whether pragmatic language difficulties in mothers with the "FMR1"…

Pragmatic Language Features of Mothers With the FMR1 Premutation Are Associated With the Language Outcomes of Adolescents and Young Adults With Fragile X Syndrome.

PubMed

Klusek, Jessica; McGrath, Sara E; Abbeduto, Leonard; Roberts, Jane E

2016-02-01

Pragmatic language difficulties have been documented as part of the FMR1 premutation phenotype, yet the interplay between these features in mothers and the language outcomes of their children with fragile X syndrome is unknown. This study aimed to determine whether pragmatic language difficulties in mothers with the FMR1 premutation are related to the language development of their children. Twenty-seven mothers with the FMR1 premutation and their adolescent/young adult sons with fragile X syndrome participated. Maternal pragmatic language violations were rated from conversational samples using the Pragmatic Rating Scale (Landa et al., 1992). Children completed standardized assessments of vocabulary, syntax, and reading. Maternal pragmatic language difficulties were significantly associated with poorer child receptive vocabulary and expressive syntax skills, with medium effect sizes. This work contributes to knowledge of the FMR1 premutation phenotype and its consequences at the family level, with the goal of identifying modifiable aspects of the child's language-learning environment that may promote the selection of treatments targeting the specific needs of families affected by fragile X. Findings contribute to our understanding of the multifaceted environment in which children with fragile X syndrome learn language and highlight the importance of family-centered intervention practices for this group.

The Effects of Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising Activities on the Development of Pragmatic Awareness and Use of Hearsay Evidential Markers for Learners of Japanese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narita, Ritsuko

2009-01-01

The present study investigates the effectiveness of pragmatic consciousness-raising (PCR) activities in the L2 pragmatic acquisition of hearsay evidential markers by learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL). PCR is essentially an inductive approach to facilitating awareness of how language forms are used appropriately in a given context.…

Human-Level Natural Language Understanding: False Progress and Real Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bignoli, Perrin G.

2013-01-01

The field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) focuses on the study of how utterances composed of human-level languages can be understood and generated. Typically, there are considered to be three intertwined levels of structure that interact to create meaning in language: syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Not only is a large amount of…

Pragmatic competence of children with autism spectrum disorder. Impact of theory of mind, verbal working memory, ADHD symptoms, and structural language.

PubMed

Baixauli-Fortea, Inmaculada; Miranda Casas, Ana; Berenguer-Forner, Carmen; Colomer-Diago, Carla; Roselló-Miranda, Belén

2017-11-21

The primary aim of this study is to increase the existing knowledge about the pragmatic skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Specifically, the study has two objectives. The first is to provide a profile of characteristics based on The Children's Communication Checklist (CCC-2) pragmatics scales (inappropriate initiation, stereotyped language, use of context, nonverbal communication, and general pragmatics) and narrative task indicators. To this end, children with ASD will be compared to children with typical development (TD), controlling the effects of sex and structural language (speech, syntax, semantics, coherence). The second objective is to analyze whether theory of mind (ToM), verbal working memory, ADHD symptoms, and structural language can predict pragmatic competence in children with ASD without intellectual disability (ID). The results showed worse performance in the group with ASD on the majority of the pragmatic aspects evaluated. In addition, the application of ToM skills and structural language were significant predictors of the pragmatic skills of the children with ASD. These findings reinforce the importance of focusing intervention programs on mentalist abilities through experiences in real social scenarios, along with strengthening structural language components.

Children with Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida and Pragmatic Language Impairment: Differences and Similarities in Pragmatic Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holck, Pernille; Nettelbladt, Ulrika; Sandberg, Annika Dahlgren

2009-01-01

Pragmatically related abilities were studied in three clinical groups of children from 5 to 11 years of age; children with cerebral palsy (CP; n = 10), children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus (SBH; n = 10) and children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI; n = 10), in order to explore pragmatic abilities within each group. A range of…

Assessing pragmatic communication in children with Down syndrome.

PubMed

Smith, Elizabeth; Næss, Kari-Anne B; Jarrold, Christopher

2017-07-01

Successful communication depends on language content, language form, and language use (pragmatics). Children with Down syndrome (DS) experience communication difficulties, however little is known about their pragmatic profile, particularly during early school years. The purpose of the present study was to explore the nature of pragmatic communication in children with DS. Twenty-nine six-year-old children with DS were assessed, in the areas of 1) initiation, 2) scripted language, 3) understanding context and 4) nonverbal communication, as reported by children's parents via the Children's Communication Checklist-2 (Bishop, 2003). Additionally, the relationships between pragmatics and measures of vocabulary, nonverbal mental ability and social functioning were explored. Children with DS were impaired relative to norms from typically developing children in all areas of pragmatics. A profile of relative strengths and weaknesses was found in the children with DS; the area of nonverbal communication was significantly stronger, while the area of understanding context was significantly poorer, relative to the other areas of pragmatics assessed in these children. Relationships between areas of pragmatics and other linguistic areas, as well as aspects of vocabulary and social functioning were observed. By the age of six children with DS experience significantly impaired pragmatic communication, with a clear profile of relative strengths and weaknesses. The study highlights the need to teach children with DS pragmatic skills as a component of communication, alongside language content and form. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Why we should consider pragmatics when planning treatment for children who stutter.

PubMed

Weiss, Amy L

2004-01-01

Pragmatics, the use of language in context, has been investigated only recently in the language used by children who stutter (CWS). Historically researchers compared the length and complexity of the syntactic constructions produced by these children with those of children who do not stutter (CWNS) and generally found the CWS to be relatively deficient. More recently, some investigators have begun to address how the language and fluency of CWS are influenced in different communicative settings. This article describes several findings concerning the pragmatic competencies of CWS set against the traditional famework of pragmatic language development. Most studies have shown no significant differences between the CWS and CWNS groups, although some aspects of pagmatic language use have yielded an exacerbation of stuttering for CWS. These findings have suggested specific ways of incorporating a pragmatic focus in the treatment programming for CWS where the degree of difficulty of language use is increased gradually.

Investigating Pragmatic Language Learning in Foreign Language Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soler, Eva Alcon

2008-01-01

A lot of research addressing learners' development of pragmatics has recently been conducted (Kasper and Schmidt 1996; Bardovi-Harlig, 2002; Kasper and Rose 2002). From this same approach, a review of theoretical perspectives on pragmatic learning and how they have been operationalised in interlanguage pragmatic research is presented. Second, by…

Pragmatic Abilities in Adults with and without Dyslexia: A Pilot Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffiths, Catherine C. B.

2007-01-01

This study examines well-compensated adults with dyslexia to see if they experience more problems with pragmatic awareness than the normal population. Social interaction requires an individual to process language at speed by using working memory efficiently, in order to understand the intended, rather than literal, meaning between speaker and…

Pragmatics and the aims of language evolution.

PubMed

Scott-Phillips, Thomas C

2017-02-01

Pragmatics has historically played a relatively peripheral role in language evolution research. This is a profound mistake. Here I describe how a pragmatic perspective can inform language evolution in the most fundamental way: by making clear what the natural objects of study are, and hence what the aims of the field should be.

Pragmatics & Language Learning. Volume 14

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen, Ed.; Félix-Brasdefer, J. César, Ed.

2016-01-01

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 2014 International Conference of Pragmatics and Language Learning at Indiana University. It includes fourteen papers on a variety of topics, with a diversity of first and second languages, and a wide range of methods used to collect pragmatic data in L2 and FL settings. This volume is…

A Longitudinal Study of Pragmatic Language Development in Three Children with Cochlear Implants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dammeyer, Jesper

2012-01-01

Research has shown how cochlear implants (CIs), in children with hearing impairments, have improved speech perception and production, but very little is known about the children's pragmatic language development. During a 4-year longitudinal study of three children with CIs, certain aspects of pragmatic language development were observed in free…

Pragmatic Language Features of Mothers With the FMR1 Premutation Are Associated With the Language Outcomes of Adolescents and Young Adults With Fragile X Syndrome

PubMed Central

McGrath, Sara E.; Abbeduto, Leonard; Roberts, Jane E.

2016-01-01

Purpose Pragmatic language difficulties have been documented as part of the FMR1 premutation phenotype, yet the interplay between these features in mothers and the language outcomes of their children with fragile X syndrome is unknown. This study aimed to determine whether pragmatic language difficulties in mothers with the FMR1 premutation are related to the language development of their children. Method Twenty-seven mothers with the FMR1 premutation and their adolescent/young adult sons with fragile X syndrome participated. Maternal pragmatic language violations were rated from conversational samples using the Pragmatic Rating Scale (Landa et al., 1992). Children completed standardized assessments of vocabulary, syntax, and reading. Results Maternal pragmatic language difficulties were significantly associated with poorer child receptive vocabulary and expressive syntax skills, with medium effect sizes. Conclusions This work contributes to knowledge of the FMR1 premutation phenotype and its consequences at the family level, with the goal of identifying modifiable aspects of the child's language-learning environment that may promote the selection of treatments targeting the specific needs of families affected by fragile X. Findings contribute to our understanding of the multifaceted environment in which children with fragile X syndrome learn language and highlight the importance of family-centered intervention practices for this group. PMID:26895548

Relationship between Language Learners' Attitudes toward Cultural Instruction and Pragmatic Comprehension and Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafieyan, Vahid

2016-01-01

Development of target language pragmatic competence in language learners requires not only provision of cultural features of target language community in language classes but also language learner's willingness to learn and use those cultural features. To investigate the relationship between language learners' attitudes toward cultural instruction…

Relevance theory: pragmatics and cognition.

PubMed

Wearing, Catherine J

2015-01-01

Relevance Theory is a cognitively oriented theory of pragmatics, i.e., a theory of language use. It builds on the seminal work of H.P. Grice(1) to develop a pragmatic theory which is at once philosophically sensitive and empirically plausible (in both psychological and evolutionary terms). This entry reviews the central commitments and chief contributions of Relevance Theory, including its Gricean commitment to the centrality of intention-reading and inference in communication; the cognitively grounded notion of relevance which provides the mechanism for explaining pragmatic interpretation as an intention-driven, inferential process; and several key applications of the theory (lexical pragmatics, metaphor and irony, procedural meaning). Relevance Theory is an important contribution to our understanding of the pragmatics of communication. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Is It Rude Language? Children Learning Pragmatics through Visual Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishihara, Noriko

2013-01-01

There has been an upsurge of interest in teaching second/foreign language (L2) pragmatics in recent years, but much of this effort has been targeted at adult learners. This article introduces small-scale informal instruction exploring the pragmatic development of 9-year-olds in Tokyo, facilitated through dialogic intervention on pragmatics using…

Pragmatics abilities in narrative production: a cross-disorder comparison.

PubMed

Norbury, Courtenay Frazier; Gemmell, Tracey; Paul, Rhea

2014-05-01

We aimed to disentangle contributions of socio-pragmatic and structural language deficits to narrative competence by comparing the narratives of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 25), non-autistic children with language impairments (LI; n = 23), and children with typical development (TD; n = 27). Groups were matched for age (6½ to 15 years; mean: 10;6) and non-verbal ability; ASD and TD groups were matched on standardized language scores. Despite distinct clinical presentation, children with ASD and LI produced similarly simple narratives that lacked semantic richness and omitted important story elements, when compared to TD peers. Pragmatic errors were common across groups. Within the LI group, pragmatic errors were negatively correlated with story macrostructure scores and with an index of semantic-pragmatic relevance. For the group with ASD, pragmatic errors consisted of comments that, though extraneous, did not detract from the gist of the narrative. These findings underline the importance of both language and socio-pragmatic skill for producing coherent, appropriate narratives.

Retrospectively Assessed Early Motor and Current Pragmatic Language Skills in Autistic and Neurotypical Children.

PubMed

Stevenson, Jennifer L; Lindley, Caitlin E; Murlo, Nicole

2017-08-01

Autistic individuals often struggle developmentally, even in areas that are not explicit diagnostic criteria, such as motor skills. This study explored the relation between early motor skills, assessed retrospectively, and current pragmatic language skills. Caregivers of neurotypical and autistic children, matched on gender and age, completed assessments of their child's early motor development and current language abilities. Early motor skills were correlated with later pragmatic language skills, and autistic children exhibited fewer motor skills than neurotypical children. In fact, motor skills were a better predictor of an autism spectrum diagnosis than were scores on a measure of current pragmatic language. These results highlight the important role of motor skills in autism spectrum disorders.

Instruction and Development of Second Language Acquisition Pragmatics: An Investigation into Sociolinguistic Communicative Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tchoutezo, Etienne

2010-01-01

The problem: The purpose of this study is first to explore the perceptions and attitudes of ESL instructors regarding pragmatics instruction in second language classes. Second, this study is also designed to add to the scholarly literature regarding the importance of pragmatics instruction in developing second language communicative competence.…

Effect of Developing Pragmatic Competence through Telecollaboration on Improving English as Foreign Language Learners' Writing Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafieyan, Vahid; Rafieyan, Ali; Rafieyan, Navid; Rafieyan, Saeid; Rafieyan, Parvaneh; Rafieyan, Mohamad

2015-01-01

The very information structure of written communication depends not just on the writer's meaning and purpose but rather on the extent to which writer and reader share knowledge of pragmatic features of the language. To assess the actual effect of developing target language pragmatic competence through telecollaboration on improving English as…

The Art of Common Ground: Emergence of a Complex Pragmatic Language Skill in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Marchena, Ashley; Eigsti, Inge-Marie

2016-01-01

Deficits in pragmatic language are central to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here we investigate common ground, a pragmatic language skill in which speakers adjust the contents of their speech based on their interlocutor's perceived knowledge, in adolescents with ASD and typical development (TD), using an experimental narrative paradigm.…

Pragmatic Language Impairment and Associated Behavioural Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ketelaars, Mieke P.; Cuperus, Juliane; Jansonius, Kino; Verhoeven, Ludo

2010-01-01

Background: Specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed when a child shows isolated structural language problems. The diagnosis of pragmatic language impairment (PLI) is given to children who show difficulties with the use of language in context. Unlike children with SLI, these children tend to show relatively intact structural language skills…

Pragmatic Language Outcomes of Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder After Therapist- and Parent-Delivered Play-Based Interventions: Two One-Group Pretest-Posttest Studies With a Longitudinal Component.

PubMed

Wilkes-Gillan, Sarah; Munro, Natalie; Cordier, Reinie; Cantrill, Alycia; Pearce, Wendy

The pragmatic language outcomes of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were explored across two feasibility studies. Five children with ADHD (ages 6-11 yr), their parents, and 5 typically developing peers completed an assessment 18 mo after a therapist-delivered intervention (Study 1). Participants then completed a parent-delivered intervention (Study 2). Blinded ratings of peer-to-peer play interactions documented changes in children's pragmatic language 18 mo after the Study 1 intervention and before, immediately after, and 1 mo after the Study 2 intervention. Nonparametric statistics and Cohen's d were used to measure change. Children's pragmatic language outcomes were maintained 18 mo after the therapist-delivered intervention and significantly improved from before to 1 mo after the parent-delivered intervention. Interventions involving occupational therapist and speech-language pathologist collaboration, play, and parent and peer involvement may facilitate children's pragmatic language skills. Copyright © 2017 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Sociocultural Theory and a Pragma-Linguistic Pedagogical Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Eric

2015-01-01

L2 pragmatic instruction in grammar and writing is an area of second language acquisition that is underutilized by many teachers. This paper follows the process of one teacher as the instruction of the pragmatic speech act of requesting is integrated into a low-level grammar class. First, an argument is made for the importance of including…

Teaching Pragmatics in the Foreign Language Classroom: Grammar as a Communicative Resource

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Felix-Brasdefer, J. Cesar; Cohen, Andrew D.

2012-01-01

This article focuses on the teaching of pragmatics in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom and examines the role of grammar as a communicative resource. It also aims to highlight the importance of teaching pragmatics from beginning levels of language instruction, with the spotlight on speech acts at the discourse level. After the concept of…

Mind the Gap between Form and Function. Teaching Pragmatics with the British Sitcom in the Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mansfield, Gillian

2014-01-01

This article intends to show how situation comedies may be used in the English language classroom to develop awareness-raising activities aimed at soliciting an understanding of essentially pragmatic and cultural aspects of everyday language. After a brief overview of studies on pragmatic teachability (Rose and Kasper 2001, 2002) and learnability…

Emotional and behavioural needs in children with specific language impairment and in children with autism spectrum disorder: The importance of pragmatic language impairment.

PubMed

Helland, Wenche Andersen; Helland, Turid

2017-11-01

Language problems may negatively affect children's behaviour and have detrimental effects on the development of peer-relations. We investigated and compared emotional and behavioural profiles in children with SLI and in children with ASD aged 6-15 years and explored to what extent pragmatic language problems contributed to the emotional and behavioural needs (EBN) in these clinical groups. The ASD group consisted of 23 children (19 boys; 4 girls) and the SLI group consisted of 20 children (18 boys; 2 girls). In order to assess EBN and language abilities, the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Children's Communication Checklist -2 (CCC-2) were filled out by parents. Our main findings were that although EBN was common in both groups; the children in the ASD group were significantly impaired relative to the children in the SLI group. However, in both groups pragmatic language problems were found to be significantly associated with EBN. A comprehensive assessment of EBN as well as pragmatic language abilities should be an integral part of the assessment procedure. Considering the substantial influence of pragmatic language abilities on social function and in resolving interpersonal conflicts with peers further development of therapy plans and interventions targeting pragmatics is strongly needed. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Social Communication and Theory of Mind in Boys with Autism and Fragile X Syndrome

PubMed Central

Losh, Molly; Martin, Gary E.; Klusek, Jessica; Hogan-Brown, Abigail L.; Sideris, John

2012-01-01

Impairments in the social use of language, or pragmatics, constitute a core characteristic of autism. Problems with pragmatic language have also been documented in fragile X syndrome (FXS), a monogenic condition that is the most common known genetic cause of autism. Evidence suggests that social cognitive ability, or theory of mind, may also be impaired in both conditions, and in autism, may importantly relate to pragmatic language ability. Given the substantial overlap observed in autism and FXS, this study aimed to better define those social-communicative phenotypes that overlap in these two conditions by comparing pragmatic language ability and theory of mind in children with idiopathic autism and children with FXS, with and without autism, as well as children with Down syndrome and typically developing controls. We further examined correlations between these cognitive-behavioral phenotypes and molecular genetic variation related to the Fragile X Mental Retardation-1 gene (FMR1) in the FXS group. Results indicated that children with idiopathic autism and those with FXS and autism performed comparably on direct-assessment measures of pragmatic language and theory of mind, whereas those with FXS only did not differ from controls. Theory of mind was related to pragmatic language ability in all groups. Pragmatic language and theory of mind also correlated with genetic variation at the FMR1 locus (Cytosine-Guanine-Guanine repeats and percent methylation). These results point toward substantial overlap in the social and language phenotypes in autism and FXS and suggest a molecular genetic basis to these phenotypic profiles. PMID:22934085

Social communication and theory of mind in boys with autism and fragile x syndrome.

PubMed

Losh, Molly; Martin, Gary E; Klusek, Jessica; Hogan-Brown, Abigail L; Sideris, John

2012-01-01

Impairments in the social use of language, or pragmatics, constitute a core characteristic of autism. Problems with pragmatic language have also been documented in fragile X syndrome (FXS), a monogenic condition that is the most common known genetic cause of autism. Evidence suggests that social cognitive ability, or theory of mind, may also be impaired in both conditions, and in autism, may importantly relate to pragmatic language ability. Given the substantial overlap observed in autism and FXS, this study aimed to better define those social-communicative phenotypes that overlap in these two conditions by comparing pragmatic language ability and theory of mind in children with idiopathic autism and children with FXS, with and without autism, as well as children with Down syndrome and typically developing controls. We further examined correlations between these cognitive-behavioral phenotypes and molecular genetic variation related to the Fragile X Mental Retardation-1 gene (FMR1) in the FXS group. Results indicated that children with idiopathic autism and those with FXS and autism performed comparably on direct-assessment measures of pragmatic language and theory of mind, whereas those with FXS only did not differ from controls. Theory of mind was related to pragmatic language ability in all groups. Pragmatic language and theory of mind also correlated with genetic variation at the FMR1 locus (Cytosine-Guanine-Guanine repeats and percent methylation). These results point toward substantial overlap in the social and language phenotypes in autism and FXS and suggest a molecular genetic basis to these phenotypic profiles.

Truth and probability in evolutionary games

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barrett, Jeffrey A.

2017-01-01

This paper concerns two composite Lewis-Skyrms signalling games. Each consists in a base game that evolves a language descriptive of nature and a metagame that coevolves a language descriptive of the base game and its evolving language. The first composite game shows how a pragmatic notion of truth might coevolve with a simple descriptive language. The second shows how a pragmatic notion of probability might similarly coevolve. Each of these pragmatic notions is characterised by the particular game and role that it comes to play in the game.

Pragmatic Communication Deficits in Children with Epilepsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Broeders, Mark; Geurts, Hilde; Jennekens-Schinkel, Aag

2010-01-01

Background: Various psychiatric and neurological disorders including epilepsy have been associated with language deficits. Pragmatic language deficits, however, have seldom been the focus of earlier studies in children with epilepsy. Moreover, it is unknown whether these pragmatic deficits are related to general intellectual functioning. Both…

Pragmatic Comprehension Development through Telecollaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafieyan, Vahid; Sharafi-Nejad, Maryam; Khavari, Zahra; Eng, Lin Siew; Mohamed, Abdul Rashid

2014-01-01

Pragmatic comprehension can be ideally developed through contact with target language speakers. This contact can be provided in English as Foreign Language contexts through telecollaboration. To test the actual effect of telecollaboration on the development of pragmatic comprehension, 30 Iranian undergraduates of English as a Foreign Language…

Experimental pragmatics: a Gricean turn in the study of language.

PubMed

Noveck, Ira A; Reboul, Anne

2008-11-01

Discerning the meaning of an utterance requires not only mastering grammar and knowing the meanings of words but also understanding the communicative (i.e., pragmatic) features of language. Although it has been an ever present aspect of linguistic analyses and discussions, it is only over the last ten years or so that cognitive scientists have been investigating--in a concerted fashion--the pragmatic features of language experimentally. We begin by highlighting Paul Grice's contributions to ordinary language philosophy and show how it has led to this active area of experimental investigation. We then focus on two exemplary phenomena--'scalar inference' and 'reference resolution'--before considering other topics that fit into the paradigm known as 'experimental pragmatics'.

Developing L2 Pragmatics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen

2013-01-01

This article positions research on the acquisition of pragmatics as an inquiry in the greater field of second language acquisition research. Viewing pragmatics from this intersection, I consider five areas of research that are of interest in both fields and have the potential to make significant contributions to second language pragmatics…

Mindful Storytellers: Emerging Pragmatics and Theory of Mind Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernández, Camila

2013-01-01

Emerging pragmatic language skills involve social, cognitive and linguistic abilities, including children's awareness of the conversational partner's mental states. The present study investigated the relation between children's theory of mind (ToM) and features of pragmatic language skills assessed through narrative discourse. One hundred and…

Metacognition in Speech and Language Therapy for Children with Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorders: Implications for a Theory of Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaile, Jacqueline; Adams, Catherine

2018-01-01

Background: Metacognition is a significant component of complex interventions for children who have developmental language disorders. Research into how metacognition operates in the content or process of developmental language therapy delivery is limited. Identification and description of proposed active therapy components, such as metacognition,…

Don’t Get Me Wrong: ERP Evidence from Cueing Communicative Intentions

PubMed Central

Regel, Stefanie; Gunter, Thomas C.

2017-01-01

How to make sure that one’s utterances are understood as intended when not facing each other? In order to convey communicative intentions, in digital communication emoticons and pragmatic cues are frequently used. Such cueing becomes even more crucial for implied interpretations (e.g., irony) that cannot be understood literally, but require extra information. Sentences, such as ‘That’s fantastic,’ may achieve either a literal or ironic meaning depending on the contextual constraints. In two experiments using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we examined the effects of cueing communicative intentions (i.e., by means of quotation marks) on ironic and literal language comprehension. An impact of cueing on language processing was seen as early as 200 ms post-stimulus onset by the emergence of a P300 preceding a sustained positivity for cued irony relative to literal language, while for uncued irony a P200-P600 pattern was obtained. In presence of additional information for ironic intentions, pragmatic reanalysis allowing inferences on the message level may have occured immediately. Moreover, by examining the way of cueing (i.e., ambiguous vs. unambiguous cueing) this type of information for communicative intentions appeared to be only effective when the cues were unambiguous by matching pragmatic conventions. The findings suggest that cueing communicative intentions may immediately affect language comprehension, albeit depending on pragmatic conventions of the cues’ usage. PMID:28955258

Teacher-Based Assessment for Foreign Language Pragmatics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishihara, Noriko

2009-01-01

Despite the growing interest in teaching second language (L2) pragmatics, the issue of assessment of learners' pragmatic skills, particularly in the context of the classroom, seems to be less prominently discussed, even though the assessment is an integral part of the instruction. This qualitative case study aims to demonstrate an…

Exploring the Meta-Pragmatic Realm in English Language Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McConachy, Troy

2013-01-01

As the speakership of English worldwide continues to grow, English language teachers are required to devise ways to prepare their learners for communicating successfully across cultures. As pragmatics is particularly tied up with culture, the ways in which individuals from different cultures will orient to pragmatic phenomena in their interaction…

Pragmatic Impairments in Adults with Childhood Diagnoses of Autism or Developmental Receptive Language Disorder.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eales, Martin J.

1993-01-01

Analysis of conversations of 15 adults with autism and 17 with developmental receptive language disorders in childhood indicated that the autistic adults showed greater pragmatic impairment because of their greater difficulty in forming context-relevant communicative intentions. Pragmatic impairments arising from failures in translating intentions…

The Representation of Pragmatic Knowledge in Recent ELT Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ren, Wei; Han, Zhengrui

2016-01-01

Pragmatic competence has become an increasingly crucial component of language pedagogy. This article reports on a quantitative and qualitative study of ten English language textbooks used in Chinese universities with a particular focus on their coverage of pragmatic knowledge. Detailed analysis focused specifically on the mention of pragmatic…

Reliability and validity of the Pragmatics Observational Measure (POM): a new observational measure of pragmatic language for children.

PubMed

Cordier, Reinie; Munro, Natalie; Wilkes-Gillan, Sarah; Speyer, Renée; Pearce, Wendy M

2014-07-01

There is a need for a reliable and valid assessment of childhood pragmatic language skills during peer-peer interactions. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of a newly developed pragmatic assessment, the Pragmatic Observational Measure (POM). The psychometric properties of the POM were investigated from observational data of two studies - study 1 involved 342 children aged 5-11 years (108 children with ADHD; 108 typically developing playmates; 126 children in the control group), and study 2 involved 9 children with ADHD who attended a 7-week play-based intervention. The psychometric properties of the POM were determined based on the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) taxonomy of psychometric properties and definitions for health-related outcomes; the Pragmatic Protocol was used as the reference tool against which the POM was evaluated. The POM demonstrated sound psychometric properties in all the reliability, validity and interpretability criteria against which it was assessed. The findings showed that the POM is a reliable and valid measure of pragmatic language skills of children with ADHD between the age of 5 and 11 years and has clinical utility in identifying children with pragmatic language difficulty. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Structural language, pragmatic communication, behavior, and social competence in children adopted internationally: A pilot study.

PubMed

Petranovich, Christine L; Walz, Nicolay Chertkoff; Staat, Mary Allen; Chiu, Chung-Yiu Peter; Wade, Shari L

2017-01-01

The objectives of this study were to examine the association of structural language and pragmatic communication with behavior problems and social competence in girls adopted internationally. Participants included girls between 6-12 years of age who were internationally adopted from China (n = 32) and Eastern-Europe (n = 25) and a control group of never-adopted girls (n = 25). Children completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. Parents completed the Child Communication Checklist- second edition, the Child Behavior Checklist, and the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales. Compared to the controls, parents in the Eastern European group reported more problems with social competence, externalizing behaviors, structural language, and pragmatic communication. The Chinese group evidenced more internalizing problems. Using generalized linear regression, interaction terms were examined to determine if the associations of pragmatic communication and structural language with behavior problems and social competence varied across groups. Controlling for general intellectual functioning, poorer pragmatic communication was associated with more externalizing problems and poorer social competence. In the Chinese group, poorer pragmatic communication was associated with more internalizing problems. Post-adoption weaknesses in pragmatic communication are associated with behavior problems and social competence. Internationally adopted children may benefit from interventions that target pragmatic communication.

Conversation and Language Acquisition: A Pragmatic Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Eve V.

2018-01-01

Children acquire language in conversation. This is where they are exposed to the community language by more expert speakers. This exposure is effectively governed by adult reliance on pragmatic principles in conversation: Cooperation, Conventionality, and Contrast. All three play a central role in speakers' use of language for communication in…

Theory of mind and specific language impairment in school-age children.

PubMed

Spanoudis, George

2016-01-01

Research on the relationship between aspects of language development and Theory of Mind (ToM) in children with language impairments suggests that children with language impairment show a delay in ToM development. This study aimed to examine the relationships of the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic skills with ToM in school-age children. Twenty children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) aged 9-12 years and two control groups, one matched for chronological age (CA) and one for language ability (LA) (aged 8-10 years) were compared on a set of language tasks tapping syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic skills and on an advanced test of ToM. Results showed that children with SLI performed poorly on the ToM task compared to the CA matches. Also, analysis showed that language skills and ToM are related and that syntactic and pragmatic abilities contributed significantly to the prediction of ToM performance in the SLI group. It is concluded that the syntax/pragmatic aspects of the language impact on ToM understanding in children with SLI. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Social Communication Intervention Project: A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of Speech and Language Therapy for School-Age Children Who Have Pragmatic and Social Communication Problems with or without Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Catherine; Lockton, Elaine; Freed, Jenny; Gaile, Jacqueline; Earl, Gillian; McBean, Kirsty; Nash, Marysia; Green, Jonathan; Vail, Andy; Law, James

2012-01-01

Background: Children who show disproportionate difficulty with the pragmatic as compared with the structural aspects of language are described as having pragmatic language impairment (PLI) or social communication disorder (SCD). Some children who have PLI also show mild social impairments associated with high-functioning autism or autism spectrum…

An Emerging Pedagogical Approach to Teaching Pragmatic Formulas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zavialova, Alisa

2017-01-01

A good mastery of a range of formulaic sequences appears to be an important component of successful language learning (Wood, 2015; Wray, 2002). Certain formulaic sequences, known as pragmatic formulas, play a vital role in developing second language pragmatic competence, as they are crucial for successful speech act realization (Bardovi-Harlig,…

Neural Correlates of Pragmatic Language Comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tesink, C. M. J. Y.; Buitelaar, J. K.; Petersson, K. M.; van der Gaag, R. J.; Kan, C. C.; Tendolkar, I.; Hagoort, P.

2009-01-01

Difficulties with pragmatic aspects of communication are universal across individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Here we focused on an aspect of pragmatic language comprehension that is relevant to social interaction in daily life: the integration of speaker characteristics inferred from the voice with the content of a message. Using…

Developing Corpus-Based Materials to Teach Pragmatic Routines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen; Mossman, Sabrina; Vellenga, Heidi E.

2015-01-01

This article describes how to develop teaching materials for pragmatics based on authentic language by using a spoken corpus. The authors show how to use the corpus in conjunction with textbooks to identify pragmatic routines for speech acts and how to extract appropriate language samples and adapt them for classroom use. They demonstrate how to…

Assessing Development of Meta-Pragmatic Awareness in Study Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinginger, Celeste; Farrell, Kathleen

2004-01-01

In this paper, the authors explore a methodology for assessing learners' meta-pragmatic awareness of variation in French language use. "Meta-pragmatic awareness" is defined as knowledge of the social meaning of variable second language forms and awareness of the ways in which these forms mark different aspects of social contexts, and is therefore…

Exploring the Effects of Communication Intervention for Developmental Pragmatic Language Impairments: A Signal-Generation Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Catherine; Lloyd, Julian; Aldred, Catherine; Baxendale, Janet

2006-01-01

Background: The remediation of pragmatic problems forms a significant part of the caseload for professionals working with children with communication problems. There is little systematic evidence that demonstrates the benefits of speech and language therapy for children whose difficulties lie primarily within the pragmatic domain or which…

Imitation (rather than core language) predicts pragmatic development in young children with ASD: a preliminary longitudinal study using CDI parental reports.

PubMed

Miniscalco, Carmela; Rudling, Maja; Råstam, Maria; Gillberg, Christopher; Johnels, Jakob Åsberg

2014-01-01

Research in the last decades has clearly pointed to the important role of language and communicative level when trying to understand developmental trajectories in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate whether (1) core language skills, measured as expressive vocabulary and grammar, and/or (2) pre-linguistic social-communicative skills, including gestures and imitation abilities, drive pragmatic language development in young children with ASD. We examined correlates and longitudinal predictors of pragmatic growth in a sample of 34 children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), whose parents were given parts of two MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventories (CDI: Words & Gestures and CDI: Words & Sentences) for completion at two time points (at time 1 the mean child age was 41 months, and at time 2 it was 54 months). A novel feature in this study is that the relevant parts from both CDI forms were included at both time points, allowing us to examine whether pre-linguistic social-communication skills (e.g. imitation and gesturing) and/or core language skills (i.e. grammar and vocabulary) predict pragmatic language growth. The results show that basically all pre-linguistic, linguistic and pragmatic skills were associated concurrently. When controlling for possible confounders and for the autoregressive effect, imitation skills predicted pragmatic growth over time, whereas core language did not. This could only have been shown by the use of both CDI forms. This preliminary study may be of both conceptual and methodological importance for research in the field of language and communication development in ASD. Imitation may play a pivotal role in the development of subsequent conversational pragmatic abilities in young children with ASD. Future research should be directed at unravelling the mechanisms underlying this association. © 2014 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Relationship between Attitude toward Target Language Culture Instruction and Pragmatic Comprehension Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafieyan, Vahid; Majid, Norazman Bin Abdul; Eng, Lin Siew

2013-01-01

Familiarity with the cultural features of the target language society and interest in learning those cultural features are the key factors to determine language learners' level of pragmatic comprehension. To investigate this issue, this study attempted to assess the relationship between attitude toward incorporating target language culture into…

Inference and Sentence Comprehension in Children with Specific or Pragmatic Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Catherine; Clarke, Elaine; Haynes, Rebecca

2009-01-01

Background: Children with language impairments have difficulty in reporting verbal inferences, but it is unclear whether the source of this problem lies in limitations of language comprehension, an inability to access world knowledge, or the integration of information in discourse. Children with pragmatic language impairments (CwPLI) are often…

The Functional Communication Skills of Boys with Externalising Behaviour with and without Co-Occurring Language Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackie, Leila; Law, James

2014-01-01

Previous studies have highlighted a high level of language impairment (LI) and pragmatic language disorder (PLD) amongst children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). However, little is known regarding the impact of LI in the severity of PLD in this group. This study investigates the language and pragmatic language skills of…

Twelve Activities for Teaching the Pragmatics of Complaining to L2 Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilliard, Amanda

2017-01-01

Pragmatic competence, or the ability to use language appropriately in a variety of contexts, is a critical skill for communication in a second language (L2). Thus, teaching that focuses on developing students' abilities to communicate effectively in an L2 must also include a focus on developing students' pragmatic competence. This article…

Learning to Do Concept-Based Pragmatics Instruction: Teacher Development and L2 Pedagogical Content Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Compernolle, Rémi A.; Henery, Ashlie

2015-01-01

This article explores the development of pedagogical content knowledge in relation to one teacher's experience in learning to engage in a Vygotskian approach to teaching second language (L2) pragmatics known as "concept-based pragmatics instruction" (CBPI). The teacher, Mrs. Hanks, was a PhD candidate in second language acquisition at…

Do Children with Social Communication Disorder Have Explicit Knowledge of Pragmatic Rules They Break? A Comparison of Conversational Pragmatic Ability and Metapragmatic Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lockton, Elaine; Adams, Catherine; Collins, Anna

2016-01-01

Background: Children who have social communication disorder (CwSCD) demonstrate persistent difficulties with language pragmatics in conversations and other verbal interactions. Speech-language interventions for these children often include promotion of metapragmatic awareness (MPA); that is, the ability to identify explicitly and reflect upon…

Pragmatics and Semiotics: Movies as Aesthetic Audio-Visual Device Expedite Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Lucia Y.

2014-01-01

The author as teacher educator and her students as teacher candidates conceptualized pragmatics, semiotics and aesthetics into literacy education by inviting students of diversity to watch movies, talk about movies, write movies, and act movies. Pragmatics is the study of how language is used for communication in various social and cultural…

Second Language Pragmatic Ability: Individual Differences According to Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyner, Lauren; Cohen, Andrew D.

2015-01-01

The aims of this paper are to review research literature on the role that the second language (L2) and foreign language (FL) environments actually play in the development of learners' target language (TL) pragmatic ability, and also to speculate as to the extent to which individual factors can offset the advantages that learners may have by being…

The Effects of Speech and Language Therapy Intervention on Children with Pragmatic Language Impairments in Mainstream School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Catherine; Lloyd, Julian

2007-01-01

In this article, Catherine Adams, clinical senior lecturer in speech and language therapy at the University of Manchester, and Julian Lloyd, senior lecturer in psychology at Newman College, Birmingham, describe the implementation and effects of an intensive programme of speech and language therapy for children who have pragmatic language…

Reliability and validity evidence of the Assessment of Language Use in Social Contexts for Adults (ALUSCA).

PubMed

Valente, Ana Rita S; Hall, Andreia; Alvelos, Helena; Leahy, Margaret; Jesus, Luis M T

2018-04-12

The appropriate use of language in context depends on the speaker's pragmatic language competencies. A coding system was used to develop a specific and adult-focused self-administered questionnaire to adults who stutter and adults who do not stutter, The Assessment of Language Use in Social Contexts for Adults, with three categories: precursors, basic exchanges, and extended literal/non-literal discourse. This paper presents the content validity, item analysis, reliability coefficients and evidences of construct validity of the instrument. Content validity analysis was based on a two-stage process: first, 11 pragmatic questionnaires were assessed to identify items that probe each pragmatic competency and to create the first version of the instrument; second, items were assessed qualitatively by an expert panel composed by adults who stutter and controls, and quantitatively and qualitatively by an expert panel composed by clinicians. A pilot study was conducted with five adults who stutter and five controls to analyse items and calculate reliability. Construct validity evidences were obtained using the hypothesized relationships method and factor analysis with 28 adults who stutter and 28 controls. Concerning content validity, the questionnaires assessed up to 13 pragmatic competencies. Qualitative and quantitative analysis revealed ambiguities in items construction. Disagreement between experts was solved through item modification. The pilot study showed that the instrument presented internal consistency and temporal stability. Significant differences between adults who stutter and controls and different response profiles revealed the instrument's underlying construct. The instrument is reliable and presented evidences of construct validity.

Practitioner review: the assessment of language pragmatics.

PubMed

Adams, Catherine

2002-11-01

The assessment of pragmatics expressed in spoken language is a central issue in the evaluation of children with communication impairments and related disorders. A developmental approach to assessment has remained problematic due to the complex interaction of social, linguistic, cognitive and cultural influences on pragmatics. A selective review and critique of current formal and informal testing methods and pragmatic analytic procedures. Formal testing of pragmatics has limited potential to reveal the typical pragmatic abnormalities in interaction but has a significant role to play in the assessment of comprehension of pragmatic intent. Clinical assessment of pragmatics with the pre-school child should focus on elicitation of communicative intent via naturalistic methods as part of an overall assessment of social communication skills. Assessments for older children should include a comprehensive investigation of speech acts, conversational and narrative abilities, the understanding of implicature and intent as well as the child's ability to employ contextual cues to understanding. Practical recommendations are made regarding the choice of a core set of pragmatic assessments and elicitation techniques. The practitioner's attention is drawn to the lack of the usual safeguards of reliability and validity that have persisted in some language pragmatics assessments. A core set of pragmatic assessment tools can be identified from the proliferation of instruments in current use. Further research is required to establish clearer norms and ranges in the development of pragmatic ability, particularly with respect to the understanding of inference, topic management and coherence.

Plan recognition and generalization in command languages with application to telerobotics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yared, Wael I.; Sheridan, Thomas B.

1991-01-01

A method for pragmatic inference as a necessary accompaniment to command languages is proposed. The approach taken focuses on the modeling and recognition of the human operator's intent, which relates sequences of domain actions ('plans') to changes in some model of the task environment. The salient feature of this module is that it captures some of the physical and linguistic contextual aspects of an instruction. This provides a basis for generalization and reinterpretation of the instruction in different task environments. The theoretical development is founded on previous work in computational linguistics and some recent models in the theory of action and intention. To illustrate these ideas, an experimental command language to a telerobot is implemented. The program consists of three different components: a robot graphic simulation, the command language itself, and the domain-independent pragmatic inference module. Examples of task instruction processes are provided to demonstrate the benefits of this approach.

Relationship between Acculturation Attitude and Effectiveness of Pragmatic Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafieyan, Vahid

2016-01-01

Attitude toward accepting target language culture or maintaining heritage culture referred to as acculturation attitude can determine language learners' pragmatic gains during an educational sojourn. To this end, the current study investigated the relationship between language learners' acculturation attitudes during an educational sojourn and the…

Assessing Child and Adolescent Pragmatic Language Competencies: Toward Evidence-Based Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell, Robert L.; Grizzle, Kenneth L.

2008-01-01

Using language appropriately and effectively in social contexts requires pragmatic language competencies (PLCs). Increasingly, deficits in PLCs are linked to child and adolescent disorders, including autism spectrum, externalizing, and internalizing disorders. As the role of PLCs expands in diagnosis and treatment of developmental psychopathology,…

Pragmatics and Language Learning. Monograph Series Volume 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bouton, Lawrence F., Ed.

The series of articles in this volume were selected from among those presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning in April 1994. Articles include: "The Right Tool for the Job: Techniques for Analysis of Natural Language Use" (Georgia M. Green); "Sinclair & Coulthard Revisited: Global-…

Developmental Trajectories of Structural and Pragmatic Language Skills in School-Aged Children with Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Den Heuvel, E.; Manders, E.; Swillen, A.; Zink, I.

2016-01-01

Background: This study aimed to compare developmental courses of structural and pragmatic language skills in school-aged children with Williams syndrome (WS) and children with idiopathic intellectual disability (IID). Comparison of these language trajectories could highlight syndrome-specific developmental features. Method: Twelve monolingual…

Structural and Pragmatic Language in Children with ASD: Longitudinal Impact on Anxiety and Externalizing Behaviors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodas, Naomi V.; Eisenhower, Abbey; Blacher, Jan

2017-01-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at heightened risk for developing comorbid psychological disorders, including anxiety disorders, which may be further exacerbated by the presence of externalizing behaviors. Here, we examined how structural language and pragmatic language predicted anxiety and externalizing behaviors. Participants…

Constructing Clinical Judgments about Preschool Pragmatic Language Skills: An Action Research Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boje, Noreen Susan

2009-01-01

The literature suggests that children who struggle with communication during social interactions, called "pragmatic language" in the field of speech language pathology, have fewer opportunities to engage in social practices that promote learning because of inadequate skills in interacting with others. Children with even subtle difficulties in…

Defining and Operationalizing the Construct of Pragmatic Competence: Review and Recommendations. Research Report. ETS RR-15-06

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Timpe Laughlin, Veronika; Wain, Jennifer; Schmidgall, Jonathan

2015-01-01

This review paper constitutes the first step within a larger research effort to develop an interactive pragmatics learning tool for second and foreign language (L2) learners and users of English. The tool will primarily endeavor to support pragmatics learning within the language use domain "workplace." Given this superordinate objective,…

Social Distance as a Factor in the Achievement of Pragmatic Competence. CLCS Occasional Paper No. 47.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simpson, Barbara Lazenby

Acquisition of pragmatic competence by second language learners in the target language environment is examined, drawing on a study of learners of English as a Second Language in Dublin (Ireland). The hypothesis presented is that learners who perceive social or cultural distance between themselves and the target language culture will have greater…

Pragmatics: The Social Functions of Language--Implications for the Social Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Thomas N.

Social studies instruction will improve if educators understand and integrate information gained from pragmatics into social studies curriculum and methods. Pragmatics is an area of linguistic study based on the philosophy of pragmatism which emphasizes social consequences of events and actions. Pragmatics deals particularly with the relationships…

Adult Second Language Learners' Pragmatic Development in the Study-Abroad Context: A Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Feng

2015-01-01

The ability to use language effectively in communication is regarded as important as knowledge of grammatical rules in the communicative competence models. Pragmatic competence, namely the ability to understand and use linguistic forms appropriately according to context, is thus accepted as a vital component of language ability. Recently,…

Pragmatics of language and theory of mind in children with dyslexia with associated language difficulties or nonverbal learning disabilities.

PubMed

Cardillo, Ramona; Garcia, Ricardo Basso; Mammarella, Irene C; Cornoldi, Cesare

2017-03-15

The present study aims to find empirical evidence of deficits in linguistic pragmatic skills and theory of mind (ToM) in children with dyslexia with associated language difficulties or nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD), when compared with a group of typically developing (TD) children matched for age and gender. Our results indicate that children with dyslexia perform less well than TD children in most of the tasks measuring pragmatics of language, and in one of the tasks measuring ToM. In contrast, children with NLD generally performed better than the dyslexia group, and performed significantly worse than the TD children only in a metaphors task based on visual stimuli. A discriminant function analysis confirmed the crucial role of the metaphors subtest and the verbal ToM task in distinguishing between the groups. We concluded that, contrary to a generally-held assumption, children with dyslexia and associated language difficulties may be weaker than children with NLD in linguistic pragmatics and ToM, especially when language is crucially involved. The educational and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Language and pragmatic functions in school-age children on the autism spectrum.

PubMed

Ramberg, C; Ehlers, S; Nydén, A; Johansson, M; Gillberg, C

1996-01-01

This study examined group differences in language and pragmatic functions across sex-, age- and IQ-matched samples of Asperger syndrome (N = 22), high-functioning autism (N = 11), deficits in attention, motor control and perception (DAMP) (N = 11), and speech and language disorder (SLD) (N = 11) groups. The purpose was to explore possible differentiating features in the fields of vocabulary, comprehension and pragmatics and, in addition, to determine whether Asperger syndrome could be reliably separated from high-functioning autism on these variables. The findings suggest that Asperger syndrome may be associated with higher full-scale and verbal IQ than high-functioning autism; Asperger syndrome may not be associated with better pragmatic skills (as defined in this context) than high-functioning autism; language comprehension may not clearly separate Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism once the effects of very low IQ are partialled out; both DAMP and SLD can be distinctly separated from Asperger syndrome and autism.

A systematic review of pragmatic language interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder

PubMed Central

Cordier, Reinie; Munro, Natalie; Joosten, Annette; Speyer, Renée

2017-01-01

There is a need for evidence based interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to limit the life-long, psychosocial impact of pragmatic language impairments. This systematic review identified 22 studies reporting on 20 pragmatic language interventions for children with ASD aged 0–18 years. The characteristics of each study, components of the interventions, and the methodological quality of each study were reviewed. Meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effectiveness of 15 interventions. Results revealed some promising approaches, indicating that active inclusion of the child and parent in the intervention was a significant mediator of intervention effect. Participant age, therapy setting or modality were not significant mediators between the interventions and measures of pragmatic language. The long-term effects of these interventions and the generalisation of learning to new contexts is largely unknown. Implications for clinical practice and directions for future research are discussed. PMID:28426832

A Test for the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS): Normative Data and Psychometric Properties

PubMed Central

Arcara, Giorgio; Bambini, Valentina

2016-01-01

The Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS) test is a new tool to evaluate pragmatic abilities in clinical populations with acquired communicative deficits, ranging from schizophrenia to neurodegenerative diseases. APACS focuses on two main domains, namely discourse and non-literal language, combining traditional tasks with refined linguistic materials in Italian, in a unified framework inspired by language pragmatics. The test includes six tasks (Interview, Description, Narratives, Figurative Language 1, Humor, Figurative Language 2) and three composite scores (Pragmatic Productions, Pragmatic Comprehension, APACS Total). Psychometric properties and normative data were computed on a sample of 119 healthy participants representative of the general population. The analysis revealed acceptable internal consistency and good test-retest reliability for almost every APACS task, suggesting that items are coherent and performance is consistent over time. Factor analysis supports the validity of the test, revealing two factors possibly related to different facets and substrates of the pragmatic competence. Finally, excellent match between APACS items and scores and the pragmatic constructs measured in the test was evidenced by experts' evaluation of content validity. The performance on APACS showed a general effect of demographic variables, with a negative effect of age and a positive effect of education. The norms were calculated by means of state-of-the-art regression methods. Overall, APACS is a valuable tool for the assessment of pragmatic deficits in verbal communication. The short duration and easiness of administration make the test especially suitable to use in clinical settings. In presenting APACS, we also aim at promoting the inclusion of pragmatics in the assessment practice, as a relevant dimension in defining the patient's cognitive profile, given its vital role for communication and social interaction in daily life. The combined use of APACS with other neuropsychological tests could also improve our understanding of the cognitive substrates of pragmatic abilities and their breakdown. PMID:26903894

Facilitating pragmatic skills through role-play in learners with language learning disability.

PubMed

Abdoola, Fareeaa; Flack, Penelope S; Karrim, Saira B

2017-07-26

Role-based learning involves the process whereby learners acquire skills, knowledge and understanding through the assumption of roles within real-life settings. Role-play holds potential as an effective learning strategy for children; however, there is limited research on the use of role-play as a therapy method within the field of speech-language pathology. Children with language learning disability (LLD) typically present with difficulties in social communication, which can negatively affect their social and academic achievement. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of role-play as a therapy approach targeting the pragmatic skills of stylistic variation and requesting for clarification in learners with LLD. The use of combined positivist and interpretivist paradigms allowed for the implementation of an embedded mixed methods design. An experimental pretest-posttest design was implemented. Eight participants, who were learners with a diagnosis of LLD, were purposefully selected. Data collection was conducted over five phases, utilising the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (4th Ed.) Pragmatics Profile, discourse completion tasks, session plans and session records. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and were supplemented by qualitative data from session records. Results revealed improvements in stylistic variation and requesting for clarification post role-play intervention, with minimal changes in the control group. Limitations of the study have been reported for consideration when interpreting results. Role-play as a therapy approach targeting two pragmatic skills, stylistic variation and requesting for clarification, was found to be beneficial for learners with LLD. Recommendations for the implementation of role-play as a therapy approach were made.

Online interpretation of scalar quantifiers: insight into the semantics-pragmatics interface.

PubMed

Huang, Yi Ting; Snedeker, Jesse

2009-05-01

Scalar implicature has served as a test case for exploring the relations between semantic and pragmatic processes during language comprehension. Most studies have used reaction time methods and the results have been variable. In these studies, we use the visual-world paradigm to investigate implicature. We recorded participants' eye movements during commands like "Point to the girl that has some of the socks" in the presence of a display in which one girl had two of four socks and another had three of three soccer balls. These utterances contained an initial period of ambiguity in which the semantics of some was compatible with both characters. This ambiguity could be immediately resolved by a pragmatic implicature which would restrict some to a proper subset. Instead in Experiments 1 and 2, we found that participants were substantially delayed, suggesting a lag between semantic and pragmatic processing. In Experiment 3, we examined interpretations of some when competitors were inconsistent with the semantics (girl with socks vs. girl with no socks). We found quick resolution of the target, suggesting that previous delays were specifically linked to pragmatic analysis.

Do Adults Show an Effect of Delayed First Language Acquisition When Calculating Scalar Implicatures?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidson, Kathryn; Mayberry, Rachel I.

2015-01-01

Language acquisition involves learning not only grammatical rules and a lexicon but also what people are intending to convey with their utterances: the semantic/pragmatic component of language. In this article we separate the contributions of linguistic development and cognitive maturity to the acquisition of the semantic/pragmatic component of…

Creating the Third Self: Pragmatic Transfer in Third Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fouser, Robert J.

1995-01-01

A prospective study investigating pragmatic transfer in the learning of Japanese as a third language (L3) is described. The study will test the hypothesis that the learner's perception of linguistic and cultural distance between the first/second languages (L1/L2) and L3 will determine conscious and unconscious decisions about which linguistic and…

A Comparison of Pragmatic Language in Boys with Autism and Fragile X Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klusek, Jessica; Martin, Gary E.; Losh, Molly

2014-01-01

Purpose: Impaired pragmatic language (i.e., language use for social interaction) is a hallmark feature of both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common known monogenic disorder associated with ASD. However, few cross-population comparisons of ASD and FXS have been conducted, and it is unclear whether pragmatic…

The Pragmatics of Making Requests in the L2 Workplace: A Case Study of Language Socialization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Duanduan

2000-01-01

An ethnographic case study focuses on the pragmatics of higher-stakes social communications. Illustrates how, through exposure to social interactions and assistance from more competent peers, an immigrant woman came to internalize target language and cultural norms and develop communicative competence in English as a Second Language in the…

Children with Williams Syndrome: Language, Cognitive, and Behavioral Characteristics and their Implications for Intervention

PubMed Central

Mervis, Carolyn B.; Velleman, Shelley L.

2012-01-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by heart disease, failure to thrive, hearing loss, intellectual or learning disability, speech and language delay, gregariousness, and non-social anxiety. The WS psycholinguistic profile is complex, including relative strengths in concrete vocabulary, phonological processing, and verbal short-term memory and relative weaknesses in relational/conceptual language, reading comprehension, and pragmatics. Many children evidence difficulties with finiteness marking and complex grammatical constructions. Speech-language intervention, support, and advocacy are crucial. PMID:22754603

The Language Use Inventory for Young Children: A Parent-Report Measure of Pragmatic Language Development for 18- to 47-Month-Old Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Neill, Daniela K.

2007-01-01

Purpose: To demonstrate the internal reliability and discriminative validity of the Language Use Inventory for Young Children (LUI; D. K. O'Neill, 2002), a newly developed parent-report measure designed to assess pragmatic language development in 18-47-month-olds. Method: To examine internal reliability, the LUI was completed by mail by 177…

Pragmatic skills predict online counterfactual comprehension: Evidence from the N400.

PubMed

Kulakova, Eugenia; Nieuwland, Mante S

2016-10-01

Counterfactual thought allows people to consider alternative worlds they know to be false. Communicating these thoughts through language poses a social-communicative challenge because listeners typically expect a speaker to produce true utterances, but counterfactuals per definition convey information that is false. Listeners must therefore incorporate overt linguistic cues (subjunctive mood, such as in If I loved you then) in a rapid way to infer the intended counterfactual meaning. The present EEG study focused on the comprehension of such counterfactual antecedents and investigated if pragmatic ability-the ability to apply knowledge of the social-communicative use of language in daily life-predicts the online generation of counterfactual worlds. This yielded two novel findings: (1) Words that are consistent with factual knowledge incur a semantic processing cost, as reflected in larger N400 amplitude, in counterfactual antecedents compared to hypothetical antecedents (If sweets were/are made of sugar). We take this to suggest that counterfactuality is quickly incorporated during language comprehension and reduces online expectations based on factual knowledge. (2) Individual scores on the Autism Quotient Communication subscale modulated this effect, suggesting that individuals who are better at understanding the communicative intentions of other people are more likely to reduce knowledge-based expectations in counterfactuals. These results are the first demonstration of the real-time pragmatic processes involved in creating possible worlds.

Pragmatic-mode mediation of sentence comprehension among aphasic bilinguals and hispanophones.

PubMed

Schnitzer, M L

1989-01-01

A test of sentence comprehension administered in four input-output modality combinations to a group of aphasic bilinguals and monolingual hispanophones provides evidence that aphasics tend to use pragmatic-mode (in the sense of Givón, 1979, On understanding-grammar, New York, Academic Press) strategies in approaching this task. When five factors were identified and dichotomized with respect to the pragmatic-mode-syntactic-mode dimension, the patients performed significantly better on items classified as pragmatic than on those classified as syntactic, in both languages. The results support a vertical/hierarchical view of aphasic language dissolution.

Short-Term and Working Memory Skills in Primary School-Aged Children with Specific Language Impairment and Children with Pragmatic Language Impairment: Phonological, Linguistic and Visuo-Spatial Aspects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freed, Jenny; Lockton, Elaine; Adams, Catherine

2012-01-01

Background: Children with specific language impairment (CwSLI) are consistently reported to have short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) difficulties. Aim: To compare STM and WM abilities in CwSLI with children with pragmatic language impairment (CwPLI). Methods & Procedures: Primary school-aged CwSLI (n = 12) and CwPLI (n = 23) were…

Proficiency Effect on L2 Pragmatic Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Feng

2015-01-01

This paper synthesizes cross-sectional studies of the effect of proficiency on second language (L2) pragmatics to answer the synthesis question: Does proficiency affect adult learners' pragmatic competence? Findings have revealed an overall positive proficiency effect on pragmatic competence, and in most cases higher proficiency learners have…

Early Pragmatic Differentiation in Japanese and German: A Case Study of a Developing Trilingual Child in Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nibun, Yukari; Wigglesworth, Gillian

2014-01-01

While acquisition of more than one language from birth is a relatively common phenomenon, whether children under two years of age use their languages in a differentiated manner has not yet been established. The current study investigates the pragmatic differentiation of a child who lives in Australia and was acquiring two minority languages,…

Pragmatic Language Impairment and Social Deficits in Williams Syndrome: A Comparison with Down's Syndrome and Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laws, Glynis; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2003-01-01

The social communication strength of individuals with Williams syndrome described by some researchers contrasts with the picture of social difficulties painted by others. To study the pragmatic aspects of language, social relationships and unusual interests in a group of children and adults with Williams syndrome, and to compare them with a group…

Relevant Responding in Pragmatic Language Impairment: The Role of Language Variation in the Information-Soliciting Utterance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vigil, Vannesa T.; Eyer, Julia A.; Hardee, W Paul

2005-01-01

Responding relevantly to an information-soliciting utterance (ISU) is required of a school-age child many times daily. For the child with pragmatic language difficulties, this may be especially problematic, yet clinicians have had few data to design intervention for improving these skills. This small-scale study looks at the ability of a child…

Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Participation and Outcomes in an Intensive Communication Intervention for Children with Pragmatic Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baxendale, Janet; Lockton, Elaine; Adams, Catherine; Gaile, Jacqueline

2013-01-01

Background: Treatment trials that enquire into parents' and teachers' views on speech-language interventions and outcomes for primary school-age children are relatively rare. The current study sought perceptions of the process of intervention and value placed on outcomes resulting from a trial of intervention, the Social Communication Intervention…

Idiosyncratic gesture use in atypical language development, and its interaction with speech rhythm, word juncture, syntax, pragmatics and discourse: a case study.

PubMed

Howard, Sara J; Perkins, Michael R; Sowden, Hannah

2012-10-01

Very little is known about the use of gesture by children with developmental language disorders (DLDs). This case study of 'Lucy', a child aged 4;10 with a DLD, expands on what is known and in particular focuses on a type of idiosyncratic "rhythmic gesture" (RG) not previously reported. A fine-grained qualitative analysis was carried out of video recordings of Lucy in conversation with the first author. This revealed that Lucy's RG was closely integrated in complex ways with her use of other gesture types, speech rhythm, word juncture, syntax, pragmatics, discourse, visual processing and processing demands generally. Indeed, the only satisfactory way to explain it was as a partial byproduct of such interactions. These findings support the theoretical accounts of gesture which see it as just one component of a multimodal, integrated signalling system (e.g. Goldin-Meadow, S. (2000). Beyond words: The importance of gesture to researchers and learners. Child Development, 71(1), 231-239), and emergentist accounts of communication impairment which regard compensatory adaptation as integral (e.g. Perkins, M. R. (2007). Pragmatic Impairment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.).

Diagnostic Differentiation of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Pragmatic Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reisinger, Lisa M.; Cornish, Kim M.; Fombonne, Eric

2011-01-01

The present study examined diagnostic differentiation between school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI). Standardized diagnostic instruments were used to investigate the relationship between severity of "autism triad" impairments and group membership. The Autism Diagnostic…

Consciousness, Learning and Interlanguage Pragmatics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Richard

A discussion of the ways that consciousness may be involved in learning the principles of second-language discourse and pragmatics draws on current theories of the role of consciousness in human learning in general, with suggestions for extension to the learning of pragmatics. First, research on the degree of consciousness in pragmatic learning…

Effect of Cultural Distance on Pragmatic Comprehension and Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafieyan, Vahid

2016-01-01

National cultural distance is considered to be a strong predictor of language learners' pragmatic competence. To test the actual effect of national cultural distance on pragmatic competence holistically and comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence discretely, the current study was conducted on two groups of undergraduate…

Pragmatics in Pre-Schoolers with Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geurts, Hilde; Embrechts, Mariette

2010-01-01

Background: Pragmatic assessment methods are very diverse and differ in informant type. Some rely on parents, others on teachers/professionals and some directly test pragmatic abilities in the children themselves. A widely used pragmatic parent questionnaire is the Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2). However, it is not known how scores…

Evidence for shared cognitive processing of pitch in music and language.

PubMed

Perrachione, Tyler K; Fedorenko, Evelina G; Vinke, Louis; Gibson, Edward; Dilley, Laura C

2013-01-01

Language and music epitomize the complex representational and computational capacities of the human mind. Strikingly similar in their structural and expressive features, a longstanding question is whether the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying these abilities are shared or distinct--either from each other or from other mental processes. One prominent feature shared between language and music is signal encoding using pitch, conveying pragmatics and semantics in language and melody in music. We investigated how pitch processing is shared between language and music by measuring consistency in individual differences in pitch perception across language, music, and three control conditions intended to assess basic sensory and domain-general cognitive processes. Individuals' pitch perception abilities in language and music were most strongly related, even after accounting for performance in all control conditions. These results provide behavioral evidence, based on patterns of individual differences, that is consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive mechanisms for pitch processing may be shared between language and music.

Which are the best predictors of theory of mind delay in children with specific language impairment?

PubMed

Andrés-Roqueta, Clara; Adrian, Juan E; Clemente, Rosa A; Katsos, Napoleon

2013-01-01

The relationship between language and theory of mind (ToM) development in participants with specific language impairment (SLI) it is far from clear due to there were differences in study design and methodologies of previous studies. This research consisted of an in-depth investigation of ToM delay in children with SLI during the typical period of acquisition, and it studied whether linguistic or information-processing variables were the best predictors of this process. It also took into account whether there were differences in ToM competence due to the degree of pragmatic impairment within the SLI group. Thirty-one children with SLI (3;5-7;5 years old) and two control groups (age matched and language matched) were assessed with False Belief (FB) tasks, a wide battery of language measures and additional information-processing measures. The members of the SLI group were less competent than their age-matched peers at solving FB tasks, but they performed similarly to the language-matched group. Regression analysis showed that overall linguistic skills of children with SLI were the best predictor of ToM performance, and especially grammar abilities. No differences between SLI subgroups were found according to their pragmatic level. A delay in ToM development in children with SLI around the critical period of acquisition is confirmed more comprehensively, and it is shown to be more strongly related to their general linguistic level than to their age and other information-processing faculties. This finding stresses the importance of early educational and clinical programmes aimed at reducing deleterious effects in later development. © 2013 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Effects of contextual relevance on pragmatic inference during conversation: An fMRI study.

PubMed

Feng, Wangshu; Wu, Yue; Jan, Catherine; Yu, Hongbo; Jiang, Xiaoming; Zhou, Xiaolin

2017-08-01

Contextual relevance, which is vital for understanding conversational implicatures (CI), engages both the frontal-temporal language and theory-of-mind networks. Here we investigate how contextual relevance affects CI processing and regulates the connectivity between CI-processing-related brain regions. Participants listened to dialogues in which the level of contextual relevance to dialogue-final utterance (reply) was manipulated. This utterance was either direct, indirect but relevant, irrelevant with contextual hint, or irrelevant with no contextual hint. Results indicated that compared with direct replies, indirect replies showed increased activations in bilateral IFG, bilateral MTG, bilateral TPJ, dmPFC, and precuneus, and increased connectivity between rTPJ/dmPFC and both IFG and MTG. Moreover, irrelevant replies activated right MTG along an anterior-posterior gradient as a function of the level of irrelevance. Our study provides novel evidence concerning how the language and theory-of-mind networks interact for pragmatic inference and how the processing of CI is modulated by level of contextual relevance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Relative Roles Played by Structural and Pragmatic Language Skills in Relation to Behaviour in a Population of Primary School Children from Socially Disadvantaged Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Law, J.; Rush, R.; McBean, K.

2014-01-01

Considerable evidence supports the association between language learning difficulties and behaviour in young children and this is likely to be particularly true of children raised in social disadvantage. Less is known about the way that different aspects of language, specifically pragmatics, interact with behaviour. This study examines the extent…

Pragmatic Language Development in 18- to 47-Month-Old Italian Children: A Study with the Language Use Inventory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longobardi, Emiddia; Lonigro, Antonia; Laghi, Fiorenzo; O'Neill, Daniela K.

2017-01-01

The study was designed to investigate pragmatic development and the ability to make comments/questions on social and non-social topics in Italian-speaking children aged 18-47 months. Parents of 190 children completed an adaptation of the Language Use Inventory into Italian. Overall, the children's performance on the subscales of the LUI-Italian…

A Discourse-Pragmatic Approach to Teaching Indicative/Subjunctive Mood Selection in the Intermediate Spanish Language Class: New Information versus Reformulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sessarego, Cecilia

2016-01-01

The aim of a discourse-pragmatic approach to teaching the indicative/subjunctive contrast in Spanish is to engage students to move beyond grammar and semantics and enter the domain of language use in complete texts. Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research have mostly focused on the morphology, semantics and syntactic aspects of…

Facilitating pragmatic skills through role-play in learners with language learning disability

PubMed Central

Flack, Penelope S.

2017-01-01

Background Role-based learning involves the process whereby learners acquire skills, knowledge and understanding through the assumption of roles within real-life settings. Role-play holds potential as an effective learning strategy for children; however, there is limited research on the use of role-play as a therapy method within the field of speech-language pathology. Children with language learning disability (LLD) typically present with difficulties in social communication, which can negatively affect their social and academic achievement. Aim The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of role-play as a therapy approach targeting the pragmatic skills of stylistic variation and requesting for clarification in learners with LLD. Method The use of combined positivist and interpretivist paradigms allowed for the implementation of an embedded mixed methods design. An experimental pretest-posttest design was implemented. Eight participants, who were learners with a diagnosis of LLD, were purposefully selected. Data collection was conducted over five phases, utilising the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (4th Ed.) Pragmatics Profile, discourse completion tasks, session plans and session records. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and were supplemented by qualitative data from session records. Results Results revealed improvements in stylistic variation and requesting for clarification post role-play intervention, with minimal changes in the control group. Limitations of the study have been reported for consideration when interpreting results. Conclusion Role-play as a therapy approach targeting two pragmatic skills, stylistic variation and requesting for clarification, was found to be beneficial for learners with LLD. Recommendations for the implementation of role-play as a therapy approach were made. PMID:28828866

Integrating Language, Pragmatics, and Social Intervention in a Single-Subject Case Study of a Child With a Developmental Social Communication Disorder.

PubMed

Adams, Catherine; Gaile, Jacqueline; Lockton, Elaine; Freed, Jenny

2015-10-01

This clinical focus article presents an illustration of a complex communication intervention, the Social Communication Intervention Programme (SCIP), as delivered to a child who has a social communication disorder (SCD). The SCIP intervention combined language processing and pragmatic and social understanding therapies in a program of individualized therapy activities and in close liaison with families. The study used an enhanced AB single-subject design in which an 8-year-old child with an SCD participated in 20 therapy sessions with a specialist speech-language pathologist. A procedure of matching assessment findings to intervention choices was followed to construct an individualized treatment program. Examples of intervention content and the embedded structure of SCIP are illustrated. Observational and formal measurements of receptive and expressive language, conversation, and parent-teacher ratings of social communication were completed before therapy, after therapy, and at a 6-month follow-up session. Outcomes revealed change in total and receptive language scores but not in expressive language. Conversation showed marked improvement in responsiveness, appreciation of listener knowledge, turn taking, and adaptation of discourse style. Teacher-reported outcomes included improved classroom behavior and enhanced literacy skills. Parent-reported outcomes included improved verbal interactions with family members and personal narratives. This clinical focus article demonstrates the complexity of needs in a child with an SCD and how these can be addressed in individualized intervention. Findings are discussed in relation to the essential nature of language support including pragmatic therapy for children with SCDs. Discussion of the role of formal and functional outcome measurement as well as the proximity of chosen outcomes to the intervention is included.

Pragmatics in Teacher Education for Nonnative-Speaking Teachers: A Consciousness-Raising Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Kenneth R.

1997-01-01

Reviews some of the problems relevant to the teaching of language use and discusses pragmatic consciousness raising (PCR) as one alternative in teacher education for dealing with pragmatics in the classroom. (Author/JL)

Referential Communication Skills of Children with Williams Syndrome: Understanding when Messages Are Not Adequate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

John, Angela E.; Rowe, Melissa L.; Mervis, Carolyn B.

2009-01-01

Although children with Williams syndrome have relatively good structural language and concrete vocabulary abilities, they have difficulty with pragmatic aspects of language. To investigate the impact of pragmatic difficulties on listener-role referential communication, we administered a picture placement task designed to measure ability to…

Developmental Differences in Speech Act Recognition: A Pragmatic Awareness Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Paula

2004-01-01

With the growing acknowledgement of the importance of pragmatic competence in second language (L2) learning, language researchers have identified the comprehension of speech acts as they occur in natural conversation as essential to communicative competence (e.g. Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Thomas, 1983). Nonconventional indirect speech acts are formed…

Hola, Shalom, Hello: Adolescent Pragmatics from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brice, Alejandro E.; Franklin, Emily; Ratusnik, David L.

2008-01-01

Introduction: Classroom language demands increase when children enter the middle school environment (Brice & Heath, 1986; Larson & McKinley, 1998; Larson & McKinley, 1987). The pragmatic skills or social language skills of culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents from three different backgrounds were the focus of this study…

Negative pragmatic transfer in Chinese students' complimentary speech acts.

PubMed

Ren, Juanjuan; Gao, Xiaofang

2012-02-01

Summary.-This study was designed to examine negative pragmatic transfer of the speech act of English compliments by Chinese who learn English as a foreign language and to estimate the correlation between the amount of negative pragmatic transfer and English proficiency of the Chinese learners. Frequencies of students' performance showed that both in the favored compliments and the response strategies, differences were evident between Chinese English learners and native English speakers. This indicated that Chinese learners had trouble with the "slang" or "idioms" of the target language and tended to transfer negatively their L1 pragmatic norms to their L2 communication. Moreover, the favored compliment response strategies used by two groups of Chinese learners--who had different levels of English proficiency--differed, and negative pragmatic transfer decreased as proficiency in English increased.

The missing link in language development of deaf and hard of hearing children: pragmatic language development.

PubMed

Goberis, Dianne; Beams, Dinah; Dalpes, Molly; Abrisch, Amanda; Baca, Rosalinda; Yoshinaga-Itano, Christine

2012-11-01

This article will provide information about the Pragmatics Checklist, which consists of 45 items and is scored as: (1) not present, (2) present but preverbal, (3) present with one to three words, and (4) present with complex language. Information for both children who are deaf or hard of hearing and those with normal hearing are presented. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing are significantly older when demonstrating skill with complex language than their normal hearing peers. In general, even at the age of 7 years, there are several items that are not mastered by 75% of the deaf or hard of hearing children. Additionally, the article will provide some suggestions of strategies that can be considered as a means to facilitate the development of these pragmatic language skills for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Do Adults Show an Effect of Delayed First Language Acquisition When Calculating Scalar Implicatures?

PubMed

Davidson, Kathryn; Mayberry, Rachel I

Language acquisition involves learning not only grammatical rules and a lexicon, but also what someone is intending to convey with their utterance: the semantic/pragmatic component of language. In this paper we separate the contributions of linguistic development and cognitive maturity to the acquisition of the semantic/pragmatic component of language by comparing deaf adults who had either early or late first exposure to their first language (ASL). We focus on the particular type of meaning at the semantic/pragmatic interface called scalar implicature , for which preschool-age children typically differ from adults. Children's behavior has been attributed to either their not knowing appropriate linguistic alternatives to consider or to cognitive developmental differences between children and adults. Unlike children, deaf adults with late language exposure are cognitively mature, although they never fully acquire some complex linguistic structures, and thus serve as a test for the role of language in such interpretations. Our results indicate an overall high performance by late learners, especially when implicatures are not based on conventionalized items. However, compared to early language learners, late language learners compute fewer implicatures when conventionalized linguistic alternatives are involved (e.g. ). We conclude that (i) in general, Gricean pragmatic reasoning does not seem to be impacted by delayed first language acquisition and can account for multiple quantity implicatures, but (ii) the creation of a scale based on lexical items can lead to ease in alternative creation that may be advantageously learned early in life, and that this may be one of several factors contributing to differences between adults and children on scalar implicature tasks.

Applying Pragmatics Principles for Interaction with Visual Analytics.

PubMed

Hoque, Enamul; Setlur, Vidya; Tory, Melanie; Dykeman, Isaac

2018-01-01

Interactive visual data analysis is most productive when users can focus on answering the questions they have about their data, rather than focusing on how to operate the interface to the analysis tool. One viable approach to engaging users in interactive conversations with their data is a natural language interface to visualizations. These interfaces have the potential to be both more expressive and more accessible than other interaction paradigms. We explore how principles from language pragmatics can be applied to the flow of visual analytical conversations, using natural language as an input modality. We evaluate the effectiveness of pragmatics support in our system Evizeon, and present design considerations for conversation interfaces to visual analytics tools.

Longitudinal Profiles of Expressive Vocabulary, Syntax, and Pragmatic Language in Boys with Fragile X Syndrome or Down Syndrome

PubMed Central

Martin, Gary E.; Losh, Molly; Estigarribia, Bruno; Sideris, John; Roberts, Joanne

2014-01-01

Background Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Down syndrome (DS) are the two leading genetic causes of intellectual disability, and FXS is the most common known genetic condition associated with autism. Both FXS and DS are associated with significant language impairment, but little is known about expressive language across domains over time or the role of autism in language development in FXS. Aims To compare three domains of language production (vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics) over time within and across groups of boys with FXS with and without autism spectrum disorder (FXS-ASD, FXS-O), boys with DS, and typically developing (TD) boys. Methods & Procedures Twenty-nine boys with FXS-O, 40 boys with FXS-ASD, 34 boys with DS, and 48 younger TD boys of similar nonverbal mental age living in the United States participated. The Antonyms, Syntax Construction, and Pragmatic Judgment subtests of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language were administered annually over three years. Outcomes & Results TD boys scored higher than all other groups on all three subtests, boys with FXS-O and FXS-ASD scored higher than boys with DS in Syntax Construction, and boys with FXS-O scored higher than boys with FXS-ASD in Pragmatic Judgment. Within-group patterns varied between groups. Overall the TD group showed significantly more change over time than all other groups. Conclusions & Implications Findings suggest that expressive language skills and growth across various domains are more impaired in boys with FXS and DS than would be expected based on nonverbal mental age, that for boys with DS syntax is more impaired than would be expected based on intellectual disability, and that autism status affects pragmatic language in boys with FXS. Findings suggest that language production across domains should be addressed during assessment and intervention for boys with FXS and boys with DS, with differing group profiles also suggesting potentially different areas of focus. PMID:23889838

Distinguishing Neurocognitive Processes Reflected by P600 Effects: Evidence from ERPs and Neural Oscillations

PubMed Central

Regel, Stefanie; Meyer, Lars; Gunter, Thomas C.

2014-01-01

Research on language comprehension using event-related potentials (ERPs) reported distinct ERP components reliably related to the processing of semantic (N400) and syntactic information (P600). Recent ERP studies have challenged this well-defined distinction by showing P600 effects for semantic and pragmatic anomalies. So far, it is still unresolved whether the P600 reflects specific or rather common processes. The present study addresses this question by investigating ERPs in response to a syntactic and pragmatic (irony) manipulation, as well as a combined syntactic and pragmatic manipulation. For the syntactic condition, a morphosyntactic violation was applied, whereas for the pragmatic condition, such as “That is rich”, either an ironic or literal interpretation was achieved, depending on the prior context. The ERPs at the critical word showed a LAN-P600 pattern for syntactically incorrect sentences relative to correct ones. For ironic compared to literal sentences, ERPs showed a P200 effect followed by a P600 component. In comparison of the syntax-related P600 to the irony-related P600, distributional differences were found. Moreover, for the P600 time window (i.e., 500–900 ms), different changes in theta power between the syntax and pragmatics effects were found, suggesting that different patterns of neural activity contributed to each respective effect. Thus, both late positivities seem to be differently sensitive to these two types of linguistic information, and might reflect distinct neurocognitive processes, such as reanalysis of the sentence structure versus pragmatic reanalysis. PMID:24844290

Learning English Pragmatics in China: An Investigation into Chinese EFL Learners' Perceptions of Pragmatics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuan, Yifeng; Tangen, Donna; Mills, Kathy A.; Lidstone, John

2015-01-01

This paper reports the findings of a study investigating Chinese English language learners' perceptions of pragmatics in the EFL learning context in China. A total of 237 Chinese EFL first--year university students participated in the study. A questionnaire and focus group interviews were used to collect data about learners' pragmatics insights…

Learning by Doing: The Affordances of Task-Based Pragmatics Instruction for Beginning L2 Spanish Learners Studying Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Kimberly Jane

2017-01-01

The study abroad (SA) context is often assumed to foster pragmatic development in a second language (L2), yet previous scholarship confirms that pragmatic norms are culturally-shaped and often remain imperceptible to uninstructed SA students (Bataller, 2010; Cohen & Shively, 2007; Shively, 2010). Because pragmatics is not traditionally taught…

Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) scores in 11-year-old children with communication impairments.

PubMed

Botting, Nicola

2004-01-01

The pragmatic skills of children with communication disorders and their assessment are currently an issue for speech and language therapy and educational placement. To explore whether different subgroups of children with communication disorders score differently on the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) and to study how they compare with published normative data. A sample of 161 eleven-year-old children with a history of communication disorders was assessed using the CCC. The main use of this questionnaire was to establish whether pragmatic impairments were part of a child's communication difficulty. Although the checklist was originally designed for research purposes, normative data for this scale have been recently published as well as group data from a number of different clinical groups. Whilst the present CCC data have been previously reported descriptively for a wider sample, they have not been examined in terms of subgroups or compared directly with normative information and similarly diagnosed individuals from other studies. Of the children assessed, 52 (33%) scored in the normal range (within 1 SD) on the pragmatic scale, 40 (26%) fell between 1 and 2 SD below the normative mean, and 64 (41%) scored below 2 SD of the mean of typically developing children (aged 6-16 years). Thus, the majority (67%) scored out of the normal range for pragmatic skill at 11 years of age. The cohort was separated into four diagnostic subcategories: those with a definite diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder (n=15); those with typical specific language impairment (n=82); generally impaired (n=37); and those with a clinical history of primary pragmatic language impairment (independent of CCC score, n=27). Findings show that those generally impaired and with specific language impairment were less impaired than the other groups on the CCC pragmatic scale. There was a significant trend for those with autistic spectrum disorders to score lowest through pragmatic language impairment, generally impairment to specific language impairment. It is argued that a cut-off of 140 may prove more useful at this age than the 132 level previously published for 8 year olds. Results suggest that the CCC can be used as a clinical tool, but in conjunction with other reliable measures.

A Conversation Analysis-Informed Test of L2 Aural Pragmatic Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walters, F. Scott

2009-01-01

Speech act theory-based, second language pragmatics testing (SLPT) raises test-validation issues owing to a lack of correspondence with empirical conversational data. On the assumption that conversation analysis (CA) provides a more accurate account of language use, it is suggested that CA serve as a more empirically valid basis for SLPT…

Relationship between Cultural Distance and Pragmatic Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafieyan, Vahid; Sharafi-Nejad, Maryam; Khavari, Zahra; Damavand, Ayoob; Eng, Lin Siew

2014-01-01

The distance between language learners' culture and the culture of the target language community is considered to play a crucial role in determining the level of pragmatic comprehension. In this respect, a study was conducted over 30 German students, perceived as culturally close to the British, and 30 South Korean students, perceived as…

Second Language Pragmatic Socialization in World of Warcraft

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soares Palmer, Dionne

2010-01-01

There has been increasing attention on the educational power of video games in recent years (Gee, 2003, 2005; Prensky 2001, 2006; Thorne, 2008; Purushotma, 2005). This study aims to investigate World of Warcraft as a venue for second language socialization, specifically in the area of pragmatics. In order to explore the potential for second…

Interactional Competence in Japanese as an Additional Language. Pragmatics & Interaction. Volume 4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greer, Tim, Ed.; Ishida, Midori, Ed.; Tateyama, Yumiko, Ed.

2017-01-01

In the research literature on interactional competence in talk among second language speakers and their coparticipants, this volume of "Pragmatics & Interaction" is the first to focus on interaction in Japanese. The chapters examine the use and development of interactional practices in a wide range of social settings, from everyday…

Improving EFL Writing through Study of Semantic Concepts in Formulaic Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schenck, Andrew D.; Choi, Wonkyung

2015-01-01

Within Asian EFL contexts such as South Korea, large class sizes, poor sources of input and an overreliance on the Grammar-Translation Method may negatively impact semantic and pragmatic development of writing content. Since formulaic language is imbued with syntactic, semantic and pragmatic linguistic features, it represents an ideal means to…

Teaching How to Apologize: EFL Textbooks and Pragmatic Input

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Limberg, Holger

2016-01-01

Learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) are exposed to a collection of materials and communicative activities in the classroom through which they learn to use the language competently and appropriately. Textbooks, in particular, are a rich source of input, offering a variety of opportunities to acquire and practice pragmatic competence in…

Semantic Abilities in Children with Pragmatic Language Impairment: The Case of Picture Naming Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ketelaars, Mieke Pauline; Hermans, Suzanne Irene Alphonsus; Cuperus, Juliane; Jansonius, Kino; Verhoeven, Ludo

2011-01-01

Purpose: The semantic abilities of children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI) are subject to debate. The authors investigated picture naming and definition skills in 5-year-olds with PLI in comparison to typically developing children. Method: 84 children with PLI and 80 age-matched typically developing children completed receptive…

Elicited and Spontaneous Communicative Functions and Stability of Conversational Measures with Children Who Have Pragmatic Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Catherine; Lloyd, Julian

2005-01-01

Background: The preliminary phase of a project aimed at establishing appropriate outcome measures for intervention with children who have pragmatic language impairments (PLI) is reported. Assessment methods for children with PLI are considered in the context of developing outcome measures for intervention studies. Communicative function…

Comprehension of inferential meaning in language-impaired and language normal children.

PubMed

Letts, C; Leinonen, E

2001-01-01

Three groups of language-normal (LN) 6, 8 and 16/17 year olds, and a group of language-impaired (LI) children were given a task answering questions about pictures that involved inferential meaning. A developmental progression in the types of responses given is seen, with the LI children performing like the youngest LN children. A similar progression is seen in the ability to justify the answers given to inferential questions with the young adult group giving the fewest justifications that were problematical in some way. Larger numbers of problematical justifications in the LI group can be related to some extent to non-pragmatic aspects of their impairment, but overall this group also gave more pragmatically irrelevant responses when asked to justify answers given. It was not possible to identify any major differences between subgroups of children within the LI group, identified as pragmatically impaired (PI) and non pragmatically impaired (NPI), in terms of either answers given to inferential questions or in terms of problematical justifications for these answers. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed.

The pragmatic language, communication skills, parent-child relationships, and symptoms of children with ADHD and their playmates 18-months after a parent-delivered play-based intervention.

PubMed

Wilkes-Gillan, Sarah; Cantrill, Alycia; Parsons, Lauren; Smith, Cally; Cordier, Reinie

2017-07-01

This study examined the communication skills, pragmatic language, parent-child relationships, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms of children with ADHD and their playmates 18-months after a pilot parent-delivered intervention for improving social play skills and pragmatic language. Participants were five children with ADHD, their parents, and five typically-developing playmates. Outcomes were measured immediately post and 18-months following the intervention. Parent-rated norm-based assessments and an observational measure were used. Differences within and between the ADHD and playmate groups were examined. Children maintained all skills gained 18-months following the intervention. Compared to a normative sample, children with ADHD remained below the average range on aspects of communication skills, parent-child relationships, and ADHD symptom levels 18-months following intervention. After intervention, children with ADHD still experienced pragmatic language skills below those of their peers on norm-based assessments that measure their skills across contexts. School-based interventions are needed to facilitate ongoing skill development and generalization.

Metacognition in speech and language therapy for children with social (pragmatic) communication disorders: implications for a theory of therapy.

PubMed

Gaile, Jacqueline; Adams, Catherine

2018-01-01

Metacognition is a significant component of complex interventions for children who have developmental language disorders. Research into how metacognition operates in the content or process of developmental language therapy delivery is limited. Identification and description of proposed active therapy components, such as metacognition, may contribute to our understanding of how to deliver complex communication interventions in an optimal manner. To analyse aspects of metacognition during therapy derived from a manualized speech and language intervention (the Social Communication Intervention Programme-SCIP) as delivered to children who have social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD) and to examine the dynamic process of delivering therapy. A purposive sample of eight filmed therapy sessions was selected from the video data corpus of intervention-arm participants within a randomized controlled trial. The child-therapist interactions during therapy sessions from five children (aged between 5;11 and 10;3) in the SCIP trial were transcribed. Filmed sessions represented a variety of communication profiles and SCIP therapy content. Starting from existing theory on metacognition, cycles of iterative analysis were performed using a mixed inductive-deductive qualitative analysis. A preliminary list of metacognitive content embedded in the intervention was developed into a metacognitive coding framework (MCF). A thematic analysis of the identified metacognitive content of the intervention was then carried out across the whole sample. Thematic analysis revealed the presence of metacognition in the content and delivery of SCIP intervention. Four main themes of metacognitive person, task and strategy knowledge, and monitoring/control were identified. Metacognition was a feature of how children's ability to monitor language, pragmatic and social interaction skills, in themselves and other people, was developed. Task design and delivery methods were found to play a particular role in adjusting the metacognitive content of the therapy activities. This study makes explicit the metacognitive content and delivery within a complex developmental communication intervention. Discussion of the findings about metacognitive content provides an explanation of how the skilled speech and language therapist manipulates task demands, person knowledge and therapy methods towards the therapy goal. Clinical applications of the metacognitive framework are discussed. We suggest that the process of making the tacit knowledge of the therapist explicit can contribute to the implementation of complex evidence-based interventions. © 2017 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Development of Bengali Audio-Visual Test Battery for Assessment of Pragmatic Skills: Preliminary Normative Data Based on Educational Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chakrabarty, Madhushree; Biswas, Atanu; Pal, Sandip; Chatterjee, Amita

2017-01-01

Pragmatic competence may be disrupted due to psychological and neurological causes. For appropriate remedy and rehabilitation, a precise assessment of pragmatic skills is important. However, there is no test battery in the Bengali language, and consequently, there is no published data on pragmatic ability of Bengali speakers. Due to the vast…

Refining Pragmatically-Appropriate Oral Communication via Computer-Simulated Conversations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sydorenko, Tetyana; Daurio, Phoebe; Thorne, Steven L.

2018-01-01

To address the problem of limited opportunities for practicing second language speaking in interaction, especially delicate interactions requiring pragmatic competence, we describe computer simulations designed for the oral practice of extended pragmatic routines and report on the affordances of such simulations for learning pragmatically…

Teaching Pragmatic Competence: A Journey from Teaching Cultural Facts to Teaching Cultural Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenchuk, Iryna; Ahmed, Amer

2013-01-01

Pragmatic competence is one of the essential competences taught in the second language classroom. The Canadian Language Benchmarks (CCLB, 2012a), the standard document referred to in any federally funded program of ESL teaching in Canada, acknowledges the importance of this competence, yet at the same time notes the limited resources available to…

Hedging to Save Face: A Linguistic Analysis of Written Comments on In-Training Evaluation Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ginsburg, Shiphra; van der Vleuten, Cees; Eva, Kevin W.; Lingard, Lorelei

2016-01-01

Written comments on residents' evaluations can be useful, yet the literature suggests that the language used by assessors is often vague and indirect. The branch of linguistics called pragmatics argues that much of our day to day language is not meant to be interpreted literally. Within pragmatics, the theory of "politeness" suggests…

Pragmatics Abilities in Narrative Production: A Cross-Disorder Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norbury, Courtenay Frazier; Gemmell, Tracey; Paul, Rhea

2014-01-01

We aimed to disentangle contributions of socio-pragmatic and structural language deficits to narrative competence by comparing the narratives of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n=25), non-autistic children with language impairments (LI; n=23), and children with typical development (TD; n=27). Groups were matched for age (6½ to 15…

Virtual Task-Based Situated Language-Learning with "Second Life": Developing EFL Pragmatic Writing and Technological Self-Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdallah, Mahmoud M. S.; Mansour, Marian M.

2015-01-01

This paper reports on an experimental research study that aimed at investigating the effectiveness of employing a virtual task-based situated language learning (TBSLL) environment mediated by Second Life (SL) in developing EFL student teachers' pragmatic writing skills and their technological self-efficacy. To reach this goal, a control-only…

Narrative Competence and Underlying Mechanisms in Children with Pragmatic Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ketelaars, Mieke Pauline; Jansonius, Kino; Cuperus, Juliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2012-01-01

This study investigated narrative competence in children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI) and the extent to which it is related to impairments in theory of mind and executive functioning (EF). Narrative competence was assessed using a retelling design in a group of 77 children with PLI and a control group of 77 typically developing…

Perceptions of Refusals to Invitations: Exploring the Minds of Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Felix-Brasdefer, J. Cesar

2008-01-01

Descriptions of speech act realisations of native and non-native speakers abound in the cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics literature. Yet, what is lacking is an analysis of the cognitive processes involved in the production of speech acts. This study examines the cognitive processes and perceptions of learners of Spanish when refusing…

Are children with Specific Language Impairment competent with the pragmatics and logic of quantification?

PubMed

Katsos, Napoleon; Roqueta, Clara Andrés; Estevan, Rosa Ana Clemente; Cummins, Chris

2011-04-01

Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is understood to be a disorder that predominantly affects phonology, morphosyntax and/or lexical semantics. There is little conclusive evidence on whether children with SLI are challenged with regard to Gricean pragmatic maxims and on whether children with SLI are competent with the logical meaning of quantifying expressions. We use the comprehension of statements quantified with 'all', 'none', 'some', 'some…not', 'most' and 'not all' as a paradigm to study whether Spanish-speaking children with SLI are competent with the pragmatic maxim of informativeness, as well as with the logical meaning of these expressions. Children with SLI performed more poorly than a group of age-matched typically-developing peers, and both groups performed more poorly with pragmatics than with logical meaning. Moreover, children with SLI were disproportionately challenged by pragmatic meaning compared to their age-matched peers. However, the performance of children with SLI was comparable to that of a group of younger language-matched typically-developing children. The findings document that children with SLI do face difficulties with employing the maxim of informativeness, as well as with understanding the logical meaning of quantifiers, but also that these difficulties are in keeping with their overall language difficulties rather than exceeding them. The implications of these findings for SLI, linguistic theory, and clinical practice are discussed. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social-Emotional Correlates of Early Stage Social Information Processing Skills in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Russo-Ponsaran, Nicole M; McKown, Clark; Johnson, Jason K; Allen, Adelaide W; Evans-Smith, Bernadette; Fogg, Louis

2015-10-01

Difficulty processing social information is a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet the failure of children with ASD to process social information effectively is poorly understood. Using Crick and Dodge's model of social information processing (SIP), this study examined the relationship between social-emotional (SE) skills of pragmatic language, theory of mind, and emotion recognition on the one hand, and early stage SIP skills of problem identification and goal generation on the other. The study included a sample of school-aged children with and without ASD. SIP was assessed using hypothetical social situations in the context of a semistructured scenario-based interview. Pragmatic language, theory of mind, and emotion recognition were measured using direct assessments. Social thinking differences between children with and without ASD are largely differences of quantity (overall lower performance in ASD), not discrepancies in cognitive processing patterns. These data support theoretical models of the relationship between SE skills and SIP. Findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms giving rise to SIP deficits in ASD and may ultimately inform treatment development for children with ASD. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Pragmatic Instruction May Not Be Necessary among Heritage Speakers of Spanish: A Study on Requests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barros García, María J.; Bachelor, Jeremy W.

2018-01-01

This paper studies the pragmatic competence of U.S. heritage speakers of Spanish in an attempt to determine (a) the degree of pragmatic transfer from English to Spanish experienced by heritage speakers when producing different types of requests in Spanish; and (b) how to best teach pragmatics to students of Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL).…

Some linguistic and pragmatic considerations affecting science reporting in English by non-native speakers of the language

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Approximately 50% of publications in English peer reviewed journals are contributed by non-native speakers (NNS) of the language. Basic thought processes are considered to be universal yet there are differences in thought patterns and particularly in discourse management of writers with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The study highlights some areas of potential incompatibility in native and NNS processing of English scientific papers. Principles and conventions in generating academic discourse are considered in terms of frequently occurring failures of NNS to meet expectations of editors, reviewers, and readers. Major problem areas concern organization and flow of information, principles of cohesion and clarity, cultural constraints, especially those of politeness and negotiability of ideas, and the complicated area of English modality pragmatics. The aim of the paper is to sensitize NN authors of English academic reports to problem areas of discourse processing which are stumbling blocks, often affecting acceptance of manuscripts. The problems discussed are essential for acquiring pragmalinguistic and sociocultural competence in producing effective communication. PMID:23118596

The interface between spoken and written language: developmental disorders.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2014-01-01

We review current knowledge about reading development and the origins of difficulties in learning to read. We distinguish between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading for meaning (reading comprehension). At a cognitive level, difficulties in learning to read appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. The development of decoding skills appears to depend critically upon phonological language skills, and variations in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming each appear to be causally related to problems in learning to read. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be critically dependent on a range of oral language comprehension skills (including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical, morphological and pragmatic skills).

Variations in Developmental Patterns across Pragmatic Features

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Qiong

2016-01-01

Drawing on the findings of longitudinal studies in uninstructed contexts over the last two decades, this synthesis explores variations in developmental patterns across second language (L2) pragmatic features. Two synthesis questions were addressed: (a) What are the variations in developmental patterns across pragmatic features?, and (b) What are…

How Does Pragmatic Competence Develop in Bilinguals?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kecskes, Istvan

2015-01-01

This paper aims to discuss how the emerging new language with its own developing socio-cultural foundation affects the existing L1-governed knowledge and pragmatic competence of "adult sequential bilinguals." It is assumed that these bilinguals already have an L1-governed pragmatic competence at place, which will be adjusted to…

Enhancing Thai Engineering Students' Complaints and Apologies through Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising Approach (PCR)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noonkong, Uraiwan Rattanapan; Damnet, Anamai; Charttrakul, Kanjana

2017-01-01

Successful communication requires "Pragmatic Competence" or abilities to use appropriate language in transferring one's needs while maintaining a positive relationship with the interactant (Thomas, 1995; Leech, 1983). This study was an attempt to investigate the pragmatic competence of Thai Engineering students when making complaints and…

Precursors to language: Social cognition and pragmatic inference in primates.

PubMed

Seyfarth, Robert M; Cheney, Dorothy L

2017-02-01

Despite their differences, human language and the vocal communication of nonhuman primates share many features. Both constitute forms of coordinated activity, rely on many shared neural mechanisms, and involve discrete, combinatorial cognition that includes rich pragmatic inference. These common features suggest that during evolution the ancestors of all modern primates faced similar social problems and responded with similar systems of communication and cognition. When language later evolved from this common foundation, many of its distinctive features were already present.

The Effects of L2 Proficiency on Pragmatics Instruction: A Web-Based Approach to Teaching Chinese Expressions of Gratitude

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Li

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether the effects of pragmatics instruction delivered via a self-access website in a Chinese as a foreign language learning environment vary according to learners' language proficiency. The website provided learners with explicit instruction in how to express gratitude appropriately in Chinese and offered them pragmatic…

Task Type Effects on Pragmatic Marker Use by Learners at Varying Proficiency Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neary-Sundquist, Colleen

2013-01-01

Previous research has shown that the degree of structure in a task affects the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of L2 oral production (Foster & Skehan 1999). The acquisition of pragmatic markers may be related to the development of second language fluency, but there is limited research on their use by second language learners on different…

The Effect of Grammatical Complexity on the Social-Pragmatic Performance of Preschool Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurtz, Robert M.

2012-01-01

A growing body of research in the past two decades has focused on the development of pragmatics in children with specific language impairment (SLI). This population has been shown to experience difficulty with social interaction compared to their typically-developing peers. However, research has not conclusively established whether this is due to…

Non-Native Student's Communication Is Affected Due to the Lack of Pragmatic Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Latha, V. G.; Rajan, Premalatha

2012-01-01

This paper aims at focusing how the lack of pragmatic competence affects student's communication in L2 (Second language) at tertiary level. The city based Indian students learn English which is their second language from 3 years onwards whereas the rural based students learn English only from 6 years onwards. This exposure of the L2 shows the…

The Effects of a Developmental, Social-Pragmatic Language Intervention on Rate of Expressive Language Production in Young Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingersoll, Brooke; Dvortcsak, Anna; Whalen, Christina; Sikora, Darryn

2005-01-01

Developmental, social-pragmatic (DSP) interventions are based on the study of interactions between typically developing infants and their mothers. Despite the fact that DSP approaches are firmly grounded in developmental theory, there is limited research on the efficacy of these interventions for promoting social-communicative behavior in young…

Inferential Ability in Children with Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida and Pragmatic Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holck, Pernille; Sandberg, Annika Dahlgren; Nettelbladt, Ulrika

2010-01-01

The aim of the study was to investigate and compare the ability to make inferences in three groups of children ranging from 5;2 to 10;9 years: 10 children with cerebral palsy (CP), 10 children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus (SBH) and 10 children with pragmatic language impairment (PLI). The relationship between inferential and literal…

Measuring the Diagnostic Features of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder: An Exploratory Study.

PubMed

Yuan, Haiying; Dollaghan, Christine

2018-03-27

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition introduced a new neurodevelopmental disorder, social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD), that is characterized by deficits in 4 areas of communication. Although descriptions of these areas are provided, no assessment tools for SPCD are recommended. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which items from measurement tools commonly used in assessing pragmatic language impairment and related disorders might be useful in assessing the characteristics of social communication that define SPCD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Based on a literature search, 594 items from assessment tools commonly used to measure social communication abilities in people with pragmatic language impairment were identified. The first author judged whether each item reflected 1, more than 1, or none of the 4 SPCD diagnostic characteristics. After a brief training process, 5 second raters independently mapped subsets of items to the 6 categories. We calculated the percentage of agreement and Cohen's kappa for each pair of raters in assigning items to categories. Percentages of agreement ranged from 76% to 82%, and Cohen's kappa values ranged from .69 to .76, indicating substantial agreement. Sources and item numbers for the 206 items that both raters assigned to the same SPCD feature are provided. These items may provide guidance in assessing SPCD and in designing standardized screening and diagnostic measures for SPCD.

Uneven Expressive Language Development in Mandarin-Exposed Preschool Children with ASD: Comparing Vocabulary, Grammar, and the Decontextualized Use of Language via the PCDI-Toddler Form.

PubMed

Su, Yi Esther; Naigles, Letitia R; Su, Lin-Yan

2018-05-21

Data from children with ASD who are learning Indo-European languages indicate that (a) they vary hugely in their expressive language skills and (b) their pragmatic/socially-based language is more impaired than their structural language. We investigate whether similar patterns of language development exist for Mandarin-exposed children with ASD. Parent report data of the Putonghua Communicative Development Inventory-Toddler Form were collected from 160 17-83-month-old children with ASD. These children with ASD demonstrated similar levels of variability as Western children with ASD. In particular, they could be divided into three distinct subgroups (high verbal, middle verbal, low verbal), all of which manifested relative strengths in lexical and grammatical language compared to pragmatic usage of decontextualized language.

Pragmatic Inferences in High-Functioning Adults with Autism and Asperger Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pijnacker, Judith; Hagoort, Peter; Buitelaar, Jan; Teunisse, Jan-Pieter; Geurts, Bart

2009-01-01

Although people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have severe problems with pragmatic aspects of language, little is known about their pragmatic reasoning. We carried out a behavioral study on high-functioning adults with autistic disorder (n = 11) and Asperger syndrome (n = 17) and matched controls (n = 28) to investigate whether they…

Teaching the Pragmatics of Russian Conversation Using a Corpus-Referred Website

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Furniss, Eddie A.

2016-01-01

Pragmatic competence is essential for oral fluency and listening comprehension, allowing speakers to use and interpret language appropriately in varied contexts. The use of technological applications for teaching pragmatics is on the rise (Taguchi & Sykes, 2013), in part because they are well-suited to the types of awareness-raising tasks…

Inhibition and Language Pragmatic View in Redundant Data Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setti, Annalisa; Caramelli, Nicoletta

2007-01-01

The present study concerns redundant data problems, defined as problems in which irrelevant data is provided. This type of problem provides a misleading context [Pascual-Leone, J. (1987). Organismic process for neo-Piagetian theories: A dialectical causal account of cognitive development. "International Journal of Psychology," 22, 531-570] similar…

Pragmatic Abilities of Children with Hearing Loss Using Cochlear Implants or Hearing Aids Compared to Hearing Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Most, Tova; Shina-August, Ella; Meilijson, Sara

2010-01-01

This study characterized the profile of pragmatic abilities among 24 children with hearing loss (HL) aged 6.3-9.4 years, 13 using hearing aids (HAs) and 11 using cochlear implants (CIs), in comparison to those of 13 hearing children with similar chronological and language ages. All the children with HL used spoken language, attended regular…

Physiological Arousal in Autism and Fragile X Syndrome: Group Comparisons and Links with Pragmatic Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klusek, Jessica; Martin, Gary E.; Losh, Molly

2013-01-01

This study tested the hypothesis that pragmatic (i.e., social) language impairment is linked to arousal dysregulation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS). Forty boys with ASD, 39 with FXS, and 27 with typical development (TD), aged 4-15 years, participated. Boys with FXS were hyperaroused compared to boys with TD but did…

Brief Report: Pragmatic Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder--Relationships to Measures of Ability and Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Volden, Joanne; Coolican, Jamesie; Garon, Nancy; White, Julie; Bryson, Susan

2009-01-01

Pragmatic language skill is regarded as an area of universal deficit in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but little is known about factors related to its development and how it in turn might contribute to skills needed to function in everyday contexts or to the expression of ASD-related symptoms. This study investigated these relationships in 37…

A Developmental Study of Word Order and Casemarking in an Ergative Language. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, No. 17.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schieffelin, Bambi B.

An 18-month study of the development of communicative competence in three Kaluli children from Papua, New Guinea, shows that Kaluli children use pragmatically appropriate word order before they correctly indicate "agent" by casemarking. In Kaluli, pragmatic concerns determine word order. The noun which the speaker intends to focus on is…

Dosage effects of X and Y chromosomes on language and social functioning in children with supernumerary sex chromosome aneuploidies: Implications for idiopathic language impairment and autism spectrum disorders

PubMed Central

Lee, Nancy Raitano; Wallace, Gregory L.; Adeyemi, Elizabeth I.; Lopez, Katherine C.; Blumenthal, Jonathan D.; Clasen, Liv S.; Giedd, Jay N.

2012-01-01

Background Supernumerary sex chromosome aneuploidies (X/Y-aneuploidies), the presence of extra X- and/or Y-chromosomes, are associated with heightened rates of language impairments and social difficulties. However, no single study has examined different language domains and social functioning in the same sample of children with tri-, tetra-, and pentasomy X/Y-aneuploidy. The current research sought to fill this gap in the literature and to examine dosage effects of X- and Y-chromosomes on language and social functioning. Methods Participants included 110 youth with X/Y-aneuploidies (32 female) and 52 with typical development (25 female) matched on age (mean~12 years; range 4–22) and maternal education. Participants completed the Wechsler intelligence scales and parents completed the Children’s Communication Checklist-2 and the Social Responsiveness Scale to assess language skills and autistic traits, respectively. Results Both supernumerary X- and Y-chromosomes were related to depressed structural and pragmatic language skills and increased autistic traits. The addition of a Y-chromosome had a disproportionately greater impact on pragmatic language; the addition of one or more X-chromosomes had a disproportionately greater impact on structural language. Conclusions Given that we link extra X-chromosomes with structural language impairments and an extra Y-chromosome with pragmatic language impairments, X/Y-aneuploidies may provide clues to genetic mechanisms contributing to idiopathic language impairment and autism spectrum disorders. PMID:22827287

Social communication impairments: pragmatics.

PubMed

Russell, Robert L

2007-06-01

Social communication or pragmatic impairments are characterized and illustrated as involving inappropriate or ineffective use of language and gesture in social contexts. Three clinical vignettes illustrate different pragmatic impairments and the wealth of diagnostic information that can be garnered from observation of a child's social communication behavior. Definitions of, and developmental milestones in, domains of pragmatic competence are provided. Several screening instruments are suggested for use in assessing pragmatic competence within the time-frame of a pediatric examination. Frequent comorbid psychiatric conditions are described and a sample of current neurobiologic research is briefly summarized.

Pragmatic Language Skills of Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Descriptive and Relational Study in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diken, Özlem

2014-01-01

Problem Statement: Because communication skills, particularly pragmatic skills, are fundamental for living an independent life in society, these skills are vital to the quality of life of individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) and their families. Studies of the pragmatic skills of individuals with DD can provide important insights into…

Developing Pragmatic Awareness of Suggestions in the EFL Classroom: A Focus on Instructional Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinez-Flor, Alicia; Soler, Eva Alcon

2007-01-01

The role of instruction to develop learners' pragmatic competence in both second and foreign language contexts has recently motivated a great deal of research. However, most of this research has adopted an explicit instructional approach with only a few studies attempting to operationalise a more implicit condition for pragmatic learning. In order…

Physiological Arousal in Autism and Fragile X Syndrome: Group Comparisons and Links With Pragmatic Language

PubMed Central

Klusek, Jessica; Martin, Gary E.; Losh, Molly

2014-01-01

This study tested the hypothesis that pragmatic (i.e., social) language impairment is linked to arousal dysregulation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS). Forty boys with ASD, 39 with FXS, and 28 with typical development (TD), aged 4–15 years, participated. Boys with FXS were hyperaroused compared to boys with TD but did not differ from boys with ASD. Dampened vagal tone predicted pragmatic impairment in ASD, and associations emerged between cardiac activity and receptive/expressive vocabulary across groups. Findings support autonomic dysfunction as a mechanism underlying pragmatic impairment in ASD and suggest that biophysiological profiles are shared in ASD and FXS, which has implications for understanding the role of fragile X mental retardation-1 (FMR1, the FXS gene) in the pathophysiology of ASD. PMID:24432860

Communication skills and thalamic lesion: Strategies of rehabilitation.

PubMed

Amaddii, Luisa; Centorrino, Santi; Cambi, Jacopo; Passali, Desiderio

2014-01-01

To describe the speech rehabilitation history of patients with thalamic lesions. Thalamic lesions can affect speech and language according to diverse thalamic nuclei involved. Because of the strategic functional position of the thalamus within the cognitive networks, its lesion can also interfere with other cognitive processes, such as attention, memory and executive functions. Alterations of these cognitive domains contribute significantly to language deficits, leading to communicative inefficacy. This fact must be considered in the rehabilitation efforts. Whereas evaluation of cognitive functions and communicative efficiency is different from that of aphasic disorder, treatment should also be different. The treatment must be focused on specific cognitive deficits with belief in the regaining of communicative ability, as well as it occurs in therapy of pragmatic disorder in traumatic brain injury: attention process training, mnemotechnics and prospective memory training. According to our experience: (a) there is a close correlation between cognitive processes and communication skills; (b) alterations of attention, memory and executive functions cause a loss of efficiency in the language use; and (c) appropriate cognitive treatment improves pragmatic competence and therefore the linguistic disorder. For planning a speech-therapy it is important to consider the relationship between cognitive functions and communication. The cognitive/behavioral treatment confirms its therapeutic efficiency for thalamic lesions. Copyright © 2014 Polish Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Society. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z.o.o. All rights reserved.

Action representation: crosstalk between semantics and pragmatics.

PubMed

Prinz, Wolfgang

2014-03-01

Marc Jeannerod pioneered a representational approach to movement and action. In his approach, motor representations provide both, declarative knowledge about action and procedural knowledge for action (action semantics and action pragmatics, respectively). Recent evidence from language comprehension and action simulation supports the claim that action pragmatics and action semantics draw on common representational resources, thus challenging the traditional divide between declarative and procedural action knowledge. To account for these observations, three kinds of theoretical frameworks are discussed: (i) semantics is grounded in pragmatics, (ii) pragmatics is anchored in semantics, and (iii) pragmatics is part and parcel of semantics. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interpreting Quantifier Scope Ambiguity: Evidence of Heuristic First, Algorithmic Second Processing

PubMed Central

Dwivedi, Veena D.

2013-01-01

The present work suggests that sentence processing requires both heuristic and algorithmic processing streams, where the heuristic processing strategy precedes the algorithmic phase. This conclusion is based on three self-paced reading experiments in which the processing of two-sentence discourses was investigated, where context sentences exhibited quantifier scope ambiguity. Experiment 1 demonstrates that such sentences are processed in a shallow manner. Experiment 2 uses the same stimuli as Experiment 1 but adds questions to ensure deeper processing. Results indicate that reading times are consistent with a lexical-pragmatic interpretation of number associated with context sentences, but responses to questions are consistent with the algorithmic computation of quantifier scope. Experiment 3 shows the same pattern of results as Experiment 2, despite using stimuli with different lexical-pragmatic biases. These effects suggest that language processing can be superficial, and that deeper processing, which is sensitive to structure, only occurs if required. Implications for recent studies of quantifier scope ambiguity are discussed. PMID:24278439

The Effects of Pragmatic Consciousness-­-Raising Activities on the Learning of Speech Acts in the Beginning CFL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Li; Zhu, Jia

2016-01-01

This study investigates the effects of instruction on learners' pragmatic competence by integrating pragmatic consciousness-raising (PCR) activities into a beginning-level Chinese language course during one academic semester. The study also examines the effect of integrating the PCR activities, i.e., before or after the instruction of a…

An Analysis of Discourse-Pragmatic and Grammatical Constraints on the Acquisition and Development of Referential Choice in Child English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Mary E.

2011-01-01

This dissertation investigates how discourse-pragmatics informs children's choice of referential forms. Three studies utilizing naturalistic data examine the role that six discourse-pragmatic features play in the acquisition of referential forms in a non-null subject language, English. The influence of child-directed speech on development is also…

Making the Implicit Explicit: Raising Pragmatic Awareness in Trainee Interpreters Using Semiauthentic Spontaneous Discourse Samples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sachtleben, Annette; Denny, Heather

2012-01-01

Following the recent interest in the teaching of pragmatics and the recognition of its importance for both cross-cultural communication and new speakers of an additional language, the authors carried out an action research project to evaluate the effectiveness of a new approach to the teaching of pragmatics. This involved the use of semiauthentic…

Cultural Perspectives Toward Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Li-Li

2008-01-01

Cultural conflicts may be derived from using inappropriate language. Appropriate linguistic-pragmatic competence may also be produced by providing various and multicultural backgrounds. Culture and language are linked together naturally, unconsciously, and closely in daily social lives. Culture affects language and language affects culture through…

A Multidimensional Reappraisal of Language in Autism: Insights from a Discourse Analytic Study.

PubMed

Sterponi, Laura; de Kirby, Kenton

2016-02-01

In this article, we leverage theoretical insights and methodological guidelines of discourse analytic scholarship to re-examine language phenomena typically associated with autism. Through empirical analysis of the verbal behavior of three children with autism, we engage the question of how prototypical features of autistic language-notably pronoun atypicality, pragmatic deficit, and echolalia-might conceal competencies and interactional processes that are largely invisible in mainstream research. Our findings offer a complex picture of children with autism in their use of language to communicate, interact and experience others. Such a picture also deepens our understanding of the interactional underpinnings of autistic children's speech. Finally, we describe how our findings offer fruitful suggestions for clinical intervention.

Metapragmatic explicitation ability in children with typical language development: development and validation of a novel clinical assessment.

PubMed

Collins, Anna; Lockton, Elaine; Adams, Catherine

2014-01-01

Speech-language practitioners recognise the importance of metapragmatic (MP) ability (the ability to explicitly reflect on pragmatic rules) in therapy for children with pragmatic and social communication difficulties. There is inconclusive evidence in the literature regarding both the development of metapragmatic ability in children with typical language and the expected levels of explicitation (reflection on pragmatic behaviours) in children's metapragmatic descriptions. The main purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability of a novel task of metapragmatic awareness (the Assessment of Metapragmatics or AMP) and to investigate typical developmental trends of metapragmatic ability and metapragmatic explicitation using the AMP task. Analysis of pooled data from 40 children with typical language development aged between six and eleven years and 48 children with communication impairments indicated that the AMP task had satisfactory internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. For children with typical language development, there was no relationship between gender and metapragmatic ability as measured by AMP. There was a linear relationship between age and AMP task scores and between age and explicitation. The scoring system used in the AMP task was sensitive to age-related changes in metapragmatic ability in a normative sample. The sophistication of metapragmatic awareness (explicitation) also increased with age. At age six years, children demonstrated metapragmatic awareness in their responses to 74% of AMP stimuli items; this increased to 95% of AMP items at ages 10-11 years. The AMP is a reliable measure of development in MP explicitation for children with satisfactory face validity in terms of acceptability to communication professionals and to child participants. From age six, children have some awareness of pragmatic acts and can identify and relate linguistic cues or pragmatic rules in atypical interactions of the type depicted in the AMP. The AMP task solicited significantly increased frequency of use of higher levels of MP explication beyond seven years of age in children with typical language development. Readers will explain the development, reliability and structure of a novel task that measures the ability of a child to understand and explain pragmatic rules. Readers will also identify age related changes in this ability in a sample of typically developing child participants. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The pragmatics of therapeutic interaction: an empirical study.

PubMed

Lepper, Georgia

2009-10-01

The research reported in this article aims to demonstrate a method for the systematic study of the therapist/patient interaction in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, drawing upon the tradition and methods of 'pragmatics'--the study of language in interaction. A brief introduction to the discipline of pragmatics demonstrates its relevance to the contemporary focus of clinical theory on the here-and-now dynamics of the relationship between analyst and patient. This is followed by a detailed study of five segments from the transcript of a therapeutic dialogue, drawn from a brief psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in which therapist and patient negotiate the meaning of the patient's symptom: Is it psychosomatic? The research seeks to show how the therapeutic process can be observed and studied as an interactional achievement, grounded in general and well-studied procedures through which meaning is intersubjectively developed and shared. Implications of the analysis for clinical theory and practice, and further research, are discussed.

Pragmatics fragmented: the factor structure of the Dutch children's communication checklist (CCC).

PubMed

Geurts, Hilde M; Hartman, Catharina; Verté, Sylvie; Oosterlaan, Jaap; Roeyers, Herbert; Sergeant, Joseph A

2009-01-01

A number of disorders are associated with pragmatic difficulties. Instruments that can make subdivisions within the larger construct of pragmatics could be important tools for disentangling profiles of pragmatic difficulty in different disorders. The deficits underlying the observed pragmatic difficulties may be different for different disorders. To study the construct validity of a pragmatic language questionnaire. The construct of pragmatics is studied by applying exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis to the parent version of the Dutch Children's Communication Checklist (CCC; Bishop 1998 ). Parent ratings of 1589 typically developing children and 481 children with a clinical diagnosis were collected. Four different factor models derived from the original CCC scales and five different factor models based on EFA were compared with each other. The models were cross-validated. The EFA-derived models were substantively different from the originally proposed CCC factor structure. EFA models gave a slightly better fit than the models based on the original CCC scales, though neither provided a good fit to the parent data. Coherence seemed to be part of language form and not of pragmatics, which is in line with the adaptation of the CCC, the CCC-2 (Bishop 2003 ). Most pragmatic items clustered together in one factor and these pragmatic items also clustered with items related to social relationships and specific interests. The nine scales of the original CCC do not reflect the underlying factor structure. Therefore, scale composition may be improved on and scores on subscale level need to be interpreted cautiously. Therefore, in interpreting the CCC profiles, the overall measure might be more informative than the postulated subscales as more information is needed to determine which constructs the suggested subscales are actually measuring.

Language impairment in Alzheimer’s disease and benefits of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

PubMed Central

Ferris, Steven H; Farlow, Martin

2013-01-01

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by progressively worsening deficits in several cognitive domains, including language. Language impairment in Alzheimer’s disease primarily occurs because of decline in semantic and pragmatic levels of language processing. Given the centrality of language to cognitive function, a number of language-specific scales have been developed to assess language deficits throughout progression of the disease and to evaluate the effects of pharmacotherapy on language function. Trials of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, used for the treatment of clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, have generally focused on overall cognitive effects. However, in the current report, we review data indicating specific beneficial effects of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors on language abilities in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, with a particular focus on outcomes among patients in the moderate and severe disease stages, during which communication is at risk and preservation is particularly important. PMID:23946647

Pragmatic Competence and Social Power Awareness: The Case of Written and Spoken Discourse in Non-Native English Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pérez-Sabater, Carmen; Montero-Fleta, Begoña

2014-01-01

Following one of the new challenges suggested by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, a treatment was developed to enhance pragmatic competence, since this competence is not easy to acquire by non-native speakers. Within this context, we focused on pragmatic awareness in the workplace, an area of expertise in growing demand…

Predictors of longitudinal outcome and recovery of pragmatic language and its relation to externalizing behaviour after pediatric traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Ryan, Nicholas P; Catroppa, Cathy; Beare, Richard; Coleman, Lee; Ditchfield, Michael; Crossley, Louise; Beauchamp, Miriam H; Anderson, Vicki A

2015-03-01

The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate the contribution of age-at-insult and brain pathology on longitudinal outcome and recovery of pragmatic language in a sample of children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Children and adolescents with mild to severe TBI (n=112) were categorized according to timing of brain insult: (i) Middle Childhood (5-9 years; n=41); (ii) Late Childhood (10-11 years; n=39); and (iii) Adolescence (12-15 years; n=32) and group-matched for age, gender and socio-economic status (SES) to a typically developing (TD) control group (n=43). Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including a susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) sequence 2-8 weeks after injury and were assessed on measures of pragmatic language and behavioural functioning at 6- and 24-months after injury. Children and adolescents with TBI of all severity levels demonstrated impairments in these domains at 6-months injury before returning to age-expected levels at 2-years post-TBI. However, while adolescent TBI was associated with post-acute disruption to skills that preceded recovery to age-expected levels by 2-years post injury, the middle childhood TBI group demonstrated impairments at 6-months post-injury that were maintained at 2-year follow up. Reduced pragmatic communication was associated with frontal, temporal and corpus callosum lesions, as well as more frequent externalizing behaviour at 24-months post injury. Findings show that persisting pragmatic language impairment after pediatric TBI is related to younger age at brain insult, as well as microhemorrhagic pathology in brain regions that contribute to the anatomically distributed social brain network. Relationships between reduced pragmatic communication and more frequent externalizing behavior underscore the need for context-sensitive rehabilitation programs that aim to increase interpersonal effectiveness and reduce risk for maladaptive behavior trajectories into the long-term post injury. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parent and teacher perceptions of participation and outcomes in an intensive communication intervention for children with pragmatic language impairment.

PubMed

Baxendale, Janet; Lockton, Elaine; Adams, Catherine; Gaile, Jacqueline

2013-01-01

Treatment trials that enquire into parents' and teachers' views on speech-language interventions and outcomes for primary school-age children are relatively rare. The current study sought perceptions of the process of intervention and value placed on outcomes resulting from a trial of intervention, the Social Communication Intervention Project (SCIP), for children with communication disorders characterized by persistent needs in pragmatics and social use of language. To describe parent and teacher views around the process and experience of participating in SCIP intervention, including aspects of collaborative practice; and to gain understanding of parents' and teachers' perceptions of communication outcomes for children who had received intervention. Parents and teachers of eight children in the intervention arm of the SCIP study participated in semi-structured interviews with a researcher within 2 months of completion of SCIP intervention. The framework method of analysis was used to explore predetermined themes based around a list of topics informed by previous thinking and experience of the research. Parents and teachers perceived liaison with the SCIP speech and language therapist as being an important element of the intervention. Indirect approaches to liaison with parents were perceived as effective in transferring information as were brief meetings with teachers. Teachers and parents were able to make explicit links between therapy actions and perceived changes in the child. Work on comprehension monitoring and emotional vocabulary was perceived to be particularly effective with respect to communication outcomes. Parents also reflected that they had adopted different strategies towards communication and behaviour in the home as a result of intervention. The limits of potential change in terms of child communication in areas such as non-verbal communication and pragmatic skills were discussed by parents. This analysis has contributed essential information to the evaluation of SCIP by describing the experience of the intervention as delivered, exploring processes of effective implementation and change in the school setting and by describing the value placed on different outcomes by parents and teachers. These findings can inform planning for collaborations between speech and language therapists and teachers and provide useful information about mechanisms of change in different components of the SCIP intervention which have not been individually evaluated before. Information on changes in children's communication skills which were perceived as meaningful to those living and working with the children daily is crucial to the acceptance and translation of the SCIP intervention into practice. © 2012 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

Focus on the Learner: Pragmatic Perspectives for the Language Teacher.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oller, John W., Jr., Ed.; Richards, Jack C., Ed.

This book of readings includes: "Language Didactics and Applied Linguistics" (William Mackey); "Psycholinguistics and Second Language Teaching" (H. H. Stern); "Linguistic Theory" (Noam Chomsky); "Some Psycholinguistic Controversies" (John Oller, Jr.); "The Cognitive Strategies of Language Learning" (John Macnamara); "Conditions for Language…

Investigating the Grammatical and Pragmatic Origins of Wh-Questions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Jyotishi, Manya; Fein, Deborah; Naigles, Letitia

2017-01-01

Compared to typically developing children, children with autism (ASD) show delayed production of wh-questions. It is currently controversial the degree to which such deficits derive from social-pragmatic requirements and/or because these are complex grammatical structures. The current study employed the intermodal preferential looking (IPL) paradigm, which reduces social-pragmatic demands. The IPL paradigm can help distinguish these proposals, as successful comprehension promotes the “pragmatics-origins” argument whereas comprehension difficulties would implicate a “grammatical-origins” argument. Additionally, we tested both the linguistic and social explanations by assessing the contributions of children's early grammatical knowledge (i.e., SVO word order) and their social-pragmatic scores on the Vineland to their later wh-question comprehension. Fourteen children with ASD and 17 TD children, matched on language level, were visited in their homes at 4-month intervals. Comprehension of wh-questions and SVO word order were tested via IPL: the wh-question video showed a costumed horse and bird serving as agents or patients of familiar transitive actions. During the test trials, they were displayed side by side with directing audios (e.g., “What did the horse tickle?”, “What hugged the bird?”, “Where is the horse/bird?”). Children's eye movements were coded offline; the DV was their percent looking to the named item during test. To show comprehension, children should look longer at the named item during a where-question than during a subject-wh or object-wh question. Results indicated that TD children comprehended both subject and object wh-questions at 32 months of age. Comprehension of object-wh questions emerged chronologically later in children with ASD compared to their TD peers, but at similar levels of language. Moreover, performance on word order and social-pragmatic scores independently predicted both groups' later performance on wh-question comprehension. Our findings indicate that both grammar and social-pragmatics are implicated in the comprehension of wh-questions. The “grammatical-origins” argument is supported because the ASD group did not reveal earlier and stable comprehension of wh-questions; furthermore, their performance on SVO word order predicted their later success in linguistic processing of wh-questions. The “pragmatic-origins” argument is also supported because children's earlier socialization and communication scores strongly predicted their successful performance on wh-question comprehension. PMID:28344564

Pragmatics: Teaching Speech Acts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tatsuki, Donna H., Ed.; Houck, Noel R., Ed.

2010-01-01

Language teachers have long been aware of the devastating effect of learners' grammatically correct, yet situationally inappropriate spoken or written communication. This volume addresses how to raise learner awareness of pragmatic gaffs through research-based, field-tested activities such as composing e-mail requests, giving advice, making…

Theory of Mind and social functioning in schizophrenia: correlation with figurative language abnormalities, clinical symptoms and general intelligence.

PubMed

Piovan, Cristiano; Gava, Laura; Campeol, Mara

2016-01-01

Over past few decades, studies displayed Theory of Mind (ToM) as a system, including cognitive and affective features, rather than an unitary process. Within domains defining social cognition, ToM stands for the best predictor of poor social functioning in schizophrenia. The current study aimed to explore competence in ToM tasks, in metaphorical and idiomatic language identification tasks and in a conversational rules observance test, as well as relationship with social functioning, in a group of outpatients suffering from schizophrenia. METHODS.: 30 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 24 healthy subjects have been recruited. Both groups underwent TIB as premorbid IQ evaluation, PANSS, Theory of Mind Picture Sequencing Task, a metaphors and idiomatic expressions comprehension test and a conversational test. Social functioning was assessed with PSP. Results.Mean values of premorbid IQ showed no significant difference between patients and control group. In ToM and pragmatic competence tasks, differences between groups resulted in high significance, due to patients' lower performance. A correlation between metaphors and idiomatic expressions comprehension and second order false beliefs was detected. PSP showed a correlation with PANSS and cognitive-ToM, whereas leaving aside affective-ToM. Results showed how people affected with schizophrenia, in stable clinical condition, do have clear impairments in ToM and figurative language comprehension assignments. In our theoretical framework, correlation arisen between cognitive-ToM, pragmatic deficits, clinical status and social functioning level suggests usefulness of rehabilitative interventions to recover metacognitive functions and pragmatic abilities, in order to reduce social disability in schizophrenia.

An Alternative to Mapping a Word onto a Concept in Language Acquisition: Pragmatic Frames

PubMed Central

Rohlfing, Katharina J.; Wrede, Britta; Vollmer, Anna-Lisa; Oudeyer, Pierre-Yves

2016-01-01

The classic mapping metaphor posits that children learn a word by mapping it onto a concept of an object or event. However, we believe that a mapping metaphor cannot account for word learning, because even though children focus attention on objects, they do not necessarily remember the connection between the word and the referent unless it is framed pragmatically, that is, within a task. Our theoretical paper proposes an alternative mechanism for word learning. Our main premise is that word learning occurs as children accomplish a goal in cooperation with a partner. We follow Bruner’s (1983) idea and further specify pragmatic frames as the learning units that drive language acquisition and cognitive development. These units consist of a sequence of actions and verbal behaviors that are co-constructed with a partner to achieve a joint goal. We elaborate on this alternative, offer some initial parametrizations of the concept, and embed it in current language learning approaches. PMID:27148105

Explorations in Regional Variation: A Variational Pragmatic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barron, Anne

2015-01-01

The present article introduces the Special Issue entitled "A Variational Pragmatic Approach to Regional Variation in Language," a collection of papers which celebrates the work of Klaus P. Schneider (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany) on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

Linguistic and pragmatic aspects of narration in Finnish typically developing children and children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Mäkinen, Leena; Loukusa, Soile; Laukkanen, Päivi; Leinonen, Eeva; Kunnari, Sari

2014-06-01

This study investigates narratives of Finnish children with specific language impairment (SLI) from linguistic and pragmatic perspectives, in order to get a comprehensive overview of these children's narrative abilities. Nineteen children with SLI (mean age 6;1 years) and 19 typically developing age-matched children participated in the study. Their picture-elicited narrations were analysed for linguistic productivity and complexity, grammatical and referential accuracy, event content, the use of mental state expressions and narrative comprehension. Children with SLI showed difficulties in every aspect of narration in comparison to their peers. Only one measure of productivity, the number of communication units, did not reach statistical significance. Not only was linguistic structure fragile but also pragmatic aspects of storytelling (referencing, event content, mental state expressions and inferencing) were demanding for children with SLI. Results suggest that pragmatic aspects of narration should be taken into account more often when assessing narrative abilities of children with SLI.

Screening for pragmatic language impairment: the potential of the children's communication checklist.

PubMed

Ketelaars, Mieke P; Cuperus, Juliane M; van Daal, John; Jansonius, Kino; Verhoeven, Ludo

2009-01-01

The present study examines the validity of the Dutch Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) for children in kindergarten in a community sample, in order to assess the feasibility of using it as a screening instrument in the general population. Teachers completed the CCC for a representative sample of 1396 children at kindergarten level, taken from 53 primary schools in The Netherlands. The CCC was also completed for a clinical group consisting of children with SLI in special education. Reliability as measured with internal consistency scores was found to be good for the community sample. With regard to the construct validity, a five-factor second-order factor model was found when the pragmatic subscales were analysed, which provided a reasonable fit. Criterion validity as measured using the concordance between the CCC and teacher opinions was moderate. The children identified by the CCC as having Pragmatic Language Impairment (defined as scoring below the cut off of 132) were often characterized by the teachers as having social-emotional problems, language problems or combined problems. Comparison with a clinical SLI sample showed the pragmatically impaired children in the community sample to have a profile similar to that of the clinical group of children with PLI in special education. The main difference was visible in structural language problems, which were less severe for the PLI group in mainstream education. The results of this study suggest that screening for PLI is indeed possible using the CCC.

[Assessment of pragmatics from verbal spoken data].

PubMed

Gallardo-Paúls, B

2009-02-27

Pragmatic assessment is usually complex, long and sophisticated, especially for professionals who lack specific linguistic education and interact with impaired speakers. To design a quick method of assessment that will provide a quick general evaluation of the pragmatic effectiveness of neurologically affected speakers. This first filter will allow us to decide whether a detailed analysis of the altered categories should follow. Our starting point was the PerLA (perception, language and aphasia) profile of pragmatic assessment designed for the comprehensive analysis of conversational data in clinical linguistics; this was then converted into a quick questionnaire. A quick protocol of pragmatic assessment is proposed and the results found in a group of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are discussed.

The Dyslexia Spectrum: Continuities between Reading, Speech, and Language Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snowling, Margaret J.; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.

2006-01-01

D. V. M. Bishop and M. J. Snowling (2004) proposed that 2 dimensions of language are required to conceptualize the relationship between dyslexia and specific language impairment: phonological skills and wider language skills beyond phonology (grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic skills). In this article, we discuss the commonalities between…

Sign Language Planning: Pragmatism, Pessimism and Principles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Graham H.

2009-01-01

This article introduces the present collection of sign language planning studies. Contextualising the analyses against the backdrop of core issues in the theory of language planning and the evolution of applied sign linguistics, it is argued that--while the sociolinguistic circumstances of signed languages worldwide can, in many respects, be…

How to Dax? Preschool Children's Prosocial Behavior, But Not Their Social Norm Enforcement Relates to Their Peer Status.

PubMed

Paulus, Markus

2017-01-01

The current study examined correlates of preschool children's ( n = 82) peer status. In particular, we assessed children's prosocial behavior, social problem behavior, norm enforcement, language abilities, and temperament. Children's prosocial behavior, pragmatic language abilities, and gender correlated with peer status. A regression analysis revealed that prosocial behavior and gender were independent predictors. There was some evidence for a mediation effect: The link between pragmatic language and peer status was mediated by prosocial behavior. Children's norm enforcement was not related to peer status, neither was it related to any other factor such as temperament or language. Overall, the study supports approaches claiming that prosocial behavior plays a role in children's social functioning and are in line with social-interactionist accounts to social and social-cognitive development.

Semantics and pragmatics.

PubMed

McNally, Louise

2013-05-01

The fields of semantics and pragmatics are devoted to the study of conventionalized and context- or use-dependent aspects of natural language meaning, respectively. The complexity of human language as a semiotic system has led to considerable debate about how the semantics/pragmatics distinction should be drawn, if at all. This debate largely reflects contrasting views of meaning as a property of linguistic expressions versus something that speakers do. The fact that both views of meaning are essential to a complete understanding of language has led to a variety of efforts over the last 40 years to develop better integrated and more comprehensive theories of language use and interpretation. The most important advances have included the adaptation of propositional analyses of declarative sentences to interrogative, imperative and exclamative forms; the emergence of dynamic, game theoretic, and multi-dimensional theories of meaning; and the development of various techniques for incorporating context-dependent aspects of content into representations of context-invariant content with the goal of handling phenomena such as vagueness resolution, metaphor, and metonymy. WIREs Cogn Sci 2013, 4:285-297. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1227 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Pragmatic Study on the Functions of Vague Language in Commercial Advertising

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wenzhong, Zhu; Jingyi, Li

2013-01-01

Vagueness is one of the basic attributes of natural language. This is the same to advertising language. Vague language is a subject of increasing interest, and both foreign and domestic studies have attained success in it. Nevertheless, the study on the application of vague language in the context of English commercial advertising is relatively…

An Exploration of Causes of Non-Literal Language Problems in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Ingerith; McDonald, Skye

2004-01-01

Individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS), a high functioning variant of Autism, are often noted to possess intact language ability, yet fail to use this language capacity to engage in interactive communication. This difficulty using language in a social context has been referred to as a deficit in pragmatic language. In particular, difficulty…

Toward a Pedagogical Description of the Pragmatic Competence of Native Speakers of English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cots, Josep Maria

An approach to teaching second language learners the pragmatic aspects of communicative competence is discussed. The approach uses analysis of verbal interaction to explain four areas of skill and knowledge related to communicative competence: grammatical competence; sociolinguistic competence; discourse competence; and strategic competence. It…

Motivation and Interlanguage Pragmatics in Iranian English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khorshidi, Hassan Rasouli; Nimchahi, Abdolreza Bagherzadeh

2013-01-01

It is generally believed that interlanguage pragmatics and motivation play important roles in learning. Motivation is important because it determines the extent of the learner's active involvement and attitude toward learning. The major purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of integrative and instrumental motivation on the…

A Pragmatic Study of Barak Obama's Political Propaganda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Ameedi, Riyadh Tariq Kadhim; Khudhier, Zina Abdul Hussein

2015-01-01

This study investigates, pragmatically, the language of five electoral political propaganda texts delivered by Barak Obama. It attempts to achieve the following aims: (1) identifying the speech acts used in political propaganda, (2) showing how politicians utilize Grice's maxims and the politeness principle in issuing their propaganda, (3)…

Interlanguage Pragmatics, Curricular Innovation, and Digital Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sykes, Julie M.

2018-01-01

Human interaction is fundamentally about shared understanding, created when interlocutors engage with one another around their own intended meaning and the intended meaning of others. Pragmatics is at the core of this interaction. The fields of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and the teaching and learning of interlanguage pragmatics…

Cross Culture Discourse of Giving and Accepting Gifts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kendall, Shari; Lin, Grace Hui Chin; Perkins, Lawrence

2006-01-01

This study emphasizes it is important and necessary that an English as a foreign language (EFL) speaker should develop their knowledge in pragmatic and sociolinguistic rules in order to avoid failure and misunderstanding in intercultural communication. This paper proposes to raise the EFL speakers' pragmatic awareness in cross-cultural…

Interlanguage Pragmatics with a Pedagogical Agent: The Request Game

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Hui-Chun; Zapata-Rivera, Diego

2010-01-01

This article describes the development and evaluation of a computer-assisted language learning approach which integrates a finite state dialogue engine with an animated pedagogical agent. The design of the request game is theoretically motivated by interlanguage pragmatics and Long's Interaction Hypothesis. The tutoring system creates a venue in…

Interlanguage Pragmatics in the Zone of Proximal Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohta, Amy Snyder

2005-01-01

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) has been fruitfully applied in L2 research that examines second and foreign language learning. This paper considers the applicability of the ZPD to interlanguage pragmatics instruction and research. First, the ZPD is defined [Vygotsky, L.S., 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher…

When the truth is not too hard to handle: an event-related potential study on the pragmatics of negation.

PubMed

Nieuwland, Mante S; Kuperberg, Gina R

2008-12-01

Our brains rapidly map incoming language onto what we hold to be true. Yet there are claims that such integration and verification processes are delayed in sentences containing negation words like not. However, studies have often confounded whether a statement is true and whether it is a natural thing to say during normal communication. In an event-related potential (ERP) experiment, we aimed to disentangle effects of truth value and pragmatic licensing on the comprehension of affirmative and negated real-world statements. As in affirmative sentences, false words elicited a larger N400 ERP than did true words in pragmatically licensed negated sentences (e.g., "In moderation, drinking red wine isn't bad/good..."), whereas true and false words elicited similar responses in unlicensed negated sentences (e.g., "A baby bunny's fur isn't very hard/soft..."). These results suggest that negation poses no principled obstacle for readers to immediately relate incoming words to what they hold to be true.

Semantic and pragmatic factors influencing deaf and hearing students' comprehension of english sentences containing numeral quantifiers.

PubMed

Kelly, Ronald R; Berent, Gerald P

2011-01-01

This research contrasted deaf and hearing students' interpretive knowledge of English sentences containing numeral quantifier phrases and indefinite noun phrases. A multiple-interpretation picture task methodology was used to assess 305 participants' judgments of the compatibility of sentence meanings with depicted discourse contexts. Participants' performance was assessed on the basis of hearing level (deaf, hearing) and grade level (middle school, high school, college). The deaf students were predicted to have differential access to specific sentence interpretations in accordance with the relative derivational complexity of the targeted sentence types. Hypotheses based on the pressures of derivational economy on acquisition were largely supported. The results also revealed that the deaf participants tended to overactivate pragmatic processes that yielded principled, though non-target, sentence interpretations. Collectively, the results not only contribute to the understanding of English acquisition under conditions of restricted access to spoken language input, they also suggest that pragmatic factors may play a broad role in influencing, and compromising, deaf students' reading comprehension and written expression.

Language Learning by Dint of Social Cognitive Advancement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathew, Bincy; Raja, B. William Dharma

2015-01-01

Language is of vital importance to human beings. It is a means of communication and it has specific cognitive links. Advanced social cognition is necessary for children to acquire language, and sophisticated mind-reading abilities to assume word meanings and communicate pragmatically. Language can be defined as a bi-directional system that permits…

Speech and language therapies to improve pragmatics and discourse skills in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Joyal, Marilyne; Bonneau, Audrey; Fecteau, Shirley

2016-06-30

Individuals with schizophrenia display speech and language impairments that greatly impact their integration to the society. The aim of this systematic review was to identify the importance of speech and language therapy (SLT) as part of rehabilitation curriculums for patients with schizophrenia emphasizing on the speech and language abilities assessed, the therapy setting and the therapeutic approach. This article reviewed 18 studies testing the effects of language therapy or training in 433 adults diagnosed with schizophrenia. Results showed that 14 studies out of 18 lead to improvements in language and/or speech abilities. Most of these studies comprised pragmatic or expressive discursive skills being the only aim of the therapy or part of it. The therapy settings vary widely ranging from twice daily individual therapy to once weekly group therapy. The therapeutic approach was mainly operant conditioning. Although the evidence tends to show that certain areas of language are treatable through therapy, it remains difficult to state the type of approach that should be favoured and implemented to treat language impairments in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language Program Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norris, John M.

2016-01-01

Language program evaluation is a pragmatic mode of inquiry that illuminates the complex nature of language-related interventions of various kinds, the factors that foster or constrain them, and the consequences that ensue. Program evaluation enables a variety of evidence-based decisions and actions, from designing programs and implementing…

Eskimo Word Order Variation and Its Contact-Induced Perturbation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fortescue, Michael

1993-01-01

Although Eskimo languages are commonly characterized as displaying rather "free" word order compared to major western European languages, West Greenlandic (WG) has a clearly dominant, pragmatically neutral ordering pattern. It is argued that WG behaves more like Slavic languages. (Contains 36 references.) (LB)

Attention to Language: Lessons Learned at the Dinner Table.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ely, Richard; Gleason, Jean Berko; MacGibbon, Ann; Zaretsky, Elena

2001-01-01

Studied the dinner table conversations of 22 families with young children. Analyzed utterances for language-focused terms. Reported that metalinguistic uses exceeded pragmatic uses. Found that during routine social interactions, parents provide children with potentially important information about the communicative functions of language.…

Interpretation of Logical Words in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Uncovering Knowledge of Semantics and Pragmatics.

PubMed

Su, Yi Esther; Su, Lin-Yan

2015-07-01

This study investigated the interpretation of the logical words 'some' and 'every…or…' in 4-15-year-old high-functioning Mandarin-speaking children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Children with ASD performed similarly to typical controls in demonstrating semantic knowledge of simple sentences with 'some', and they had delayed knowledge of the complex sentences with 'every…or…'. Interestingly, the children with ASD had pragmatic knowledge of the scalar implicatures of these logical words, parallel to those of the typical controls. Taken together, the interpretation of logical words may be a relative strength in children with ASD. It is possible that some aspects of semantics and pragmatics may be selectively spared in ASD, due to the contribution the language faculty makes to language acquisition in the ASD population.

Effects of Disfluency in Online Interpretation of Deception.

PubMed

Loy, Jia E; Rohde, Hannah; Corley, Martin

2017-05-01

A speaker's manner of delivery of an utterance can affect a listener's pragmatic interpretation of the message. Disfluencies (such as filled pauses) influence a listener's off-line assessment of whether the speaker is truthful or deceptive. Do listeners also form this assessment during the moment-by-moment processing of the linguistic message? Here we present two experiments that examined listeners' judgments of whether a speaker was indicating the true location of the prize in a game during fluent and disfluent utterances. Participants' eye and mouse movements were biased toward the location named by the speaker during fluent utterances, whereas the opposite bias was observed during disfluent utterances. This difference emerged rapidly after the onset of the critical noun. Participants were similarly sensitive to disfluencies at the start of the utterance (Experiment 1) and in the middle (Experiment 2). Our findings support recent research showing that listeners integrate pragmatic information alongside semantic content during the earliest moments of language processing. Unlike prior work which has focused on pragmatic effects in the interpretation of the literal message, here we highlight disfluency's role in guiding a listener to an alternative non-literal message. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Narrative Performance of Optimal Outcome Children and Adolescents with a History of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

PubMed Central

Suh, Joyce; Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Naigles, Letitia; Barton, Marianne; Kelley, Elizabeth; Fein, Deborah

2014-01-01

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have traditionally been considered a lifelong condition; however, a subset of people makes such significant improvements that they no longer meet diagnostic criteria for an ASD. The current study examines whether these “optimal outcome” (OO) children and adolescents continue to have subtle pragmatic language deficits. The narratives of 15 OO individuals, 15 high-functioning individuals with an ASD (HFA), and 15 typically developing peers (TD) were evaluated. Despite average cognitive functioning, the ASD group produced narratives with fewer central “gist” descriptions, more ambiguous pronominal referents, idiosyncratic language, speech dysfluency (more repetitions and self-corrections), and were less likely to name story characters. The OO participants displayed only very subtle pragmatic and higher-level language deficits (idiosyncratic language and self-correction dysfluency). PMID:24500659

How to Dax? Preschool Children’s Prosocial Behavior, But Not Their Social Norm Enforcement Relates to Their Peer Status

PubMed Central

Paulus, Markus

2017-01-01

The current study examined correlates of preschool children’s (n = 82) peer status. In particular, we assessed children’s prosocial behavior, social problem behavior, norm enforcement, language abilities, and temperament. Children’s prosocial behavior, pragmatic language abilities, and gender correlated with peer status. A regression analysis revealed that prosocial behavior and gender were independent predictors. There was some evidence for a mediation effect: The link between pragmatic language and peer status was mediated by prosocial behavior. Children’s norm enforcement was not related to peer status, neither was it related to any other factor such as temperament or language. Overall, the study supports approaches claiming that prosocial behavior plays a role in children’s social functioning and are in line with social-interactionist accounts to social and social-cognitive development. PMID:29163247

Practitioner review: Social (pragmatic) communication disorder conceptualization, evidence and clinical implications.

PubMed

Norbury, Courtenay F

2014-03-01

DSM-5 sees the introduction of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SPCD), characterized by persistent difficulties using verbal and nonverbal communication for social purposes, in the absence of restricted and repetitive interests and behaviours. There is currently much confusion about the precise diagnostic criteria for SPCD and how this disorder relates to autism spectrum disorders (ASD), previous descriptions of pragmatic language impairment (PLI) and more specific language disorders (LD). Proposed criteria for SPCD are outlined. A selective review of the evidence considers whether these criteria form a cohesive and distinct diagnostic entity. Approaches to assessment and intervention are discussed. Implementing the new diagnosis is currently challenged by a lack of well-validated and reliable assessment measures, and observed continuities between SPCD and other neurodevelopmental disorders. High rates of comorbidity between SPCD and other seemingly disparate disorders (including conduct disorder, ADHD and disorders of known genetic origin) raise questions about the utility of this diagnostic category. SPCD is probably best conceptualized as a dimensional symptom profile that may be present across a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, although there is an urgent need to investigate the latent structure of SPCD using consistent diagnostic criteria. In addition, social communication and aspects of pragmatic language may be dissociated, with the latter heavily influenced by structural language attainments. Finally, there is a dearth of reliable and culturally valid assessment measures with which to make a differential diagnosis, and few rigorously tested intervention programmes. The implications for research and clinical practice are outlined. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2013 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Relation of executive functioning to pragmatic outcome following severe traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Douglas, Jacinta M

2010-04-01

This study was designed to explore the behavioral nature of pragmatic impairment following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to evaluate the contribution of executive skills to the experience of pragmatic difficulties after TBI. Participants were grouped into 43 TBI dyads (TBI adults and close relatives) and 43 control dyads. All TBI participants had sustained severe injury (mean posttraumatic amnesia duration = 45.19 days, SD = 39.15) due to a moving vehicle-related trauma. A minimum of 2 years had elapsed since injury (M = 5.36 years, SD = 3.61). The La Trobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ; Douglas, O'Flaherty, & Snow, 2000) was administered to all participants. Measures of executive function included the following: the FAS verbal fluency task (Spreen & Benton, 1969), the Speed and Capacity of Language Processing test (Baddeley, Emslie, & Nimmo-Smith, 1992), and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task (Rey, 1964). Perceptions of TBI participants and their relatives were significantly correlated (r = .63, p < .001) and significantly different from those of controls, F(1, 84) = 37.2, p < .001. Pragmatic difficulties represented violations in 3 domains of Grice's (1975) Cooperative Principle (Quantity, Relation, and Manner), and executive function measures predicted 37% (32% adjusted) of the variability in LCQ scores. The study demonstrates evidence of a significant association between executive impairment and the pragmatic communication difficulties experienced by individuals with TBI.

Using Telephone Conversations to Develop Awareness of Pragmatic Skills: An Activity-Theory-Driven Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xia, Saihua

2009-01-01

This paper investigates ESL learners' awareness of pragmatic skills utilizing an activity-theory driven approach to perform an inquiry task into problem-solving service call conversations (PSSCs) between native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers of English (NNSs). Eight high-intermediate ESL learners, from five different language backgrounds,…

Pragmatic Inference Abilities in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism. A Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loukusa, Soile; Moilanen, Irma

2009-01-01

This review summarizes studies involving pragmatic language comprehension and inference abilities in individuals with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. Systematic searches of three electronic databases, selected journals, and reference lists identified 20 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. These studies were evaluated in terms of:…

The Formal Pragmatics of Non-at-Issue Intensification in English and Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taniguchi, Ai

2017-01-01

This dissertation concerns the formal pragmatics of constructions in English and Japanese that are perceptively intensificative in their discourse function in some way. In particular I examine polarity emphasis (verum focus), exclamatives, and acts of notification and surprise in language using a compositional version of Farkas and Bruce (2010)'s…

Bridging the Gap between Linguistic and Pragmatic Assessment in Turkish Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tulgar, Aysegul Takkac; Yagiz, Oktay; Han, Turgay

2017-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to reach an understanding of the perceptions and self-evaluations of faculty members and students regarding pragmatic assessment in foreign language education. The participants were the academics and students in EFL departments at six state universities in Turkey. The data were collected through six…

Teaching the Sociocultural Norms of an Undergraduate Community of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Couper, Graeme; Denny, Heather; Watkins, Annette

2016-01-01

The importance of teaching second language learners the pragmatic norms of relevant communities of practice is widely recognised. Familiarisation with these norms is also an important aspect of socialisation for native speakers entering a new community of practice. This study focuses on pragmatic instruction of English as an additional language…

The Effects of Input Enhancement and Recasts on the Development of Second Language Pragmatic Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Minh Thi Thuy; Pham, Hanh Thi; Pham, Tam Minh

2017-01-01

This study investigates the combined effects of input enhancement and recasts on a group of Vietnamese EFL learners' performance of constructive criticism during peer review activities. Particularly, the study attempts to find out whether the instruction works for different aspects of pragmatic learning, including the learners' sociopragmatic and…

Evaluating Pragmatic Competence in Nigerian Undergraduates' Language Errors within Descriptive ESL Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muhammad, Anas Sa'idu; Nair, Subadrah Madhawa

2017-01-01

This study investigates the level of pragmatic competence for ESL writing skills among Nigerian undergraduates. Methodologically, it adopts descriptive research design within the explanatory framework of the QUAN-Qual model. The instruments used are descriptive essay text and focus group interview questions. In writing the descriptive essays, a…

Pragmatic Bootstrapping: A Neural Network Model of Vocabulary Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caza, Gregory A.; Knott, Alistair

2012-01-01

The social-pragmatic theory of language acquisition proposes that children only become efficient at learning the meanings of words once they acquire the ability to understand the intentions of other agents, in particular the intention to communicate (Akhtar & Tomasello, 2000). In this paper we present a neural network model of word learning which…

Testing University Learners' Interlanguage Pragmatic Competence in a Chinese EFL Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Lan; Wannaruk, Anchalee

2016-01-01

Speech acts are the major concern of interlanguage pragmatists. The present study aimed to 1) examine the reliability and validity of an interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) competence test on speech acts in a Chinese EFL context, and 2) investigate EFL learners' variations of ILP competence by language proficiency. Altogether 390 students participated…

Autism by Another Name? Semantic and Pragmatic Impairments in Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brook, Sarah Lister; Bowler, Dermot M.

1992-01-01

A review of the literature on children with language disorders characterized by semantic and pragmatic impairments suggests that some of these conditions may stem from the same fundamental cognitive and interpersonal difficulties found in early childhood autism. A summary of recent research and theory in autism is also presented. (Author/DB)

1987 Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session. Volume 31.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derbyshire, Desmond C., Ed.

Four working papers in linguistics are presented. "Basic Configurations of Pragmatic Structuring" (Robert A. Dooley) presents evidence for basic or unmarked pragmatic configurations in three Brazilian languages: Topic-Comment in Mbya Guarani, Comment-Topic in Hixkaryana, and Focus-Presupposition in Xavante. "The Syllable Structure…

A Comparative Study on the Use of Compliment Response Strategies by Persian and English Native Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shabani, Mansour; Zeinali, Maryam

2015-01-01

The significance of pragmatic knowledge and politeness strategies has recently been emphasized in language learning and teaching. Most communication failures originate in the lack of pragmatic awareness which is evident among EFL learners while communicating with English native speakers. The present study aimed at investigating compliment response…

A Multi-Method Investigation of Pragmatic Development in Individuals with down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Michelle; Bush, Lauren; Martin, Gary E.; Barstein, Jamie; Maltman, Nell; Klusek, Jessica; Losh, Molly

2017-01-01

This longitudinal study examined pragmatic language in boys and girls with Down syndrome (DS) at up to three time points, using parent report, standardized and direct assessments. We also explored relationships among theory of mind, executive function, nonverbal mental age, receptive and expressive vocabulary, grammatical complexity, and pragmatic…

Beyond pragmatics: morphosyntactic development in autism.

PubMed

Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Bennetto, Loisa; Dadlani, Mamta B

2007-07-01

Language acquisition research in autism has traditionally focused on high-level pragmatic deficits. Few studies have examined grammatical abilities in autism, with mixed findings. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by providing a detailed investigation of syntactic and higher-level discourse abilities in verbal children with autism, age 5 years. Findings indicate clear language difficulties that go beyond what would be expected based on developmental level; specifically, syntactic delays, impairments in discourse management and increased production of non-meaningful words (jargon). The present study indicates a highly specific pattern of language impairments, and importantly, syntactic delays, in a group of children with autism carefully matched on lexical level and non-verbal mental age with children with developmental delays and typical development.

Comprehensie van Vreemdtalige Input: Een Psycholinguistische Benadering (Acquisition of Dutch as a Second Language: A Psycholinguistic Approach).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Issidorides, Diana C.

1988-01-01

Within a psycholinguistic approach to second language learning, an attempt is made to investigate the question of how morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics affect the comprehension of Dutch sentences by nonnative learners of that language. When talking to nonnative language-learners, native speakers often tend to deliberately modify their…

When It Comes to Explaining: A Preliminary Investigation of the Expository Language Skills of African American School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koonce, Nicole M.

2015-01-01

This research investigated the expository language of school-age speakers of African American English. Specifically, the study describes the language productivity, syntax, and pragmatic features present in expository language samples produced by African American children and compares their performance with White children in the extant literature.…

The Prevalence of Autistic Spectrum Disorders in Adolescents with a History of Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conti-Ramsden, Gina; Simkin, Zoe; Botting, Nicola

2006-01-01

Background: Traditionally, autism and specific language impairment (SLI) have been regarded as distinct disorders but, more recently, evidence has been put forward for a closer link between them: a common set of language problems, in particular receptive language difficulties and the existence of intermediate cases including pragmatic language…

Understanding the Socio-Economic, Socio-Linguistic Situation and Social Psychology behind Learning a "Language" in Punjab

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Sukhdev

2006-01-01

The issue of language attitudes has become important in view of the regular formation and growth of multi-lingual societies. The individuals are under constant pressure to learn more than one language because of pragmatic/cultural/political reasons. The languages in such situations compete and often generate linguistic controversies about the…

Role of PROLOG (Programming and Logic) in natural-language processing. Report for September-December 1987

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McHale, M.L.

The field of artificial Intelligence strives to produce computer programs that exhibit intelligent behavior. One of the areas of interest is the processing of natural language. This report discusses the role of the computer language PROLOG in Natural Language Processing (NLP) both from theoretic and pragmatic viewpoints. The reasons for using PROLOG for NLP are numerous. First, linguists can write natural-language grammars almost directly as PROLOG programs; this allows fast-prototyping of NLP systems and facilitates analysis of NLP theories. Second, semantic representations of natural-language texts that use logic formalisms are readily produced in PROLOG because of PROLOG's logical foundations. Third,more » PROLOG's built-in inferencing mechanisms are often sufficient for inferences on the logical forms produced by NLPs. Fourth, the logical, declarative nature of PROLOG may make it the language of choice for parallel computing systems. Finally, the fact that PROLOG has a de facto standard (Edinburgh) makes the porting of code from one computer system to another virtually trouble free. Perhaps the strongest tie one could make between NLP and PROLOG was stated by John Stuart Mill in his inaugural Address at St. Andrews: The structure of every sentence is a lesson in logic.« less

L2 (IM)Politeness in the Synchronous Chat of Elementary School Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Craig D.; Do, Jaewoo

2017-01-01

Participation in interactive games, especially those in immersive environments, is often employed in learning contexts to stochastically develop L2 learners' language ability. However, typical measures of language ability often do not reflect pragmatic competencies. This study juxtaposes two elementary school ESL learners' language ability, and…

Adult Psychosocial Outcomes of Children with Specific Language Impairment, Pragmatic Language Impairment and Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitehouse, Andrew J. O.; Watt, Helen J.; Line, E. A.; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2009-01-01

Background: The few studies that have tracked children with developmental language disorder to adulthood have found that these individuals experience considerable difficulties with psychosocial adjustment (for example, academic, vocational and social aptitude). Evidence that some children also develop autistic symptomatology over time has raised…

Bilingual First Language Acquisition: Exploring the Limits of the Language Faculty.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Genesee, Fred

2001-01-01

Reviews current research in three domains of bilingual acquisition: pragmatic features of bilingual code mixing, grammatical constraints on child bilingual code mixing, and bilingual syntactic development. Examines implications from these domains for the understanding of the limits of the mental faculty to acquire language. (Author/VWL)

Parental Broad Autism Phenotype and the Language Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flippin, Michelle; Watson, Linda R.

2018-01-01

Father-child and mother-child interactions were examined in order to investigate concurrent associations between three characteristics of parental broad autism phenotype (i.e., aloofness, rigidity, pragmatic language deficits), parental verbal responsiveness, and language skills of children with ASD. Results for mothers indicated that aloofness…

Narrative Abilities of Children with Epilepsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strekas, Amy; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Berl, Madison; Gaillard, William D.

2013-01-01

Background: There is a noticeable publication gap in the speech-language pathology literature regarding the language abilities of children with common types of epilepsy. This paper reviews studies that suggest a high frequency of undetected language problems in this population, and it proposes the need for pragmatically based assessment of…

Perception of English Intonation by English, Spanish, and Chinese Listeners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grabe, Esther; Rosner, Burton S.; Garcia-Albea, Jose E.; Zhou, Xiaolin

2003-01-01

Native language affects the perception of segmental phonetic structure, of stress, and of semantic and pragmatic effects of intonation. Similarly, native language might influence the perception of similarities and differences among intonation contours. To test this hypothesis, a cross-language experiment was conducted. An English utterance was…

Out of the Mouths of Babes: Unlocking the Mysteries of Language and Voice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thurber, Christopher A.

2003-01-01

Summarizes three studies that have revolutionized child psychology by teaching us that children are biologically programmed to learn language; children's language development is orderly and pragmatic, but grammatically mysterious; and children's linguistic self-expression reveals some disturbing ways in which they have been socialized. Presents…

Reconciliation of ontology and terminology to cope with linguistics.

PubMed

Baud, Robert H; Ceusters, Werner; Ruch, Patrick; Rassinoux, Anne-Marie; Lovis, Christian; Geissbühler, Antoine

2007-01-01

To discuss the relationships between ontologies, terminologies and language in the context of Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications in order to show the negative consequences of confusing them. The viewpoints of the terminologist and (computational) linguist are developed separately, and then compared, leading to the presentation of reconciliation among these points of view, with consideration of the role of the ontologist. In order to encourage appropriate usage of terminologies, guidelines are presented advocating the simultaneous publication of pragmatic vocabularies supported by terminological material based on adequate ontological analysis. Ontologies, terminologies and natural languages each have their own purpose. Ontologies support machine understanding, natural languages support human communication, and terminologies should form the bridge between them. Therefore, future terminology standards should be based on sound ontology and do justice to the diversities in natural languages. Moreover, they should support local vocabularies, in order to be easily adaptable to local needs and practices.

Language processing and executive functions in early treated adults with phenylketonuria (PKU).

PubMed

De Felice, Sara; Romani, Cristina; Geberhiwot, Tarekegn; MacDonald, Anita; Palermo, Liana

We provide an in-depth analysis of language functions in early-treated adults with phenylketonuria (AwPKUs, N = 15-33), as compared to age- and education-matched controls (N = 24-32; N varying across tasks), through: a. narrative production (the Cinderella story), b. language pragmatics comprehension (humour, metaphors, inferred meaning), c. prosody discrimination d. lexical inhibitory control and planning (Blocked Cyclic Naming; Hayling Sentence Completion Test, Burgess & Shallice, 1997). AwPKUs exhibited intact basic language processing (lexical retrieval, phonology/articulation, sentence construction). Instead, deficits emerged in planning and reasoning abilities. Compared to controls, AwPKUs were: less informative in narrative production (lower rate of Correct Information Units); slower in metaphorical understanding and inferred meaning; less accurate in focused lexical-search (Hayling test). These results suggest that i) executive deficits in PKU cannot be explained by an accumulation of lower-order deficits and/or general speed impairments, ii) executive functions engage dedicated neurophysiological resources, rather than simply being an emergent property of lower-level systems.

Shared decision making in the recovery of people with schizophrenia: the role of metacognitive capacities in insight and pragmatic language use.

PubMed

Chan, Kevin K S; Mak, Winnie W S

2012-08-01

In the development of consumer-centered care for mental health consumers with schizophrenia, one key ingredient is consumer participation in health care decisions together with their healthcare providers, termed "shared decision making" (SDM). SDM requires consumers to form a number of complex ideas about themselves and their providers then use that knowledge to make sense of the illness and reach medical and psychosocial decisions. However, metacognitive deficits widely observed in schizophrenia might lead to poor insight and pragmatic language deficits in some consumers, disrupting the whole process by which a personal and consensually valid narrative account of psychiatric challenges is synthesized and flexibly evolved. Given the current understanding that it is possible to improve metacognition, in this article we summarize how Metacognitive Training (MCT) and individual psychotherapy could potentially be tailored, or modified, to help consumers to develop metacognitive capacities with an end goal of facilitating the SDM process. Consistent with the principles of consumer-defined recovery, we also suggest a strategy for engaging consumers in SDM dialogue based on "where the consumers are at". Providers are advised to be cognizant of their medically driven perspective and attempt to work with the consumers in the perspective of the consumers' own recovery goals. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adequate formal language performance in unilateral cochlear implanted children: is it indicative of complete recovery in all linguistic domains? Insights from referential communication.

PubMed

Mancini, Patrizia; Dincer D'Alessandro, Hilal; Guerzoni, Letizia; Cuda, Domenico; Ruoppolo, Giovanni; Musacchio, Angela; Di Mario, Alessia; De Seta, Elio; Bosco, Ersilia; Nicastri, Maria

2015-04-01

Referential communication (RC) is a key element in achieving a successful communication. This case series aimed to evaluate RC in children with unilateral cochlear implants (CIs) with formal language skills within the normal range. A total of 31 children with CIs, with language development within the normal range, were assessed using the Pragmatic Language Skills test (MEDEA). Of the children with CIs, 83.9% reached performance levels appropriate for their chronological ages. The results confirmed a positive effect of cochlear implantation on RC development, although difficulties remained in some CI users. The outcomes emphasize the need to pay greater attention to the pragmatic aspects of language, assessing them with adequate testing in the early phase after cochlear implantation. Clear knowledge of children's communicative competence is the key in optimizing their communicative environments in order to create the basis for future successful interpersonal exchanges and social integration. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transfer at the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface: Pronominal Subjects in Bilingual Turkish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haznedar, Belma

2010-01-01

This study investigates the issue of crosslinguistic influence in the domain of subject realization in Turkish in simultaneous acquisition of Turkish and English. The use of subjects in a null subject language like Turkish is a phenomenon linked to the pragmatics-syntax interface of the grammar and, thus, is a domain where crosslinguistic…

The Community as a Source of Pragmatic Input for Learners of Italian: The Multimedia Repository LIRA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zanoni, Greta

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on community participation within the LIRA project--Lingua/Cultura Italiana in Rete per l'Apprendimento (Italian language and culture for online learning). LIRA is a multimedia repository of e-learning materials aiming at recovering, preserving and developing the linguistic, pragmatic and cultural competences of second and third…

Genre-Pragmatic Strategies in English Letter-of-Application Writing of Jordanian Arabic--English Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Ali, Mohammed N.

2006-01-01

This study reports an investigation of the genre components and pragmatic strategies of letters of applications written by Jordanian Arabic--English bilinguals. Specifically it is set up to trace how far novice non-native speakers of English are able to utilise the generic components and politeness strategies of the target language that strongly…

Integrating Pragmatics Instruction in a Content-Based Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krulatz, Anna

2014-01-01

The issue of teaching pragmatics in foreign and second language classrooms has received a lot of attention in the recent years. Its origins can be dated back to the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSRAP) led by Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989) and the research on interlanguage speech acts that followed (for a comprehensive…

Pragmatic Development of L2 Spanish Proposals in Planning Talk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Marda C.

2013-01-01

This study examines proposals made during planning talk--a speech act that has received little attention in previous literature--to determine the applicability of the stages of second language (L2) pragmatic development posited by Kasper and Rose (2002). Although Kasper and Rose suggest that formulas play a prominent role in L2 pragmatic…

"Uh," "Um," and Autism: Filler Disfluencies as Pragmatic Markers in Adolescents with Optimal Outcomes from Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irvine, Christina A.; Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Fein, Deborah A.

2016-01-01

Filler disfluencies--"uh" and "um"--are thought to serve distinct discourse functions. We examined fillers in spontaneous speech by youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who struggle with pragmatic language, and by youth with ASD who have achieved an "optimal outcome" (OO), as well as in peers with typical…

Pragmatic Development of Chinese EFL Learners--A Study on FL Suggestions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gu, Tongqing

2014-01-01

While the number of studies on the pragmatic development of nonnative English speakers has been increasing, surprisingly little research has been conducted on the development of the ability of foreign language learners to perform the suggestion speech act, with even less taking Chinese EFL learners as the target group. The present study examines…

A Pragmatic Analysis of Discourse Particles in Filipino Computer Mediated Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palacio, May Antonette; Gustilo, Leah

2016-01-01

As the English language continues to evolve through time, many of its structures and functions changed, which made it even realizable that the smallest unit in a discourse can play a crucial role in communication. Hence, this present study is an attempt to investigate the phenomenon and further delve into the discourse-pragmatic functions of…

Interlanguage Pragmatics Study of Indirect Complaint among Japanese ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baba, Junko

2010-01-01

This interlanguage pragmatics study of linguistic expressions of affect focuses on how Japanese learners of English may express themselves in an affect-laden speech act of indirect complaint. The English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' data are compared with the baseline data of native speakers of Japanese (JJ) and American English (AA). The…

"You Taught Me Language; and My Profit on't/Is, I Know How to Curse": Cursing and Swearing in Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horan, Geraldine

2013-01-01

This article will discuss why cursing and swearing, as manifestations of emotional language, should be addressed in foreign language learning (FLL). Psycholinguistic and pragmatic studies have argued that cursing and swearing are a central component of an individual's communicative repertoire, fulfilling a variety of functions, including…

Can You Tell It by the Prime? A Study of Metaphorical Priming in High-Functioning Autism in Comparison with Matched Controls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chahboun, Sobh; Vulchanov, Valentin; Saldaña, David; Eshuis, Hendrik; Vulchanova, Mila

2017-01-01

Background: Problems with pragmatic aspects of language are well attested in individuals on the autism spectrum. It remains unclear, however, whether figurative language skills improve with language status and whether problems in figurative language are no longer present in highly verbal individuals with autism. Aims: To investigate whether highly…

ccML, a new mark-up language to improve ISO/EN 13606-based electronic health record extracts practical edition.

PubMed

Sánchez-de-Madariaga, Ricardo; Muñoz, Adolfo; Cáceres, Jesús; Somolinos, Roberto; Pascual, Mario; Martínez, Ignacio; Salvador, Carlos H; Monteagudo, José Luis

2013-01-01

The objective of this paper is to introduce a new language called ccML, designed to provide convenient pragmatic information to applications using the ISO/EN13606 reference model (RM), such as electronic health record (EHR) extracts editors. EHR extracts are presently built using the syntactic and semantic information provided in the RM and constrained by archetypes. The ccML extra information enables the automation of the medico-legal context information edition, which is over 70% of the total in an extract, without modifying the RM information. ccML is defined using a W3C XML schema file. Valid ccML files complement the RM with additional pragmatics information. The ccML language grammar is defined using formal language theory as a single-type tree grammar. The new language is tested using an EHR extracts editor application as proof-of-concept system. Seven ccML PVCodes (predefined value codes) are introduced in this grammar to cope with different realistic EHR edition situations. These seven PVCodes have different interpretation strategies, from direct look up in the ccML file itself, to more complex searches in archetypes or system precomputation. The possibility to declare generic types in ccML gives rise to ambiguity during interpretation. The criterion used to overcome ambiguity is that specificity should prevail over generality. The opposite would make the individual specific element declarations useless. A new mark-up language ccML is introduced that opens up the possibility of providing applications using the ISO/EN13606 RM with the necessary pragmatics information to be practical and realistic.

Learning and Development of Second and Foreign Language Pragmatics as a Higher-Order Language Skill: A Brief Overview of Relevant Theories. Research Report. ETS RR-16-35

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Timpe-Laughlin, Veronika

2016-01-01

The development of effective second and foreign (L2) language learning materials needs to be grounded in two types of theories: (a) a theory of language and language use and (b) a theory of language learning. Both are equally important, insofar as an effective learning environment requires an understanding of the knowledge, skills, and abilities…

[Pragmatics in autism spectrum disorder: recent developments].

PubMed

Kissine, Mikhail; Clin, Elise; de Villiers, Jessica

2016-10-01

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by primary pragmatic difficulties, out of step with verbal and non-verbal developmental level. This selective survey paper addresses three recent domains of research on pragmatic functions in autism. First, we provide an up-to-date discussion of how lack of sensitivity to social cues impacts early acquisition of words. Second, we review recent findings on the comprehension of non-literal language, pointing to a more refined clinical reality. Third, we describe recent developments in the study of conversation skills in autism. © 2016 médecine/sciences – Inserm.

Communication Impairment in the AIDS Dementia Complex (ADC): A Case Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCabe, Patricia J.; Sheard, Christine; Code, Chris

2008-01-01

This article details three examinations of communication impairment over 13 months in a man with AIDS dementia complex (ADC) and compares his performance on standardised language testing with that of two control participants. He had mild language impairments as measured on standardised tests but was severely impaired in pragmatic language skills.…

Environmental Influence on Language Acquisition: Comparing Second and Foreign Language Acquisition of Swedish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hakansson, Gisela; Norrby, Catrin

2010-01-01

This article explores the influence of the learning environment on the second language acquisition of Swedish. Data were collected longitudinally over 1 year from 35 university students studying Swedish in Malmo, Sweden, and in Melbourne, Australia. Three areas were investigated: grammar, pragmatics, and lexicon. The development of grammar was…

The Extended Language Network: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies on Text Comprehension

PubMed Central

Ferstl, Evelyn C.; Neumann, Jane; Bogler, Carsten; von Cramon, D. Yves

2010-01-01

Language processing in context requires more than merely comprehending words and sentences. Important subprocesses are inferences for bridging successive utterances, the use of background knowledge and discourse context, and pragmatic interpretations. The functional neuroanatomy of these text comprehension processes has only recently been investigated. Although there is evidence for right-hemisphere contributions, reviews have implicated the left lateral prefrontal cortex, left temporal regions beyond Wernicke’s area, and the left dorso-medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) for text comprehension. To objectively confirm this extended language network and to evaluate the respective contribution of right hemisphere regions, meta-analyses of 23 neuroimaging studies are reported here. The analyses used replicator dynamics based on activation likelihood estimates. Independent of the baseline, the anterior temporal lobes (aTL) were active bilaterally. In addition, processing of coherent compared with incoherent text engaged the dmPFC and the posterior cingulate cortex. Right hemisphere activations were seen most notably in the analysis of contrasts testing specific subprocesses, such as metaphor comprehension. These results suggest task dependent contributions for the lateral PFC and the right hemisphere. Most importantly, they confirm the role of the aTL and the fronto-medial cortex for language processing in context. PMID:17557297

Empathy matters: ERP evidence for inter-individual differences in social language processing

PubMed Central

Van Berkum, Jos J.A.; Bastiaansen, Marcel C.M.; Tesink, Cathelijne M.J.Y.; Kos, Miriam; Buitelaar, Jan K.; Hagoort, Peter

2012-01-01

When an adult claims he cannot sleep without his teddy bear, people tend to react surprised. Language interpretation is, thus, influenced by social context, such as who the speaker is. The present study reveals inter-individual differences in brain reactivity to social aspects of language. Whereas women showed brain reactivity when stereotype-based inferences about a speaker conflicted with the content of the message, men did not. This sex difference in social information processing can be explained by a specific cognitive trait, one’s ability to empathize. Individuals who empathize to a greater degree revealed larger N400 effects (as well as a larger increase in γ-band power) to socially relevant information. These results indicate that individuals with high-empathizing skills are able to rapidly integrate information about the speaker with the content of the message, as they make use of voice-based inferences about the speaker to process language in a top-down manner. Alternatively, individuals with lower empathizing skills did not use information about social stereotypes in implicit sentence comprehension, but rather took a more bottom-up approach to the processing of these social pragmatic sentences. PMID:21148175

Using Facebook to Improve L2 German Students' Socio-Pragmatic Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harting, Axel

2017-01-01

This study explores ways of using Facebook as a tool to improve the pragmatic competence of students of German as a foreign language in Japan. Nine students of a textbook-based German class (CFER level A2) voluntarily participated in this blended learning approach, in which they were assigned weekly online tasks aimed at eliciting speech acts…

All Together Now: Disentangling Semantics and Pragmatics with "Together" in Child and Adult Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Syrett, Kristen; Musolino, Julien

2016-01-01

The way in which an event is packaged linguistically can be informative about the number of participants in the event and the nature of their participation. At times, however, a sentence is ambiguous, and pragmatic information weighs in to favor one interpretation over another. Whereas adults may readily know how to pick up on such cues to…

Hey, you! The Germans! Using Literary Pragmatics to Teach Language as Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warner, Chantelle

2009-01-01

In this paper the author outlines a sample lesson that has been developed for second- or third-year German students using the short satirical vignette "Hurra, ich lebe in Deutschland" from the Turkish-German author Sinasi Dikmen's book of the same name. The lesson draws heavily from literary pragmatics, an area of applied linguistics which studies…

Learning How to Speak: Pronunciation, Pragmatics and Practicalities in the Classroom and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yates, Lynda

2017-01-01

That learners who want to develop good pragmatically-appropriate speaking skills in a language also need to develop good pronunciation is beyond dispute, and yet research continues to report that both areas still have low visibility in the curriculum and are often treated as poor relations in the classroom. Many teachers are still wary of what…

Correlations between Taiwanese University EFL Learners' Frequency of Use of Language Learning Strategies and Their Pragmatic Awareness and Grammatical Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Wei-Teh

2010-01-01

The problem: Many previous studies have pointed out that EFL learners tend to face communication breakdowns with native speakers because their traditional classroom and textbooks are not able to provide learners with sufficient pragmatically appropriate input (Bardovi-Harlig, 1996; Rose, 1994, 1997). On the contrary, they are exposed to rich input…

When the truth isn’t too hard to handle: An event-related potential study on the pragmatics of negation

PubMed Central

Nieuwland, Mante S.; Kuperberg, Gina R.

2011-01-01

Our brains rapidly map incoming language onto what we hold to be true. Yet there are claims that such integration and verification processes are delayed in sentences containing negation words like ‘not’. However, research studies have often confounded whether a statement is true and whether it is natural thing to say during normal communication. In an event-related potential (ERP) experiment, we aimed to disentangle effects of truth-value and pragmatic licensing on the comprehension of affirmative and negated real-world statements. As in affirmative sentences, false words elicited a larger N400 ERP than true words in pragmatically licensed negated sentences (e.g., “In moderation, drinking red wine isn’t bad/good…”), whereas true and false words elicited similar responses in unlicensed negated sentences (e.g., “A baby bunny’s fur isn’t very hard/soft…”). These results suggest that negation poses no principled obstacle for readers to immediately relate incoming words to what they hold to be true. PMID:19121125

A Comprehensive Pedagogical Framework to Develop Pragmatics in the Foreign Language Classroom: The 6Rs Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martínez-Flor, Alicia; Usó-Juan, Esther

2006-01-01

To prepare learners for successful communication is nowadays one of the main goals of teaching practices of lecturers of English as a Second (ESL) or Foreign (EFL) language in the University setting. Consequently, language teaching needs to focus not only on linguistic or strategic aspects of the target language, but also on the development of the…

Language Use, Language Ability, and Language Development: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with the following topics: sex appropriate and sex inappropriate language; lexical retrieval and perceptual errors; naming deficits in anomia and aphasia; developmental discourse; pragmatic information and…

[Qualifying language disorders of schizophrenia through the speech therapists' assessment].

PubMed

Boucard, C; Laffy-Beaufils, B

2008-06-01

This study investigates a comprehensive assessment of language disorders in order to identify impaired and unaffected language abilities of individuals with schizophrenia. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to demonstrate the importance of the role of speech therapists in the treatment of schizophrenia. Speech therapy is especially thought to treat language disorders. However, to date, speech therapists have not been solicited in the treatment of schizophrenia, despite growing evidence supporting that schizophrenia is characterized by cognitive disorders such as impairments in memory, attention, executive functioning and language. In this article, we discuss the fact that elements of language and cognition are interactively affected and that cognition influences language. We then demonstrate that language impairments can be treated in the same way as neurological language impairments (cerebrovascular disease, brain injury), in order to reduce their functional outcome. Schizophrenia affects the pragmatic component of language with a major negative outcome in daily living skills [Champagne M, Stip E, Joanette Y. Social cognition deficit in schizophrenia: accounting for pragmatic deficits in communication abilities? Curr Psychiatry Rev:2006;(2):309-315]. The results of our comprehensive assessment also provide a basis for the design of a care plan. For this, subjects with schizophrenia were examined for language comprehension and language production with a focus on pragmatic abilities. In neurology, standardized tests are available that have been designed specifically to assess language functions. However, no such tests are available in psychiatry, so we gathered assessments widely used in neurology and examined the more relevant skills. In this article, each test we chose is described and particular attention is paid to the information they provided on impaired language abilities in schizophrenia. In this manner, we provide an accurate characterization of schizophrenia-associated language impairments and offer a solid foundation for rehabilitation. Current research makes connections between schizophrenia and other neurological disorders concerning language. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to explore these connections to complete our investigations. The strategies we designed are aimed at enabling a subject with schizophrenia to improve his/her language skills. We support the idea that such improvement could be reached by speech therapy. We conclude that speech therapists can play an important role in the non pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia, by selecting appropriate interventions that capitalize on spared abilities to compensate for impaired abilities.

Pragmatic inferences in high-functioning adults with autism and Asperger syndrome.

PubMed

Pijnacker, Judith; Hagoort, Peter; Buitelaar, Jan; Teunisse, Jan-Pieter; Geurts, Bart

2009-04-01

Although people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have severe problems with pragmatic aspects of language, little is known about their pragmatic reasoning. We carried out a behavioral study on high-functioning adults with autistic disorder (n = 11) and Asperger syndrome (n = 17) and matched controls (n = 28) to investigate whether they are capable of deriving scalar implicatures, which are generally considered to be pragmatic inferences. Participants were presented with underinformative sentences like "Some sparrows are birds". This sentence is logically true, but pragmatically inappropriate if the scalar implicature "Not all sparrows are birds" is derived. The present findings indicate that the combined ASD group was just as likely as controls to derive scalar implicatures, yet there was a difference between participants with autistic disorder and Asperger syndrome, suggesting a potential differentiation between these disorders in pragmatic reasoning. Moreover, our results suggest that verbal intelligence is a constraint for task performance in autistic disorder but not in Asperger syndrome.

Meaning matters: a clinician's/student's guide to general sign theory and its applicability in clinical settings.

PubMed

Oller, Stephen D

2005-01-01

The pragmatic mapping process and its variants have proven effective in second language learning and teaching. The goal of this paper is to show that the same process applies in teaching and intervention with disordered populations. A secondary goal, ultimately more important, is to give clinicians, teachers, and other educators a tool-kit, or a framework, from which they can evaluate and implement interventions. What is offered is an introduction to a general theory of signs and some examples of how it can be applied in treating communication disorders. (1) Readers will be able to relate the three theoretical consistency requirements to language teaching and intervention. (2) Readers will be introduced to a general theory of signs that provides a basis for evaluating and implementing interventions.

Pragmatics of the Development of Personal Identity in Adolescents in the Latin American Context.

PubMed

Tapia, Javier; Rojas, Adrián; Picado, Karol

2017-03-01

The present work proposes a pragmatic perspective of the development of personal identity. Such perspective is based on a unifying vision that incorporates the contribution of communicative pragmatics and becomes aware of the contribution of semiotics to psychology, without leaving aside the eriksonian point of view and other significant contributions in the field. The article defines identity in adolescence from a development approach, and adopts a systemic perspective concerning the insertion of adolescents in their context of formation as individuals. It then proposes a way to understand identity from a pragmatic-communicative perspective. Finally, it introduces two communicative use contexts from which personal identity can emerge, showing the importance of communication and language in the formation and development of identity.

More than "Hello" and "Bye-Bye": Opening and Closing the Online Chats in Mandarin Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, De

2014-01-01

Reporting on a descriptive study on the first semester Chinese language learners' openings and closings in online chats with age-peer native speakers of Chinese, this paper demonstrates the great promise that telecollaboration holds for foreign language education, and argues for an increasing role of pragmatics in Chinese language instruction, and…

The Cross-linguistic Development of Address Form Use in Telecollaborative Language Learning: Two Case Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belz, Julie A.; Kinginger, Celeste

2002-01-01

Explores the influences of the telecollaborative learning environment on the development of second language (L2) pragmatic competence in foreign language learning from a sociocultural perspective. Focuses on "microgenesis," or development of the T/V distinction in pronouns of address as a test case representative of broader L2 pragmatic…

Pragmatics in the Post-TESL Certificate Course "Language Teaching for Employment"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartel, Joan

2013-01-01

For those immigrants to Canada who need some language training in order to access employment in their field, occupational ESL classes have been available in Ontario for several years. Recent additions to Occupation-Specific Language Training and Bridging programs, as well as a new emphasis on work-related content in LINC classes, have created a…

Social Communication Disorder outside Autism? A Diagnostic Classification Approach to Delineating Pragmatic Language Impairment, High Functioning Autism and Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Jenny; Adams, Catherine; Lockton, Elaine; Green, Jonathan

2013-01-01

Background: Developmental disorders of language and communication present considerable diagnostic challenges due to overlapping of symptomatology and uncertain aetiology. We aimed to further elucidate the behavioural and linguistic profile associated with impairments of social communication occurring outside of an autism diagnosis. Methods: Six to…

Communicative Competence in Parents of Children with Autism and Parents of Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruser, Tilla F.; Arin, Deborah; Dowd, Michael; Putnam, Sara; Winklosky, Brian; Rosen-Sheidley, Beth; Piven, Joseph; Tomblin, Bruce; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Folstein, Susan

2007-01-01

While the primary language deficit in autism has been thought to be pragmatic, and in specific language impairment (SLI) structural, recent research suggests phenomenological and possibly genetic overlap between the two syndromes. To compare communicative competence in parents of children with autism, SLI, and down syndrome (DS), we used a…

Language Pathology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, Paul

1989-01-01

Discusses the role of linguistics in the investigation of language disorders, focusing on the application of phonetics, descriptive grammatic frameworks, grammatical theory, and concepts from semantics and pragmatics to a variety of disorders and their remediation. Some trends and examples from the field of clinical linguistics are discussed. (GLR)

ccML, a new mark-up language to improve ISO/EN 13606-based electronic health record extracts practical edition

PubMed Central

Sánchez-de-Madariaga, Ricardo; Muñoz, Adolfo; Cáceres, Jesús; Somolinos, Roberto; Pascual, Mario; Martínez, Ignacio; Salvador, Carlos H; Monteagudo, José Luis

2013-01-01

Objective The objective of this paper is to introduce a new language called ccML, designed to provide convenient pragmatic information to applications using the ISO/EN13606 reference model (RM), such as electronic health record (EHR) extracts editors. EHR extracts are presently built using the syntactic and semantic information provided in the RM and constrained by archetypes. The ccML extra information enables the automation of the medico-legal context information edition, which is over 70% of the total in an extract, without modifying the RM information. Materials and Methods ccML is defined using a W3C XML schema file. Valid ccML files complement the RM with additional pragmatics information. The ccML language grammar is defined using formal language theory as a single-type tree grammar. The new language is tested using an EHR extracts editor application as proof-of-concept system. Results Seven ccML PVCodes (predefined value codes) are introduced in this grammar to cope with different realistic EHR edition situations. These seven PVCodes have different interpretation strategies, from direct look up in the ccML file itself, to more complex searches in archetypes or system precomputation. Discussion The possibility to declare generic types in ccML gives rise to ambiguity during interpretation. The criterion used to overcome ambiguity is that specificity should prevail over generality. The opposite would make the individual specific element declarations useless. Conclusion A new mark-up language ccML is introduced that opens up the possibility of providing applications using the ISO/EN13606 RM with the necessary pragmatics information to be practical and realistic. PMID:23019241

Study Abroad and Interlanguage Pragmatic Development in Request and Apology Speech Acts among Iranian Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khorshidi, Hassan Rasouli

2013-01-01

This research study empirically investigated the impact of study abroad context on L2 learners' pragmatic development compared with study at home group in Iran. For the study abroad group the participants were selected from the Iranian students who registered in a six-month program in language institutes in India (Mysore) and for the study at home…

Language and the Law: A Case for Linguistic Pragmatics. Sociolinguistic Working Paper Number 94.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prince, Ellen F.

The emergence of a subfield of linguistics, linguistic pragmatics, whose goal is to discover the principles by which a hearer or reader understands a text or can construct a model based on the text, given the sentence-level competence to parse the text's sentences and assign logical forms to them, is discussed in the context of a court case in…

Realization of Speech Acts of Refusals and Pragmatic Competence by Turkish EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Turgay; Burgucu-Tazegül, Assiye

2016-01-01

The purpose of the present study is to examine a) how lower-intermediate and upper-intermediate level Turkish learners of English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) realize refusals in English, b) the differences between native and non-native speakers of English in the use of refusals, and c) if L2 proficiency affects possible pragmatic transfer or not.…

Are language and social communication intact in children with congenital visual impairment at school age?

PubMed

Tadić, Valerie; Pring, Linda; Dale, Naomi

2010-06-01

Development of children with congenital visual impairment (VI) has been associated with vulnerable socio-communicative outcomes often bearing striking similarities to those of sighted children with autism.(1) To date, very little is known about language and social communication in children with VI of normal intelligence. We examined the presentation of language and social communication of 15 children with VI and normal-range verbal intelligence, age 6-12 years, using a standardised language assessment and parental reports of everyday social and communicative behaviours. Their profiles were compared to those of typically developing sighted children of similar age and verbal ability. Compared to their sighted peers, and relative to their own good and potentially superior structural language skills, children with VI showed significantly poorer use of language for social purposes. Pragmatic language weaknesses were a part of a broader socio-communicative profile of difficulties, present in a substantial proportion of these children and consistent with the pattern found in sighted children with autism. There are ongoing socio-communicative and pragmatic language difficulties in children with congenital VI at school age, despite their good intellectual abilities and advanced linguistic skills. Further research is required to unpack the underlying causes and factors maintaining this vulnerability in such children.

Schizophrenia and the structure of language: the linguist's view.

PubMed

Covington, Michael A; He, Congzhou; Brown, Cati; Naçi, Lorina; McClain, Jonathan T; Fjordbak, Bess Sirmon; Semple, James; Brown, John

2005-09-01

Patients with schizophrenia often display unusual language impairments. This is a wide ranging critical review of the literature on language in schizophrenia since the 19th century. We survey schizophrenic language level by level, from phonetics through phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. There are at least two kinds of impairment (perhaps not fully distinct): thought disorder, or failure to maintain a discourse plan, and schizophasia, comprising various dysphasia-like impairments such as clanging, neologism, and unintelligible utterances. Thought disorder appears to be primarily a disruption of executive function and pragmatics, perhaps with impairment of the syntax-semantics interface; schizophasia involves disruption at other levels. Phonetics is also often abnormal (manifesting as flat intonation or unusual voice quality), but phonological structure, morphology, and syntax are normal or nearly so (some syntactic impairments have been demonstrated). Access to the lexicon is clearly impaired, manifesting as stilted speech, word approximation, and neologism. Clanging (glossomania) is straightforwardly explainable as distraction by self-monitoring. Recent research has begun to relate schizophrenia, which is partly genetic, to the genetic endowment that makes human language possible.

Context and the Psychoeducational Assessment of Hearing Impaired Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ray, Steven

1989-01-01

This discussion of psychoeducational assessment of hearing-impaired students and the influence of language competence focuses on: the nature of the interaction between cognition and language, the nonpragmatic nature of traditional assessments, approaches to reducing intelligence test bias, pragmatic violations in intellectual assessment, and…

A long-term predictive validity study: can the CDI Short Form be used to predict language and early literacy skills four years later?

PubMed

Can, Dilara Deniz; Ginsburg-Block, Marika; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathryn

2013-09-01

This longitudinal study examined the predictive validity of the MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventories-Short Form (CDI-SF), a parent report questionnaire about children's language development (Fenson, Pethick, Renda, Cox, Dale & Reznick, 2000). Data were first gathered from parents on the CDI-SF vocabulary scores for seventy-six children (mean age=1 ; 10). Four years later (mean age=6 ; 1), children were assessed on language outcomes (expressive vocabulary, syntax, semantics and pragmatics) and code-related skills, including phonemic awareness, word recognition and decoding skills. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that early expressive vocabulary accounted for 17% of the variance in picture vocabulary, 11% of the variance in syntax, and 7% of the variance in semantics, while not accounting for any variance in pragmatics in kindergarten. CDI-SF scores did not predict code-related skills in kindergarten. The importance of early vocabulary skills for later language development and CDI-SF as a valuable research tool are discussed.

Generating Natural Language Under Pragmatic Constraints.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-03-01

central issue, Carter’s loss. concentrating on ,more, pleasant aspects. But what would happen in an extreme case ’.’ what if you, a Carter supporter. are...In [Cohen 78], Cohen studied the effect of the hearer’s knowledge on the selection of appropriate speech act (say, REQUEST vs INFORM OF WANT...utterances is studied in [Clark & Carlson 81], [Clark & Murphy 82]; [Gibbs 79] and [Gibbs 81] discuss the effects of context on the processing of indirect

A Contrastive Survey of Speech Acts in Hong Kong Bilingual Legislative Texts: A Case Study of CO and SPR

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fu, Kefeng

2014-01-01

As one kind of the legislative language, the language of bilingual legislation possesses its specific characteristics: the two versions share the same authenticity and effect. Therefore, the contrastive analysis of this kind of language from the perspective of pragmatics is more persuasive and authoritative. In this paper, the author chooses Crime…

Differentiating Second Language Acquisition from Specific Learning Disability: An Observational Tool Assessing Dual Language Learners' Pragmatic Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farnsworth, Megan

2018-01-01

Overrepresentation of Dual Language Learners (DLLs) in special education remains a problem even after 40 years of inquiry. One factor is that the U.S. federal government has neither clearly explained the definition of Specific Learning Disability (SLD) nor operationally defined it to identify children for special education services. This lack of…

Refusing in a Foreign Language: An Investigation of Problems Encountered by Chinese Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Yuh-Fang

2011-01-01

Whereas the speech act of refusal is universal across language, the politeness value and the types of linguistic forms used to perform it vary across language and culture. The majority of the comparative pragmatic research findings were derived from one single source of data (i.e., either production data or perception data). Few attempts have been…

Imitation (Rather than Core Language) Predicts Pragmatic Development in Young Children with ASD: A Preliminary Longitudinal Study Using CDI Parental Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miniscalco, Carmela; Rudling, Maja; Råstam, Maria; Gillberg, Christopher; Johnels, Jakob Åsberg

2014-01-01

Background: Research in the last decades has clearly pointed to the important role of language and communicative level when trying to understand developmental trajectories in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Aims: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate whether (1) "core language skills", measured as…

The Meta-Pragmatic Discourses of Australian High School Students on Language, Migration and Belonging

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Starks, Donna; Willoughby, Louisa

2015-01-01

Recent years have seen a backlash against multiculturalism in many Western countries and increasing calls to restrict migration and citizenship rights to those who can pass language tests. This paper explores the sentiment of high school students who were born and raised in Australia towards issues of language and migration, including the need for…

Who Is Responsible for Understanding in a Conversation? A Contrastive Pragmatic Analysis of Utterances in Japanese and Korean

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Sumi

2012-01-01

Korean learners of the Japanese language and Japanese learners of the Korean language not only feel that it is easier to learn the respective foreign language, but also acquire Japanese and Korean faster than learners from other countries because of the grammatical similarity between Japanese and Korean. However, the similarity of grammatical…

Learning to Communicate in a Globalized World: To What Extent Do School Textbooks Facilitate the Development of Intercultural Pragmatic Competence?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Minh Thi Thuy

2011-01-01

Although a key component in English language teaching programs, English textbooks have been criticized for not offering classroom learners adequate opportunity for learning authentic language (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Grant and Starks, 2001; Wong, 2002; Vellenga, 2004). This is because instead of making use of language samples that native speakers…

The Role of Language Dominance in Cross-Linguistic Syntactic Influence: A Korean Child's Use of Null Subjects in Attriting English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Sang-Gu

2013-01-01

While Hulk and Muller (2000) predict that the direction of cross-linguistic syntactic influence is unidirectional when the construction involves syntax-pragmatics interface and surface overlap between two languages, they explicitly rule out language dominance as a factor involved. This study questions their latter claim and argues that the syntax…

Getting Your Speech Act Together: The Pragmatic Ability of Second Language Learners. Working Papers on Bilingualism, No. 17.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rintell, Ellen

A role-playing procedure for elicitation of speech acts was designed to study aspects of the communicative competence of second language learners, namely, their language variation with respect to deference when the age and sex of the addressee are systematically manipulated. Sixteen Spanish-speaking adult learners of English as a second language…

Technology and the Four Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blake, Robert

2016-01-01

Most L2 instructors implement their curriculum with an eye to improving the four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Absent in this vision of language are notions of pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and multicultural competencies. Although current linguistic theories posit a more complex, interactive, and integrated model of language,…

Student Mobility and Identity-Related Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinginger, C.

2015-01-01

This paper reviews some recent studies problematizing various aspects of identity in relation to mobile students' encounters with the social interactive and pragmatic dimensions of language. The paper will examine several salient demographic categories represented in the literature: nationality, 'foreigner' status, gender, age, and…

Second Language Acquisition and Schizophrenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dugan, James E.

2014-01-01

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder that results in language-related symptoms at various discourse levels, ranging from semantics (e.g. inventing words and producing nonsensical strands of similar-sounding words) to pragmatics and higher-level functioning (e.g. too little or too much information given to interlocutors, and tangential…

Training Pragmatic Language Skills through Alternate Strategies with a Blind Multiply Handicapped Child.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, C. J.; Johnson, C. J.

1988-01-01

A blind multiply handicapped preschooler was taught to respond appropriately to two adjacency pair types ("where question-answer" and "comment-acknowledgement"). The two alternative language acquisition strategies available to blind children were encouraged: echolalia to maintain communicative interactions and manual searching…

Narrative Skills of Children with Communication Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norbury, Courtenay Frazier; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2003-01-01

Background: Narrative assessment is sensitive to the communication impairments of children with specific language impairment and those with autistic spectrum disorders. Although both groups of children tend to show deficits in narrative, it is unclear whether these deficits are qualitatively different and how language and pragmatic ability may…

A Collaborative Naturalistic Service Delivery Program for Enhancing Pragmatic Language and Participation in Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demchick, Barbara B.; Day, Karen H.

2016-01-01

We describe a speech-language pathology and occupational therapy service delivery program for preschoolers with developmental delays and communication and related impairments. Key features included interprofessional collaboration; parent professional partnerships; naturalistic environment; opportunities for choice and control; use of a…

Impaired language abilities and white matter abnormalities in children born very preterm and/or very low birth weight

PubMed Central

Reidy, Natalie; Morgan, Angela; Thompson, Deanne K; Inder, Terrie E.; Doyle, Lex W; Anderson, Peter J

2012-01-01

Objectives To investigate language abilities in children born very preterm (VPT; <32 weeks’ gestational age (GA)) or very low birth weight (VLBW; <1500 g) at 7 years of age and compare their performances with children born at term, and to determine whether group differences could be explained by cerebral white matter abnormality on neonatal MRI. Study design A cohort of 198 children born <30 weeks’ GA and/or <1250 g, and 70 term controls were examined. White matter abnormalities were rated quantitatively on brain MRI at term-equivalent age. Language was assessed at age 7 years using standardized language tests. Differences between groups were tested in the five language sub-domains of phonological awareness, semantics, grammar, discourse, and pragmatics. A mediation effect was tested between birth group, white matter abnormality, and language sub-domains. Results The VPT/VLBW group performed significantly worse than controls on all language sub-domains (all p <.001). White matter abnormality mediated the effect of group differences on phonological awareness, and partly mediated this effect for semantics, grammar and discourse. White matter abnormality was not significantly associated with pragmatics (p = .13). Conclusions Language is an important area of concern in children born VPT/VLBW. Neonatal white matter abnormality is an important predictor of outcome; however, different language abilities are differentially associated with neonatal white matter abnormality. PMID:23158026

Influence Of Implantation Age On School-Age Language Performance In Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users

PubMed Central

Tobey, Emily A.; Thal, Donna; Niparko, John K.; Eisenberg, Laurie S.; Quittner, Alexandra L.; Wang, Nae-Yuh

2013-01-01

Objective This study examined specific spoken language abilities of 160 children with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss followed prospectively 4, 5, or 6 years after cochlear implantation. Study sample Ninety-eight children received implants before 2.5 years, and 62 children received implants between 2.5 and 5 years of age. Design Language was assessed using four subtests of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL). Standard scores were evaluated by contrasting age of implantation and follow-up test time. Results Children implanted under 2.5 years of age achieved higher standard scores than children with older ages of implantation for expressive vocabulary, expressive syntax, and pragmatic judgments. However, in both groups, some children performed more than two standard deviations below the standardization group mean, while some scored at or well above the mean. Conclusions Younger ages of implantation are associated with higher levels of performance, while later ages of implantation are associated with higher probabilities of continued language delays, particularly within subdomains of grammar and pragmatics. Longitudinal data from this cohort study demonstrate that after 6 years of implant experience, there is large variability in language outcomes associated with modifiers of rates of language learning that differ as children with implants age. PMID:23448124

Comprehension of Sarcasm, Metaphor and Simile in Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Godbee, Kali; Porter, Melanie

2013-01-01

Background: Although people with Williams syndrome (WS) are often characterized as friendly and sociable with relatively good general language abilities, there is emerging evidence of pragmatic difficulties and trouble comprehending aspects of non-literal language. Aims: The main aim was to investigate the comprehension of sarcasm, metaphor and…

The Syntax and Pragmatics of Fronting in Germanic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Light, Caitlin

2012-01-01

Across the Germanic language family, we find a type of movement traditionally termed "topicalization," which may be realized in Germanic languages which possess the so-called Verb-Second (V2) constraint, as well as those without it. I will henceforward call this phenomenon "fronting" to avoid theoretical assumptions. This…

Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education in US Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeCapua, Andrea; Marshall, Helaine W.

2010-01-01

Considerable attention has focused on the challenges of English language learners without age-appropriate formal education and first language literacy. They are viewed here as students with high-context learning experiences and expectations (Hall in Beyond culture, Anchor, New York, 1976), and a collectivistic orientation, with a pragmatic, rather…

Grammaticality Judgments in Autism: Deviance or Delay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Bennetto, Loisa

2009-01-01

Language in autism has been the subject of intense interest, because communication deficits are central to the disorder, and because autism serves as an arena for testing theories of language acquisition. High-functioning older children with autism are often considered to have intact grammatical abilities, despite pragmatic impairments. Given the…

Socialization and Language for Students with Hearing Impairments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beattie, Rod G.

1998-01-01

Addresses the importance of teaching students with hearing impairments zero-order pragmatic-language competencies (PLCs), those communicative and interactive behaviors necessary in everyday social situations to avoid being seen as deviant. Among PLCs are taking turns, initiating or adding to a conversation, and making repairs when necessary. Many…

The Pragmatic Skills of Learning Disabled Children: A Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dudley-Marling, Curtis

1985-01-01

Studies are reviewed in four topic areas: (1) learning disabled (LD) students' spontaneous use of language; (2) their ability to adapt language to listener characteristics; (3) effectiveness of their communications; and (4) their ability to fulfill listener responsibilities. Noted are methodological flaws which cast doubt on implications for…

Longitudinal Profiles of Expressive Vocabulary, Syntax and Pragmatic Language in Boys with Fragile X Syndrome or Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Gary E.; Losh, Molly; Estigarribia, Bruno; Sideris, John; Roberts, Joanne

2013-01-01

Background: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Down syndrome (DS) are the two leading genetic causes of intellectual disability, and FXS is the most common known genetic condition associated with autism. Both FXS and DS are associated with significant language impairment, but little is known about expressive language across domains over time or the role…

Restrictive vs. non-restrictive composition: a magnetoencephalography study

PubMed Central

Leffel, Timothy; Lauter, Miriam; Westerlund, Masha; Pylkkänen, Liina

2014-01-01

Recent research on the brain mechanisms underlying language processing has implicated the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) as a central region for the composition of simple phrases. Because these studies typically present their critical stimuli without contextual information, the sensitivity of LATL responses to contextual factors is unknown. In this magnetoencephalography (MEG) study, we employed a simple question-answer paradigm to manipulate whether a prenominal adjective or determiner is interpreted restrictively, i.e., as limiting the set of entities under discussion. Our results show that the LATL is sensitive to restriction, with restrictive composition eliciting higher responses than non-restrictive composition. However, this effect was only observed when the restricting element was a determiner, adjectival stimuli showing the opposite pattern, which we hypothesise to be driven by the special pragmatic properties of non-restrictive adjectives. Overall, our results demonstrate a robust sensitivity of the LATL to high level contextual and potentially also pragmatic factors. PMID:25379512

Physician-patient argumentation and communication, comparing Toulmin's model, pragma-dialectics, and American sociolinguistics.

PubMed

Rivera, Francisco Javier Uribe; Artmann, Elizabeth

2015-12-01

This article discusses the application of theories of argumentation and communication to the field of medicine. Based on a literature review, the authors compare Toulmin's model, pragma-dialectics, and the work of Todd and Fisher, derived from American sociolinguistics. These approaches were selected because they belong to the pragmatic field of language. The main results were: pragma-dialectics characterizes medical reasoning more comprehensively, highlighting specific elements of the three disciplines of argumentation: dialectics, rhetoric, and logic; Toulmin's model helps substantiate the declaration of diagnostic and therapeutic hypotheses, and as part of an interpretive medicine, approximates the pragma-dialectical approach by including dialectical elements in the process of formulating arguments; Fisher and Todd's approach allows characterizing, from a pragmatic analysis of speech acts, the degree of symmetry/asymmetry in the doctor-patient relationship, while arguing the possibility of negotiating treatment alternatives.

Comparison of Grammar in Neurodevelopmental Disorders: The Case of Binding in Williams Syndrome and Autism With and Without Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Modyanova, Nadya; Wexler, Ken

2013-01-01

This study investigates whether distinct neurodevelopmental disorders show distinct patterns of impairments in particular grammatical abilities and the relation of those grammatical patterns to general language delays and intellectual disabilities. We studied two disorders (autism and Williams syndrome [WS]) and two distinct properties (Principle A that governs reflexives and Principle B that, together with its associated pragmatic rule, governs pronouns) of the binding module of grammar. These properties are known to have markedly different courses of acquisition in typical development. We compare the knowledge of binding in children with autism with language impairment (ALI) and those with normal language (ALN) to that of children with WS, matched on age to the ALN group, and on age and nonverbal mental age (MA) to the ALI group, as well as to two groups of typically developing (TD) controls, matched on nonverbal MA to ALI and ALN groups. Our results reveal a remarkably different pattern of comprehension of personal pronouns and reflexives in ALI as opposed to ALN, WS, and two groups of TD controls. All five groups demonstrated an equal delay in their comprehension of personal pronouns, in line with widely reported delays in TD literature, argued to be due to delayed pragmatic abilities. However, and most strikingly, the ALI group also showed a pronounced difficulty in comprehension of reflexive pronouns, and particularly of the knowledge that the antecedent of a reflexive must c-command it. The revealed pattern confirms the existence of a particular impairment concerning Principle A in this module of grammar, unrelated to general language delays or cognitive deficits generally present in a large portion of individuals with autism as well as WS, or to general pragmatic deficits, known to be particularly prevalent in the population with autism. PMID:25170241

The influence of scale structure and sex on parental reports of children’s social (pragmatic) communication symptoms

PubMed Central

Ash, Andrea C.; Redmond, Sean M.; Timler, Geralyn R.; Kean, Jacob

2017-01-01

The addition of social (pragmatic) communication disorder [S(P)CD] to the DSM-5 taxonomy has left clinicians and researchers searching for appropriate diagnostic measures. Factor analysis procedures examined the extent to which S(P)CD symptoms presented within the Children’s Communication Checklist-Second Edition (CCC-2) represented a unique construct and whether these factors were influenced by children’s sex. Parents of 208 children (males = 125 and females = 83) from a community-based sample completed the CCC-2. Two pragmatic scores from the CCC-2 were analysed as follows: the social interaction difference index (SIDI) and a pragmatic composite from the original CCC (PC-5). Factor analysis failed to find a unique factor structure for either pragmatic composite. Analyses uncovered different factor structures for the CCC-2 SIDI and PC-5 composites and for boys and girls. S(P)CD represents a complex combination of symptoms that are poorly differentiated from other language and socioemotional behavioural difficulties. PMID:27936954

Pragmatic failure, mind style and characterisation in fiction about autism

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

This article presents an analysis of different types of pragmatic failure in the interactional behaviour of the ‘autistic’ protagonists of three recent novels. Three main types of pragmatic failure occur across all three novels: problems with informativeness and relevance in conversational contributions; problems with face management resulting in unintentional impolite behaviours; and problems with the interpretation of figurative language. These problems are salient and frequent enough to contribute to the projection of distinctive mind styles, and more generally to the characterisation of the protagonists as individuals with communication and socialisation difficulties that are likely to both reflect and reinforce general perceptions of autism-spectrum disorders. It is also argued that pragmatic failure contributes to the potential defamiliarisation of ‘normal’ communication, which is presented as being fraught with obscurity, ambiguity and insincerity. PMID:29710882

All Together Now: Disentangling Semantics and Pragmatics with Together in Child and Adult Language

PubMed Central

Syrett, Kristen; Musolino, Julien

2015-01-01

The way in which an event is packaged linguistically can be informative about the number of participants in the event and the nature of their participation. At times, however, a sentence is ambiguous, and pragmatic information weighs in to favor one interpretation over another. Whereas adults may readily know how to pick up on such cues to meaning, children – who are generally naïve to such pragmatic nuances – may diverge and access a broader range of interpretations, or one disfavored by adults. A number of cases come to us from a now well-established body of research on scalar implicatures and scopal ambiguity. Here, we complement this previous work with a previously uninvestigated example of the semantic-pragmatic divide in language development arising from the interpretation of sentences with pluralities and together. Sentences such as Two boys lifted a block (together) allow for either a Collective or a Distributive interpretation (one pushing event vs. two spatiotemporally coordinated events). We show experimentally that children allow both interpretations in sentences with together, whereas adults rule out the Distributive interpretation without further contextual motivation. However, children appear to be guided by their semantics in the readings they access, since they do not allow readings that are semantically barred. We argue that they are unaware of the pragmatic information adults have at their fingertips, such as the conversational implicatures arising from the presence of a modifier, the probability of its occurrence being used to signal a particular interpretation among a set of alternatives, and knowledge of the possible lexical alternatives. PMID:27212871

All Together Now: Disentangling Semantics and Pragmatics with Together in Child and Adult Language.

PubMed

Syrett, Kristen; Musolino, Julien

The way in which an event is packaged linguistically can be informative about the number of participants in the event and the nature of their participation. At times, however, a sentence is ambiguous, and pragmatic information weighs in to favor one interpretation over another. Whereas adults may readily know how to pick up on such cues to meaning, children - who are generally naïve to such pragmatic nuances - may diverge and access a broader range of interpretations, or one disfavored by adults. A number of cases come to us from a now well-established body of research on scalar implicatures and scopal ambiguity. Here, we complement this previous work with a previously uninvestigated example of the semantic-pragmatic divide in language development arising from the interpretation of sentences with pluralities and together . Sentences such as Two boys lifted a block (together) allow for either a Collective or a Distributive interpretation (one pushing event vs. two spatiotemporally coordinated events). We show experimentally that children allow both interpretations in sentences with together , whereas adults rule out the Distributive interpretation without further contextual motivation. However, children appear to be guided by their semantics in the readings they access, since they do not allow readings that are semantically barred. We argue that they are unaware of the pragmatic information adults have at their fingertips, such as the conversational implicatures arising from the presence of a modifier, the probability of its occurrence being used to signal a particular interpretation among a set of alternatives, and knowledge of the possible lexical alternatives.

Neural evidence that utterance-processing entails mentalizing: the case of irony.

PubMed

Spotorno, Nicola; Koun, Eric; Prado, Jérôme; Van Der Henst, Jean-Baptiste; Noveck, Ira A

2012-10-15

It is now well established that communicators interpret others' mental states through what has been called "Theory of Mind" (ToM). From a linguistic-pragmatics perspective, this mentalizing ability is considered critical because it is assumed that the linguistic code in all utterances underdetermines the speaker's meaning, leaving a vital role for ToM to fill the gap. From a neuroscience perspective, understanding others' intentions has been shown to activate a neural ToM network that includes the right and left temporal parietal junction (rTPJ, lTPJ), the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the precuneus (PC). Surprisingly, however, there are no studies - to our knowledge - that aim to uncover a direct, on-line link between language processing and ToM through neuroimaging. This is why we focus on verbal irony, an obviously pragmatic phenomenon that compels a listener to detect the speaker's (dissociated, mocking) attitude (Wilson, 2009). In the present fMRI investigation, we compare participants' comprehension of 18 target sentences as contexts make them either ironic or literal. Consider an opera singer who tells her interlocutor: "Tonight we gave a superb performance!" when the performance in question was clearly awful (making the statement ironic) or very good (making the statement literal). We demonstrate that the ToM network becomes active while a participant is understanding verbal irony. Moreover, we demonstrate - through Psychophysiological Interactions (PPI) analyses - that ToM activity is directly linked with language comprehension processes. The paradigm, its predictions, and the reported results contrast dramatically with those from seven prior fMRI studies on irony. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluating Dialogue Competence in Naturally Occurring Child-Child Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naerland, Terje

2011-01-01

The principal aim of this paper is to contribute to the pursuit of evaluating pragmatic language competence in preschool years by observation-based data. Initially, the relations between age and language development measured as mean length of utterance (MLU) and three dialogue skills are described. The occurrences of "focus on the dialogue…

In Early Childhood: What's Language about?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mozere, Liane

2007-01-01

This paper argues that in daycare centres in France, where children are cared for from four months to age three, the competence of female staff members is usually denied and unvalued vis a vis the expert opinions. The paper highlights empirical research on early childhood and gender, providing pragmatic access to children's languages of desire, a…

The Syntax-Pragmatics Interface in Language Loss: Covert Restructuring of Aspect in Heritage Russian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laleko, Oksana Vladislavovna

2010-01-01

Heritage grammars, linguistic varieties emerging in the context of intergenerational language loss, are known to diverge from the corresponding full-fledged baseline varieties in principled and systematic ways, as typically illustrated by errors made by heritage speakers in production. This dissertation examines "covert" restructuring of aspect in…

Contexts and Pragmatics Learning: Problems and Opportunities of the Study Abroad Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taguchi, Naoko

2018-01-01

Despite different epistemologies and assumptions, all theories in second language (L2) acquisition emphasize the centrality of context in understanding L2 acquisition. Under the assumption that language emerges from use in context, the cognitivist approach focuses on distributions and properties of input to infer both learning objects and process…

Pragmatic Functions in Late Talkers: A 1-Year Follow-Up Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacRoy-Higgins, Michelle; Kliment, Sarah

2017-01-01

This study analyzed spontaneous language samples of three-year-olds with a history of expressive language delay (late talkers) and age-matched controls using Dore's Conversational Acts analysis (1978) and Mean Length of Utterance (MLU; Brown, 1973). Differences were observed between groups in utterances classified as organizational device and…

Mobile Seamless Technology Enhanced CSL Oral Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lan, Yu-Ju; Lin, Yen-Ting

2016-01-01

The current study aimed at investigating how mobile seamless technology can be used to enhance the pragmatic competence of learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL). 34 overseas CSL learners participated in this study. They were randomly assigned into two groups: the classroom group, executing language tasks in fake contexts in a traditional…

In Search of a New Paradigm for Teaching English as an International Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canagarajah, Suresh

2014-01-01

In the context of more diverse communicative practices and social relations in globalization, scholars are increasingly defining English as constituting socially constructed situational norms in specific contexts of interaction, and not a homogeneous language or even discrete varieties of English. This shift requires treating pragmatics and not…

Mentoring Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, Lecturers, and Adjunct Faculty. Issues in Language Program Direction: A Series in Annual Volumes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rifkin, Benjamin, Ed.

This book includes the following chapters: "Historical, Theoretical, and Pragmatic Perspectives on Mentoring" (H. Jay Siskin, with Jim Davis); "New Paradigms, Old Practices: Disciplinary Tensions in TA Training" (Elizabeth Guthrie); "The Professional Development of Highly Experienced and Less Experienced Teachers: Meeting Diverse Needs" (Elizabeth…

Interpreting beyond Syntactics: A Semiotic Learning Model for Computer Programming Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

May, Jeffrey; Dhillon, Gurpreet

2009-01-01

In the information systems field there are numerous programming languages that can be used in specifying the behavior of concurrent and distributed systems. In the literature it has been argued that a lack of pragmatic and semantic consideration decreases the effectiveness of such specifications. In other words, to simply understand the syntactic…

Prosodic and Lexical Marking of Contrast in L2 Italian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turco, Giuseppina; Dimroth, Christine; Braun, Bettina

2015-01-01

We investigated the second language (L2) acquisition of pragmatic categories that are not as consistently and frequently encoded in the L2 than in the first language (L1). Experiment 1 showed that Italian speakers linguistically highlighted affirmative polarity contrast (e.g. "The child ate the candies" following after "The child…

Pragmatic Activities for the Speaking Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siegel, Joseph

2016-01-01

Being able to speak naturally and appropriately with others in a variety of situations is an important goal for many English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Because the skill of speaking invariably involves interaction with people and using language to reach objectives (e.g., ordering food, making friends, asking for favors), it is crucial…

Cultural Collision: The Interference of First Language Cultural Identity on Pragmatic Competence of the Target Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Yi-Fen Cecilia

2016-01-01

This reflective study explores a different perspective of intercultural communicative competency (ICC) by focusing on the speech acts that nonnative speakers of Spanish from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds find difficult to perform competently in various contexts in Colombia. This article covers a qualitative case study using…

Comprehending Implied Meaning in English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taguchi, Naoko

2005-01-01

This study investigated whether second language (L2) proficiency affects pragmatic comprehension, namely the ability to comprehend implied meaning in spoken dialogues, in terms of accuracy and speed of comprehension. Participants included 46 native English speakers at a U.S. university and 160 Japanese students of English in a college in Japan who…

Executive Functions in Children with Communication Impairments, in Relation to Autistic Symptomatology. 2: Response Inhibition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2005-01-01

Although impairment in executive functions has been described in autism, there has been debate as to whether response inhibition is specifically affected. We compared four groups: highfunctioning autism; pragmatic language impairment; specific language impairment; and control. Inhibition was assessed using two subtests from the Test of Everyday…

Communicative Development in Bilingually Exposed Chinese Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reetzke, Rachel; Zou, Xiaobing; Sheng, Li; Katsos, Napoleon

2015-01-01

Purpose: We examined the association of bilingual exposure with structural and pragmatic language development in Chinese children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Method: The parents of 54 children with ASD exposed to 1 (n = 31) or 2 (n = 23) Chinese languages completed (a) a questionnaire to evaluate their child's competence in structural…

Translanguaging in English Academic Writing Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adamson, John; Coulson, David

2015-01-01

We investigate translanguaging (i.e. the co-use of first and second languages) in a Content and Language Integrated Learning course, as a pragmatic means to promote the skill of young university students in extended critical academic writing. We aimed to prepare new undergraduate students (n = 180) for courses where partial English-medium…

Differentiating among pragmatic uses of words through timed sensicality judgments.

PubMed

Bambini, Valentina; Ghio, Marta; Moro, Andrea; Schumacher, Petra B

2013-01-01

Pragmatic and cognitive accounts of figurative language posit a difference between metaphor and metonymy in terms of underlying conceptual operations. Recently, other pragmatic uses of words have been accounted for in the Relevance Theory framework, such as approximation, described in terms of conceptual adjustment that varies in degree and direction with respect to the case of metaphor. Despite the theoretical distinctions, there is very poor experimental evidence addressing the metaphor/metonymy distinction, and none concerning approximation. Here we used meticulously built materials to investigate the interpretation mechanisms of these three phenomena through timed sensicality judgments. Results revealed that interpreting metaphors and approximations differs from literal interpretation both in accuracy and reaction times, with higher difficulty and costs for metaphors than for approximations. This suggests similar albeit gradual interpretative costs, in line with the latest account of Relevance Theory. Metonymy, on the contrary, almost equates literal comprehension and calls for a theoretical distinction from metaphor. Overall, this work represents a first attempt to provide an empirical basis for a theory-sound and psychologically-grounded taxonomy of figurative and loose uses of language.

Differentiating among pragmatic uses of words through timed sensicality judgments

PubMed Central

Bambini, Valentina; Ghio, Marta; Moro, Andrea; Schumacher, Petra B.

2013-01-01

Pragmatic and cognitive accounts of figurative language posit a difference between metaphor and metonymy in terms of underlying conceptual operations. Recently, other pragmatic uses of words have been accounted for in the Relevance Theory framework, such as approximation, described in terms of conceptual adjustment that varies in degree and direction with respect to the case of metaphor. Despite the theoretical distinctions, there is very poor experimental evidence addressing the metaphor/metonymy distinction, and none concerning approximation. Here we used meticulously built materials to investigate the interpretation mechanisms of these three phenomena through timed sensicality judgments. Results revealed that interpreting metaphors and approximations differs from literal interpretation both in accuracy and reaction times, with higher difficulty and costs for metaphors than for approximations. This suggests similar albeit gradual interpretative costs, in line with the latest account of Relevance Theory. Metonymy, on the contrary, almost equates literal comprehension and calls for a theoretical distinction from metaphor. Overall, this work represents a first attempt to provide an empirical basis for a theory-sound and psychologically-grounded taxonomy of figurative and loose uses of language. PMID:24391608

Rehabilitation of language in expressive aphasias: a literature review.

PubMed

da Fontoura, Denise Ren; Rodrigues, Jaqueline de Carvalho; Carneiro, Luciana Behs de Sá; Monção, Ana Maria; de Salles, Jerusa Fumagalli

2012-01-01

This paper reviews the methodological characteristics of studies on rehabilitation of expressive aphasia, describing the techniques of rehabilitation used. The databases Medline, Science Direct and PubMed were searched for relevant articles (January 1999 to December 2011) using the keywords Expressive / Broca / Nonfluent Aphasia, combined with Language or Speech Rehabilitation / Therapy / Intervention. A total of 56 articles were retrieved describing rehabilitation techniques, including 22 with a focus on lexical processing, 18 on syntax stimulation, seven with the aim of developing speech and nine with multiple foci. A variety of techniques and theoretical approaches are available, highlighting the heterogeneity of research in this area. This diversity can be justified by the uniqueness of patients' language deficits, making it difficult to generalize. In addition, there is a need to combine the formal measures of tests with measures of pragmatic and social skills of communication to determine the effect of rehabilitation on the patient's daily life.

Reasoning in Reference Games: Individual- vs. Population-Level Probabilistic Modeling

PubMed Central

Franke, Michael; Degen, Judith

2016-01-01

Recent advances in probabilistic pragmatics have achieved considerable success in modeling speakers’ and listeners’ pragmatic reasoning as probabilistic inference. However, these models are usually applied to population-level data, and so implicitly suggest a homogeneous population without individual differences. Here we investigate potential individual differences in Theory-of-Mind related depth of pragmatic reasoning in so-called reference games that require drawing ad hoc Quantity implicatures of varying complexity. We show by Bayesian model comparison that a model that assumes a heterogenous population is a better predictor of our data, especially for comprehension. We discuss the implications for the treatment of individual differences in probabilistic models of language use. PMID:27149675

Explaining pragmatic performance in traumatic brain injury: a process perspective on communicative errors.

PubMed

Bosco, Francesca M; Angeleri, Romina; Sacco, Katiuscia; Bara, Bruno G

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the pragmatic abilities of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Several studies in the literature have previously reported communicative deficits in individuals with TBI, however such research has focused principally on communicative deficits in general, without providing an analysis of the errors committed in understanding and expressing communicative acts. Within the theoretical framework of Cognitive Pragmatics theory and Cooperative principle we focused on intermediate communicative errors that occur in both the comprehension and the production of various pragmatic phenomena, expressed through both linguistic and extralinguistic communicative modalities. To investigate the pragmatic abilities of individuals with TBI. A group of 30 individuals with TBI and a matched control group took part in the experiment. They were presented with a series of videotaped vignettes depicting everyday communicative exchanges, and were tested on the comprehension and production of various kinds of communicative acts (standard communicative act, deceit and irony). The participants' answers were evaluated as correct or incorrect. Incorrect answers were then further evaluated with regard to the presence of different intermediate errors. Individuals with TBI performed worse than control participants on all the tasks investigated when considering correct versus incorrect answers. Furthermore, a series of logistic regression analyses showed that group membership (TBI versus controls) significantly predicted the occurrence of intermediate errors. This result holds in both the comprehension and production tasks, and in both linguistic and extralinguistic modalities. Participants with TBI tend to have difficulty in managing different types of communicative acts, and they make more intermediate errors than the control participants. Intermediate errors concern the comprehension and production of the expression act, the comprehension of the actors' meaning, as well as the respect of the Cooperative principle. © 2014 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Challenges in oral communication for internationally educated nurses.

PubMed

Lum, Lillie; Dowedoff, Penny; Bradley, Pat; Kerekes, Julie; Valeo, Antonella

2015-01-01

Achieving English language proficiency, while key to successful adaptation to a new country for internationally educated nurses (IENs), has presented more difficulties for them and for educators than previously recognized. Professional communication within a culturally diverse client population and maintaining collaborative relationships between nurses and other team members were perceived as new challenges for IENs. Learning an additional language is a long-term, multistage process that must also incorporate social and cultural aspects of the local society and the profession. This article provides a descriptive review of current research literature pertaining to English language challenges, with a focus on oral language, experienced by IENs. Educational strategies for teaching technical language skills as well as the socio-pragmatics of professional communication within nursing programs are emphasized. Bridging education programs must not only develop students'academic language proficiency but also their ability to enter the workforce with the kind of communication skills that are increasingly highlighted by employers as essential attributes. The results of this review are intended to facilitate a clearer understanding of the English language and communication challenges experienced by IENs and identify the implications for designing effective educational programs. © The Author(s) 2014.

Neural correlates of language comprehension in autism spectrum disorders: when language conflicts with world knowledge.

PubMed

Tesink, Cathelijne M J Y; Buitelaar, Jan K; Petersson, Karl Magnus; van der Gaag, Rutger Jan; Teunisse, Jan-Pieter; Hagoort, Peter

2011-04-01

In individuals with ASD, difficulties with language comprehension are most evident when higher-level semantic-pragmatic language processing is required, for instance when context has to be used to interpret the meaning of an utterance. Until now, it is unclear at what level of processing and for what type of context these difficulties in language comprehension occur. Therefore, in the current fMRI study, we investigated the neural correlates of the integration of contextual information during auditory language comprehension in 24 adults with ASD and 24 matched control participants. Different levels of context processing were manipulated by using spoken sentences that were correct or contained either a semantic or world knowledge anomaly. Our findings demonstrated significant differences between the groups in inferior frontal cortex that were only present for sentences with a world knowledge anomaly. Relative to the ASD group, the control group showed significantly increased activation in left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) for sentences with a world knowledge anomaly compared to correct sentences. This effect possibly indicates reduced integrative capacities of the ASD group. Furthermore, world knowledge anomalies elicited significantly stronger activation in right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG) in the control group compared to the ASD group. This additional RIFG activation probably reflects revision of the situation model after new, conflicting information. The lack of recruitment of RIFG is possibly related to difficulties with exception handling in the ASD group. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evidence of Pragmatic Impairments in Speech and Proverb Interpretation in Schizophrenia.

PubMed

Haas, Marc H; Chance, Steven A; Cram, David F; Crow, Tim J; Luc, Aslan; Hage, Sarah

2015-08-01

Schizophrenia has been suggested to involve linguistic pragmatic deficits. In this study, two aspects of pragmatic ability were assessed; comprehension and production. Drawing on relevance theory and Gricean implicatures to assess shared attention and interpretation in a linguistic context, discourse samples and proverb interpretation were transcribed from recorded interviews with patients with schizophrenia and control subjects. The productive aspect of implicatures was assessed by quantifying the use of 'connectors' in discourse. Receptive aspects were assessed by scoring interpretations of four common proverbs. Statistically significant effects were found: patients with schizophrenia used connectors less than controls as well as performing worse in proverb comprehension. Positive correlations between connectors and proverb interpretation in all subjects suggested an underlying pragmatic root for both productive and receptive aspects. The relative number of connectors (as a percentage of words used) provided a better index of pragmatic ability than total number because total output appeared to be influenced by additional factors such as IQ. Deficits were found in the use of connectors and in proverb interpretation even when controlling for verbal IQ, suggesting that pragmatic aspects of language are particularly vulnerable in schizophrenia compared with other verbal abilities.

Interpreting Quantum Logic as a Pragmatic Structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garola, Claudio

2017-12-01

Many scholars maintain that the language of quantum mechanics introduces a quantum notion of truth which is formalized by (standard, sharp) quantum logic and is incompatible with the classical (Tarskian) notion of truth. We show that quantum logic can be identified (up to an equivalence relation) with a fragment of a pragmatic language LGP of assertive formulas, that are justified or unjustified rather than trueor false. Quantum logic can then be interpreted as an algebraic structure that formalizes properties of the notion of empirical justification according to quantum mechanics rather than properties of a quantum notion of truth. This conclusion agrees with a general integrationist perspective that interprets nonstandard logics as theories of metalinguistic notions different from truth, thus avoiding incompatibility with classical notions and preserving the globality of logic.

Ernst Mach and B. F. Skinner: Their similarities with two traditions for verbal behavior.

PubMed

Moxley, Roy A

2005-01-01

Ernst Mach is most closely associated with a positivism that demanded a language of close contact with reality. Mach linked this view with the tradition of the quest for an ideal language in which meaning is a property of a word. Logical positivism and the S-R psychology of the early B. F. Skinner also participated in this ideal-language positivism. In addition, Mach showed an affinity with another tradition-a pragmatic-selectionist tradition-although that tradition and Mach's similarities with it were not as well developed. Mach showed no difficulty in jointly maintaining both of these traditions although they have been regarded as deeply incompatible. When the later Skinner adopted a pragmatic selectionism for his later views on verbal behavior, he rejected his earlier views that were aligned with S-R psychology as well as with logical positivism and its sympathizers. Nevertheless, some statements consistent with "meaning is a property of a word" remained for some time in Skinner's writing.

Ernst Mach and B. F. Skinner: Their similarities with two traditions for verbal behavior

PubMed Central

Moxley, Roy A.

2005-01-01

Ernst Mach is most closely associated with a positivism that demanded a language of close contact with reality. Mach linked this view with the tradition of the quest for an ideal language in which meaning is a property of a word. Logical positivism and the S-R psychology of the early B. F. Skinner also participated in this ideal-language positivism. In addition, Mach showed an affinity with another tradition—a pragmatic-selectionist tradition—although that tradition and Mach's similarities with it were not as well developed. Mach showed no difficulty in jointly maintaining both of these traditions although they have been regarded as deeply incompatible. When the later Skinner adopted a pragmatic selectionism for his later views on verbal behavior, he rejected his earlier views that were aligned with S-R psychology as well as with logical positivism and its sympathizers. Nevertheless, some statements consistent with “meaning is a property of a word” remained for some time in Skinner's writing. PMID:22478438

Methodological Innovation for the Study of Request Production in Telecollaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, D. Joseph

2017-01-01

Second language (L2) request production has long been a central area of inquiry in interlanguage pragmatics, including how L2 learners mitigate their requests and whether such strategies correspond to or differ from those of first language (L1) speakers. Methodologically, such research often involves elicited speech and tends to isolate the speech…

What Learners Get for Free: Learning of Routine Formulae in ESL and EFL Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roever, Carsten

2012-01-01

Routine formulae are highly frequent, situationally bound chunks that are beneficial to L2 learners' pragmatic performance. These formulae are usually more easily acquired in the target language setting but they are to some extent also learnable in foreign language classrooms. This study investigates the effect of different lengths of residence…

Multilingual Codeswitching in Quebec Rap: Poetry, Pragmatics and Performativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarkar, Mela; Winer, Lise

2006-01-01

Quebec rap lyrics stand out on the world Hip-Hop scene by virtue of the ease and rapidity with which performers in this multilingual, multiethnic youth community codeswitch, frequently among three or more languages or language varieties (usually over a French and/or English base) in the same song. We construct a framework for understanding…

An Early Years Toolbox for Assessing Early Executive Function, Language, Self-Regulation, and Social Development: Validity, Reliability, and Preliminary Norms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Steven J.; Melhuish, Edward

2017-01-01

Several methods of assessing executive function (EF), self-regulation, language development, and social development in young children have been developed over previous decades. Yet new technologies make available methods of assessment not previously considered. In resolving conceptual and pragmatic limitations of existing tools, the Early Years…

Extending Talk on a Prescribed Discussion Topic in a Learner-Native Speaker eTandem Learning Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, Emily

2017-01-01

Opportunities for language learners to access authentic input and engage in consequential interactions with native speakers of their target language abound in this era of computer mediated communication. Synchronous audio/video calling software represents one opportunity to access such input and address the challenges of developing pragmatic and…

Real English: A Translator to Enable Natural Language Man-Machine Conversation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gautin, Harvey

This dissertation presents a pragmatic interpreter/translator called Real English to serve as a natural language man-machine communication interface in a multi-mode on-line information retrieval system. This multi-mode feature affords the user a library-like searching tool by giving him access to a dictionary, lexicon, thesaurus, synonym table,…

Postmethod Condition and Its Implications for English Language Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arikan, Arda

2006-01-01

Postmethod condition refers to the qualities of the contemporary era in English language teaching in which previously well trusted methods are put under serious scrutiny and in which a body of methods and techniques collected from all previous methods and approaches are used pragmatically with a belief that such an eclectic practice leads to…

Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, Frontal Lesions, and Social Aspects of Language Use: A Study of French-Speaking Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dardier, Virginie; Bernicot, Josie; Delanoe, Anaig; Vanberten, Melanie; Fayada, Catherine; Chevignard, Mathilde; Delaye, Corinne; Laurent-Vannier, Anne; Dubois, Bruno

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the social (pragmatic) aspects of language use by French-speaking individuals with frontal lesions following a severe traumatic brain injury. Eleven participants with traumatic brain injury performed tasks in three areas of communication: production (interview situation), comprehension (direct…

A Pragmatic Approach to the Application of the Code of Ethics in Nursing Education.

PubMed

Tinnon, Elizabeth; Masters, Kathleen; Butts, Janie

The code of ethics for nurses was written for nurses in all settings. However, the language focuses primarily on the nurse in context of the patient relationship, which may make it difficult for nurse educators to internalize the code to inform practice. The purpose of this article is to explore the code of ethics, establish that it can be used to guide nurse educators' practice, and provide a pragmatic approach to application of the provisions.

Child shyness and peer likeability: The moderating role of pragmatics and vocabulary.

PubMed

Cheung, Hoi Shan; Elliott, John M

2017-11-01

The association between shyness and children's likeability by peers was examined, with pragmatic difficulty and receptive and expressive vocabularies as moderators. Participants were 164 preschoolers (72 boys, 92 girls) between 52 and 79 months old in Singapore. A cross-informant methodology was used, with peers and teachers contributing to separate peer likeability ratings. The findings highlighted a conceptual distinction between peer- and teacher-rated likeability by peers. For the latter only, a 3-way interaction involving shyness, vocabulary, and pragmatic difficulty was found, indicating that for shy children with low vocabulary scores, those who experienced less pragmatic difficulty tended to be seen by teachers as more well-liked by peers than those with more pragmatic difficulty. This suggests that pragmatic skills may serve a protective function especially for shy children with poor vocabulary skills. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Child shyness is related to poorer peer acceptance and social competence Expressive vocabulary and pragmatic competence each has a buffering effect for shy children What the present study adds? Shyness is related to poorer peer likeability as assessed by teachers Shyness is unrelated to peer likeability as assessed by same- or different-sex peers Pragmatic skills buffer the effects of teacher-rated shyness only for children with poor receptive and expressive vocabularies The buffering effect of language ability is shown in a multilingual educational context. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

High heritability of speech and language impairments in 6-year-old twins demonstrated using parent and teacher report.

PubMed

Bishop, Dorothy V M; Laws, Glynis; Adams, Caroline; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2006-03-01

Previous twin studies have demonstrated high heritability of specific language impairment (SLI) when the diagnosis is based on psychometric testing. The current study measured the effectiveness of parent and teacher ratings of communication skills in identifying heritable language impairment. The Children's Communication Checklist was completed by parents and teachers of 6-year-old twins recruited from a general population sample. One hundred and thirty twin pairs (65 MZ) were selected because at least one twin had low language skills at 4 years of age; a further 66 pairs (37 MZ) were a low risk group with no indication of language difficulties at 4 years. Internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and validity in identifying language impairment were assessed for all CCC scales. CCC scales, especially those assessing structural language skills, were highly effective in identifying cases of language impairment, but agreement between parent and teacher ratings was modest. Genetic analysis revealed negligible environmental influence and substantial genetic influence on most scales. A rater-specific effects model was fit to the data to assess how far parents and teachers assess a common genetic factor on the CCC. Ratings of parents and teachers were influenced to some extent by the same child characteristics, but rater-specific effects were also evident, especially on scales measuring pragmatic aspects of communication. This study shows that there are strong genetic influences on both structural and pragmatic language impairments in children, and these can be detected using a simple checklist completed by parents or teachers.

Early speech development in Koolen de Vries syndrome limited by oral praxis and hypotonia.

PubMed

Morgan, Angela T; Haaften, Leenke van; van Hulst, Karen; Edley, Carol; Mei, Cristina; Tan, Tiong Yang; Amor, David; Fisher, Simon E; Koolen, David A

2018-01-01

Communication disorder is common in Koolen de Vries syndrome (KdVS), yet its specific symptomatology has not been examined, limiting prognostic counselling and application of targeted therapies. Here we examine the communication phenotype associated with KdVS. Twenty-nine participants (12 males, 4 with KANSL1 variants, 25 with 17q21.31 microdeletion), aged 1.0-27.0 years were assessed for oral-motor, speech, language, literacy, and social functioning. Early history included hypotonia and feeding difficulties. Speech and language development was delayed and atypical from onset of first words (2; 5-3; 5 years of age on average). Speech was characterised by apraxia (100%) and dysarthria (93%), with stuttering in some (17%). Speech therapy and multi-modal communication (e.g., sign-language) was critical in preschool. Receptive and expressive language abilities were typically commensurate (79%), both being severely affected relative to peers. Children were sociable with a desire to communicate, although some (36%) had pragmatic impairments in domains, where higher-level language was required. A common phenotype was identified, including an overriding 'double hit' of oral hypotonia and apraxia in infancy and preschool, associated with severely delayed speech development. Remarkably however, speech prognosis was positive; apraxia resolved, and although dysarthria persisted, children were intelligible by mid-to-late childhood. In contrast, language and literacy deficits persisted, and pragmatic deficits were apparent. Children with KdVS require early, intensive, speech motor and language therapy, with targeted literacy and social language interventions as developmentally appropriate. Greater understanding of the linguistic phenotype may help unravel the relevance of KANSL1 to child speech and language development.

Hedging to save face: a linguistic analysis of written comments on in-training evaluation reports.

PubMed

Ginsburg, Shiphra; van der Vleuten, Cees; Eva, Kevin W; Lingard, Lorelei

2016-03-01

Written comments on residents' evaluations can be useful, yet the literature suggests that the language used by assessors is often vague and indirect. The branch of linguistics called pragmatics argues that much of our day to day language is not meant to be interpreted literally. Within pragmatics, the theory of 'politeness' suggests that non-literal language and other strategies are employed in order to 'save face'. We conducted a rigorous, in-depth analysis of a set of written in-training evaluation report (ITER) comments using Brown and Levinson's influential theory of 'politeness' to shed light on the phenomenon of vague language use in assessment. We coded text from 637 comment boxes from first year residents in internal medicine at one institution according to politeness theory. Non-literal language use was common and 'hedging', a key politeness strategy, was pervasive in comments about both high and low rated residents, suggesting that faculty may be working to 'save face' for themselves and their residents. Hedging and other politeness strategies are considered essential to smooth social functioning; their prevalence in our ITERs may reflect the difficult social context in which written assessments occur. This research raises questions regarding the 'optimal' construction of written comments by faculty.

Oral Language Impairments in Developmental Disorders Characterized by Language Strengths: A Comparison of Asperger Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stothers, M. E.; Cardy, J. Oram

2012-01-01

Asperger syndrome (AS) and nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) are developmental disorders in which linguistic ability is reported to be stronger than in disorders from which they must be distinguished for diagnosis. Children and adults with AS and NLD share pragmatic weaknesses, atypical social behaviours, and some cognitive features. To date,…

Between Learning and Playing? Exploring Learners' Perceptions of Corrective Feedback in an Immersive Game for English Pragmatics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cornillie, Frederik; Clarebout, Geraldine; Desmet, Piet

2012-01-01

This paper aims to provide a rationale for the utility of corrective feedback (CF) in digital games designed for language learning, with specific reference to learners' perceptions. Explicit and elaborate CF has the potential to increase learners' understanding of language, but might not be found useful in a game-based learning environment where…

"Activity Types" and "Discourse Types": Mediating "Advice" in Interactions between Foreign Language Assistants and Their Supervisors in Schools in France and England

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Culpeper, Jonathan; Crawshaw, Robert; Harrison, Julia

2008-01-01

This paper aims to enhance our understanding of interactions between French/English Foreign Language Assistants (FLAs) and their school mentors (MEs), and, more specifically, of how "advice" is sought, given and received. More generally, it will articulate a pragmatic approach (employing the notion of "activity type") that can…

Persuasive Writing in Children, Adolescents, and Adults: A Study of Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nippold, Marilyn A.; Ward-Lonergan, Jeannene M.; Fanning, Jessica L.

2005-01-01

Purpose: Persuasive writing is a demanding task that requires the use of complex language to analyze, discuss, and resolve controversies in a way that is clear, convincing, and considerate of diverse points of view. This investigation examined selected aspects of later language development in the context of persuasive writing. The purpose of the…

The Pragmatics of Greetings: Teaching Speech Acts in the EFL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zeff, B. Bricklin

2016-01-01

As a language teacher, Bricklin Zeff has long realized that knowing the words of a language is only part of speaking it. Knowing how to interpret a communicative act is equally important, and it needs to be taught explicitly. Therefore, he makes this learning a regular part of the class experience. Greetings are one of the few speech acts that…

How to Ask for a Favor: An Exploration of Speech Act Pragmatics in Heritage Russian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dubinina, Irina Yevgenievna

2012-01-01

Heritage language (HL) is a linguistic system that arises in the context of early childhood bilingualism, both sequential and simultaneous, when one of the languages is not fully acquired. The performance of speech acts in HLs is yet to be understood, and this dissertation is a first step in this direction. The study investigates the pragmatic…

Argument Realization in Second Language Acquisition of French and Spanish: A View from the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Work, Nicola

2009-01-01

Recent research on monolingual (L1) and bilingual (2L1) language acquisition is exploring the idea that children's early deviant structures involving omission of obligatory subjects and objects might be due not so much to performance limitations or purely syntactic deficits, but rather to an immature interface between syntax and discourse. For…

Language development in a non-vocal child.

PubMed

Rogow, S M

1994-01-01

Many children who cannot speak, comprehend both oral and written language. Having knowledge of language is not the same as being able to use language for social transactions. Non-vocal children learn to use augmented and assisted systems, but they experience specific difficulties in initiating and maintaining conversations and making use of the pragmatic functions of language. The purpose of this study was to investigate the semantic and syntactic knowledge of a child with severe multiple disabilities who can read and write and comprehend two languages, but does not initiate conversation. The study demonstrates that high levels of language comprehension and ability to read and write do not automatically transfer to conversational competence or narrative ability.

A figurative proverb test for dementia: rapid detection of disinhibition, excuse and confabulation, causing discommunication.

PubMed

Yamaguchi, Haruyasu; Maki, Yohko; Yamaguchi, Tomoharu

2011-12-01

Communicative disability is regarded as a prominent symptom of demented patients, and many studies have been devoted to analyze deficits of lexical-semantic operations in demented patients. However, it is often observed that even patients with preserved lexical-semantic skills might fail in interactive social communication. Whereas social interaction requires pragmatic language skills, pragmatic language competencies in demented subjects have not been well understood. We propose here a brief stress-free test to detect pragmatic language deficits, focusing on non-literal understanding of figurative expression. We hypothesized that suppression of the literal interpretation was required for figurative language interpretation.  We examined 69 demented subjects, 13 subjects with mild cognitive impairment and 61 healthy controls aged 65 years or more. The subjects were asked the meaning of a familiar proverb categorized as a figurative expression. The answers were analyzed based on five factors, and scored from 0 to 5. To consider the influence of cognitive inhibition on proverb comprehension, the scores of the Stroop Colour-Word Test were compared concerning correct and incorrect answers for each factor, respectively. Furthermore, the characteristics of answers were considered in the light of excuse and confabulation qualitatively. The proverb comprehension scores gradually decreased significantly as dementia progressed. The literal interpretation of the proverb, which showed difficulties in figurative language comprehension, was related to disinhibition. The qualitative analysis showed that excuse and confabulation increased as the dementia stage progressed. Deficits in cognitive inhibition partly explains the difficulties in interactive social communication in dementia. With qualitative analysis, asking the meaning of a proverb can be a brief test applied in a clinical setting to evaluate the stage of dementia, and to illustrate disinhibition, confabulation and excuse, which might cause discommunication and psychosocial maladjustment in demented patients. © 2011 The Authors. Psychogeriatrics © 2011 Japanese Psychogeriatric Society.

Social (pragmatic) communication disorders and autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Baird, Gillian; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2016-08-01

Changes have been made to the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), and similar changes are likely in the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) due in 2017. In light of these changes, a new clinical disorder, social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD), was added to the neurodevelopmental disorders section of DSM-5. This article describes the key features of ASD, SPCD and the draft ICD-11 approach to pragmatic language impairment, highlighting points of overlap between the disorders and criteria for differential diagnosis. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

The Age of the Monolingual Has Passed: Multilingualism Is the New Normal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Bernardette

2016-01-01

In a world where one in four people speaks English and the other three out of four are likely to be learning English, it would be disingenuous to suggest that speaking English as the global language is anything other than a significant asset now and for the future. Technology makes it possible and pragmatic to choose a global language, and there…

Dialogue Journal Writing and the Mediated Development of Writing: How Do Second Language Learners Engaged in Authentic Writing Activities Develop as Writers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulanoff, Sharon

This study examined the writing development of two language minority students over 3 school years, in particular, students' writing samples in the form of dialogue journals. Analyses focus on the function of content features (pragmatics) in their writing, the development of mechanical control (surface features), and the change in content over…

Beyond Time: Temporal and Extra-Temporal Functions of Tense and Aspect Marking in Totela, a Bantu Language of Zambia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crane, Thera Marie

2011-01-01

This dissertation aims to characterize the relationship between the temporal and information-structuring functions of tense and aspect marking in Totela, an endangered Bantu language of Zambia and Namibia. To that end, I investigate and describe in detail the semantics and pragmatics of selected tense and aspect markers, showing for each that a…

Discourse Markers in Italian as L2 in Face to Face vs. Computer Mediated Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Marco, Anna; Leone, Paola

2013-01-01

This pilot study aims to highlight a) differences in pragmatic function and distribution of discourse markers (DMs) in computer mediated and face to face (FtF) settings and b) any correlation of DM uses and language competence. The data have been collected by video-recording and analysing three speakers of Italian L2 (language level competence:…

Influence of family environment on language outcomes in children with myelomeningocele.

PubMed

Vachha, B; Adams, R

2005-09-01

Previously, our studies demonstrated language differences impacting academic performance among children with myelomeningocele and shunted hydrocephalus (MMSH). This follow-up study considers the environmental facilitators within families (achievement orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, active recreational orientation, independence) among a cohort of children with MMSH and their relationship to language performance. Fifty-eight monolingual, English-speaking children (36 females; mean age: 10.1 years; age range: 7-16 years) with MMSH were evaluated. Exclusionary criteria were prior shunt infection; seizure or shunt malfunction within the previous 3 months; uncorrected visual or auditory impairments; prior diagnoses of mental retardation or attention deficit disorder. The Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL) and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) were administered individually to all participants. The CASL Measures four subsystems: lexical, syntactic, supralinguistic and pragmatic. Parents completed the Family Environment Scale (FES) questionnaire and provided background demographic information. Spearman correlation analyses and partial correlation analyses were performed. Mean intelligence scores for the MMSH group: full scale IQ 92.2 (SD = 11.9). The CASL revealed statistically significant difficulty for supralinguistic and pragmatic (or social) language tasks. FES scores fell within the average range for the group. Spearman correlation and partial correlation analyses revealed statistically significant positive relationships for the FES 'intellectual-cultural orientation' variable and performance within the four language subsystems. Socio-economic status (SES) characteristics were analyzed and did not discriminate language performance when the intellectual-cultural orientation factor was taken into account. The role of family facilitators on language skills in children with MMSH has not previously been described. The relationship between language performance and the families' value on intellectual/cultural activities seems both statistically and intuitively sound. Focused interest in the integration of family values and practices should assist developmental specialists in supporting families and children within their most natural environment.

Perception of English intonation by English, Spanish, and Chinese listeners.

PubMed

Grabe, Esther; Rosner, Burton S; García-Albea, José E; Zhou, Xiaolin

2003-01-01

Native language affects the perception of segmental phonetic structure, of stress, and of semantic and pragmatic effects of intonation. Similarly, native language might influence the perception of similarities and differences among intonation contours. To test this hypothesis, a cross-language experiment was conducted. An English utterance was resynthesized with seven falling and four rising intonation contours. English, Iberian Spanish, and Chinese listeners then rated each pair of nonidentical stimuli for degree of difference. Multidimensional scaling of the results supported the hypothesis. The three groups of listeners produced statistically different perceptual configurations for the falling contours. All groups, however, perceptually separated the falling from the rising contours. This result suggested that the perception of intonation begins with the activation of universal auditory mechanisms that process the direction of relatively slow frequency modulations. A second experiment therefore employed frequency-modulated sine waves that duplicated the fundamental frequency contours of the speech stimuli. New groups of English, Spanish, and Chinese subjects yielded no cross-language differences between the perceptual configurations for these nonspeech stimuli. The perception of similarities and differences among intonation contours calls upon universal auditory mechanisms whose output is molded by experience with one's native language.

Rehabilitation of language in expressive aphasias: a literature review

PubMed Central

da Fontoura, Denise Ren; Rodrigues, Jaqueline de Carvalho; Carneiro, Luciana Behs de Sá; Monção, Ana Maria; de Salles, Jerusa Fumagalli

2012-01-01

Objective This paper reviews the methodological characteristics of studies on rehabilitation of expressive aphasia, describing the techniques of rehabilitation used. Methods The databases Medline, Science Direct and PubMed were searched for relevant articles (January 1999 to December 2011) using the keywords Expressive / Broca / Nonfluent Aphasia, combined with Language or Speech Rehabilitation / Therapy / Intervention. Results A total of 56 articles were retrieved describing rehabilitation techniques, including 22 with a focus on lexical processing, 18 on syntax stimulation, seven with the aim of developing speech and nine with multiple foci. Conclusion A variety of techniques and theoretical approaches are available, highlighting the heterogeneity of research in this area. This diversity can be justified by the uniqueness of patients' language deficits, making it difficult to generalize. In addition, there is a need to combine the formal measures of tests with measures of pragmatic and social skills of communication to determine the effect of rehabilitation on the patient's daily life. PMID:29213802

Neurobiological bases of reading comprehension: Insights from neuroimaging studies of word level and text level processing in skilled and impaired readers

PubMed Central

Landi, Nicole; Frost, Stephen J.; Menc, W. Einar; Sandak, Rebecca; Pugh, Kenneth R.

2012-01-01

For accurate reading comprehension, readers must first learn to map letters to their corresponding speech sounds and meaning and then they must string the meanings of many words together to form a representation of the text. Furthermore, readers must master the complexities involved in parsing the relevant syntactic and pragmatic information necessary for accurate interpretation. Failure in this process can occur at multiple levels and cognitive neuroscience has been helpful in identifying the underlying causes of success and failure in reading single words and in reading comprehension. In general, neurobiological studies of skilled reading comprehension indicate a highly overlapping language circuit for single word reading, reading comprehension and listening comprehension with largely quantitative differences in a number of reading and language related areas. This paper reviews relevant research from studies employing neuroimaging techniques to study reading with a focus on the relationship between reading skill, single word reading, and text comprehension. PMID:23662034

How the Context Matters. Literal and Figurative Meaning in the Embodied Language Paradigm

PubMed Central

Cuccio, Valentina; Ambrosecchia, Marianna; Ferri, Francesca; Carapezza, Marco; Lo Piparo, Franco; Fogassi, Leonardo; Gallese, Vittorio

2014-01-01

The involvement of the sensorimotor system in language understanding has been widely demonstrated. However, the role of context in these studies has only recently started to be addressed. Though words are bearers of a semantic potential, meaning is the product of a pragmatic process. It needs to be situated in a context to be disambiguated. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that embodied simulation occurring during linguistic processing is contextually modulated to the extent that the same sentence, depending on the context of utterance, leads to the activation of different effector-specific brain motor areas. In order to test this hypothesis, we asked subjects to give a motor response with the hand or the foot to the presentation of ambiguous idioms containing action-related words when these are preceded by context sentences. The results directly support our hypothesis only in relation to the comprehension of hand-related action sentences. PMID:25531530

Learning to use demonstratives in conversation: what do language specific strategies in Turkish reveal?

PubMed

Küntay, Aylin C; Ozyürek, Asli; Planck, Max

2006-05-01

Pragmatic development requires the ability to use linguistic forms, along with non-verbal cues, to focus an interlocutor's attention on a referent during conversation. We investigate the development of this ability by examining how the use of demonstratives is learned in Turkish, where a three-way demonstrative system (bu, su, o) obligatorily encodes both distance contrasts (i.e. proximal and distal) and absence or presence of the addressee's visual attention on the referent. A comparison of the demonstrative use by Turkish children (6 four- and 6 six-year-olds) and 6 adults during conversation shows that adultlike use of attention directing demonstrative, su, is not mastered even at the age of six, while the distance contrasts are learned earlier. This language specific development reveals that designing referential forms in consideration of recipient's attentional status during conversation is a pragmatic feat that takes more than six years to develop.

Autism, Language Disorder, and Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder: DSM-V and Differential Diagnoses.

PubMed

Simms, Mark D; Jin, Xing Ming

2015-08-01

• Based on strong research evidence (1), the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has increased over the past decade, with a 2010 prevalence of 1:68 (1.5%) in children age 8 years. • Based on some research evidence as well as consensus (3), the most recent revision of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) identifies two core dimensions for the diagnosis of ASD: social (social communication and social interaction) and nonsocial (restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities). • Based on some research evidence as well as consensus (3) (31) (32) (33) (34), DSM-V identifies social pragmatic communication disorder (SPCD) as a dissociable dimension of language and communication ability that affects how individuals use language for social exchanges. SPCD is often found in children with language impairments and children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other genetic/neurologic conditions. • Based on strong research evidence (2) (26) (27) (28), childhood language disorders affect 7.4% of kindergarteners, and 50% to 80% of these children experience persistent language, academic, and social-emotional difficulties into their adult years, despite having normal nonverbal cognitive abilities. • Based primarily on consensus due to lack of relevant clinical studies, differential diagnosis of autism and language disorders may require a multidisciplinary evaluation that takes into account a child’s overall development, including cognitive, communication, and social abilities. Monitoring the response to appropriate interventions and trajectory of development over time may improve the accuracy of diagnosis, especially in very young children.

Modeling evolution of the mind and cultures: emotional Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perlovsky, Leonid I.

2009-05-01

Evolution of cultures is ultimately determined by mechanisms of the human mind. The paper discusses the mechanisms of evolution of language from primordial undifferentiated animal cries to contemporary conceptual contents. In parallel with differentiation of conceptual contents, the conceptual contents were differentiated from emotional contents of languages. The paper suggests the neural brain mechanisms involved in these processes. Experimental evidence and theoretical arguments are discussed, including mathematical approaches to cognition and language: modeling fields theory, the knowledge instinct, and the dual model connecting language and cognition. Mathematical results are related to cognitive science, linguistics, and psychology. The paper gives an initial mathematical formulation and mean-field equations for the hierarchical dynamics of both the human mind and culture. In the mind heterarchy operation of the knowledge instinct manifests through mechanisms of differentiation and synthesis. The emotional contents of language are related to language grammar. The conclusion is an emotional version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Cultural advantages of "conceptual" pragmatic cultures, in which emotionality of language is diminished and differentiation overtakes synthesis resulting in fast evolution at the price of self doubts and internal crises are compared to those of traditional cultures where differentiation lags behind synthesis, resulting in cultural stability at the price of stagnation. Multi-language, multi-ethnic society might combine the benefits of stability and fast differentiation. Unsolved problems and future theoretical and experimental directions are discussed.

Discourse comprehension in autism spectrum disorder: Effects of working memory load and common ground.

PubMed

Schuh, Jillian M; Eigsti, Inge-Marie; Mirman, Daniel

2016-12-01

Pragmatic language impairments are nearly universal in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Discourse requires that we monitor information that is shared or mutually known, called "common ground." While many studies have examined the role of Theory of Mind (ToM) in such impairments, few have examined working memory (WM). Common ground impairments in ASD could reflect limitations in both WM and ToM. This study explored common ground use in youth ages 8-17 years with high-functioning ASD (n = 13) and typical development (n = 22); groups did not differ on age, gender, IQ, or standardized language. We tracked participants' eye movements while they performed a discourse task in which some information was known only to the participant (e.g., was privileged; a manipulation of ToM). In addition, the amount of privileged information varied (a manipulation of WM). All participants were slower to fixate the target when considering privileged information, and this effect was greatest during high WM load trials. Further, the ASD group was more likely to fixate competing (non-target) shapes. Predictors of fixation patterns included ASD symptomatology, language ability, ToM, and WM. Groups did not differ in ToM. Individuals with better WM fixated the target more rapidly, suggesting an association between WM capacity and efficient discourse. In addition to ToM knowledge, WM capacity constrains common ground representation and impacts pragmatic skills in ASD. Social impairments in ASD are thus associated with WM capacity, such that deficits in domain-general, nonsocial processes such as WM exert an influence during complex social interactions. Autism Res 2016, 9: 1340-1352. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Information literacy of U.S. and Indian engineering undergraduates.

PubMed

Taraban, Roman; Suar, Damodar; Oliver, Kristin

2013-12-01

To be competitive, contemporary engineers must be capable of both processing and communicating information effectively. Available research suggests that Indian students would be disadvantaged in information literacy in their language of instruction (English) compared to U.S. students because English is not Indian students' native language. Compared to U.S. students, Indian students (a) were predicted to apply practical text processing strategies to a greater extent than analytic strategies and (b) endorse the direct transmission of information over critical, interpretive analysis of information. Two validated scales measuring self-reported use of reading strategies and beliefs about interpreting and critiquing written information were administered to engineering students at an Indian Institute of Technology in their freshman to senior years. Neither prediction was supported: Indian students reported applying analytic strategies over pragmatic strategies and were more disposed to critically analyze information rather than accept it passively. Further, Indian students reported being more analytic and more reflective in their reading behaviors than U.S. engineering students. Additional data indicated that U.S. and Indian students' text-processing strategies and beliefs are associated with the texts that they read and their academic behaviors.

Language plus for international graduate students in nursing.

PubMed

Julian, M A; Keane, A; Davidson, K

1999-01-01

To provide information about an English-language support program that focuses on the needs of international graduate nursing students. The growing presence of these students coincides with the increasing numbers of universities committed to world health. Crucial social and language competence affect the success and progress of international students in graduate nursing programs. Reviewed literature was 1980 to 1998, in nursing and applied linguistic research including second-language acquisition, phonology, discourse analysis, and language pragmatics to identify social and language phenomena. Investigators suggest essential elements such as conventions of academic writing, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and pronunciation skills be included in the supportive Language Plus program. Ongoing development of the Language Plus program can promote collaboration between nurses and linguists and increase the success of international graduate nursing students.

Syntactic and Story Structure Complexity in the Narratives of High- and Low-Language Ability Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Peristeri, Eleni; Andreou, Maria; Tsimpli, Ianthi M.

2017-01-01

Although language impairment is commonly associated with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the Diagnostic Statistical Manual no longer includes language impairment as a necessary component of an ASD diagnosis (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However, children with ASD and no comorbid intellectual disability struggle with some aspects of language whose precise nature is still outstanding. Narratives have been extensively used as a tool to examine lexical and syntactic abilities, as well as pragmatic skills in children with ASD. This study contributes to this literature by investigating the narrative skills of 30 Greek-speaking children with ASD and normal non-verbal IQ, 16 with language skills in the upper end of the normal range (ASD-HL), and 14 in the lower end of the normal range (ASD-LL). The control group consisted of 15 age-matched typically-developing (TD) children. Narrative performance was measured in terms of both microstructural and macrostructural properties. Microstructural properties included lexical and syntactic measures of complexity such as subordinate vs. coordinate clauses and types of subordinate clauses. Macrostructure was measured in terms of the diversity in the use of internal state terms (ISTs) and story structure complexity, i.e., children's ability to produce important units of information that involve the setting, characters, events, and outcomes of the story, as well as the characters' thoughts and feelings. The findings demonstrate that high language ability and syntactic complexity pattern together in ASD children's narrative performance and that language ability compensates for autistic children's pragmatic deficit associated with the production of Theory of Mind-related ISTs. Nevertheless, both groups of children with ASD (high and low language ability) scored lower than the TD controls in the production of Theory of Mind-unrelated ISTs, modifier clauses and story structure complexity. PMID:29209258

Syntactic and Story Structure Complexity in the Narratives of High- and Low-Language Ability Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Peristeri, Eleni; Andreou, Maria; Tsimpli, Ianthi M

2017-01-01

Although language impairment is commonly associated with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the Diagnostic Statistical Manual no longer includes language impairment as a necessary component of an ASD diagnosis (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However, children with ASD and no comorbid intellectual disability struggle with some aspects of language whose precise nature is still outstanding. Narratives have been extensively used as a tool to examine lexical and syntactic abilities, as well as pragmatic skills in children with ASD. This study contributes to this literature by investigating the narrative skills of 30 Greek-speaking children with ASD and normal non-verbal IQ, 16 with language skills in the upper end of the normal range (ASD-HL), and 14 in the lower end of the normal range (ASD-LL). The control group consisted of 15 age-matched typically-developing (TD) children. Narrative performance was measured in terms of both microstructural and macrostructural properties. Microstructural properties included lexical and syntactic measures of complexity such as subordinate vs. coordinate clauses and types of subordinate clauses. Macrostructure was measured in terms of the diversity in the use of internal state terms (ISTs) and story structure complexity, i.e., children's ability to produce important units of information that involve the setting, characters, events, and outcomes of the story, as well as the characters' thoughts and feelings. The findings demonstrate that high language ability and syntactic complexity pattern together in ASD children's narrative performance and that language ability compensates for autistic children's pragmatic deficit associated with the production of Theory of Mind-related ISTs. Nevertheless, both groups of children with ASD (high and low language ability) scored lower than the TD controls in the production of Theory of Mind-unrelated ISTs, modifier clauses and story structure complexity.

"Kindergarten, can I have your eyes and ears?" politeness and teacher directive choices in inquiry-based science classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oliveira, Alandeom Wanderlei

2009-12-01

This study explores elementary teachers' social understandings and employment of directives and politeness while facilitating inquiry science lessons prior and subsequent to their participation in a summer institute in which they were introduced to the scholarly literature on regulative discourse (directives used by teachers to regulate student behavior). A grounded theory analysis of the institute professional development activities revealed that teachers developed an increased awareness of the authoritative functions served by impolite or direct directives (i.e., pragmatic awareness). Furthermore, a comparative microethnographic analysis of participants' inquiry-based classroom practices revealed that after the institute teachers demonstrated an increased ability to share authority with students by strategically making directive choices that were more polite, indirect, inclusive, involvement-focused and creative. Such ability led to a reduced emphasis on teacher regulation of student compliance with classroom behavioral norms and an increased focus on the discursive organization of the inquiry-based science learning/teaching process. Despite teachers' increased pragmatic awareness, teacher-student linguistic relationships did not become entirely symmetrical subsequent to their participation in the summer institute (i.e., teacher authority was not completely relinquished or lost). Based on such findings, it is argued that teachers need to develop higher levels of pragmatic awareness to become effectively prepared to engage in language-mediated teacher-student interaction in the context of inquiry-based science classroom discourse.

Understanding 'not': neuropsychological dissociations between hand and head markers of negation in BSL.

PubMed

Atkinson, Jo; Campbell, Ruth; Marshall, Jane; Thacker, Alice; Woll, Bencie

2004-01-01

Simple negation in natural languages represents a complex interrelationship of syntax, prosody, semantics and pragmatics, and may be realised in various ways: lexically, morphologically and prosodically. In almost all spoken languages, the first two of these are the primary realisations of syntactic negation. In contrast, in many signed languages negation can occur without lexical or morphological marking. Thus, in British Sign Language (BSL), negation is obligatorily expressed using face-head actions alone (facial negation) with the option of articulating a manual form alongside the required face-head actions (lexical negation). What are the processes underlying facial negation? Here, we explore this question neuropsychologically. If facial negation reflects lexico-syntactic processing in BSL, it may be relatively spared in people with unilateral right hemisphere (RH) lesions, as has been suggested for other 'grammatical facial actions' [Language and Speech 42 (1999) 307; Emmorey, K. (2002). Language, cognition and the brain: Insights from sign language research. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum (Lawrence)]. Three BSL users with RH lesions were specifically impaired in perceiving facial compared with manual (lexical and morphological) negation. This dissociation was absent in three users of BSL with left hemisphere lesions and different degrees of language disorder, who also showed relative sparing of negation comprehension. We conclude that, in contrast to some analyses [Applied Psycholinguistics 18 (1997) 411; Emmorey, K. (2002). Language, cognition and the brain: Insights from sign language research. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum (Lawrence); Archives of Neurology 36 (1979) 837], non-manual negation in sign may not be a direct surface realisation of syntax [Language and Speech 42 (1999) 143; Language and Speech 42 (1999) 127]. Difficulties with facial negation in the RH-lesion group were associated with specific impairments in processing facial images, including facial expressions. However, they did not reflect generalised 'face-blindness', since the reading of (English) speech patterns from faces was spared in this group. We propose that some aspects of the linguistic analysis of sign language are achieved by prosodic analysis systems (analysis of face and head gestures), which are lateralised to the minor hemisphere.

Atypical Neural Processing of Ironic and Sincere Remarks in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Colich, Natalie L.; Wang, Audrey-Ting; Rudie, Jeffrey D.; Hernandez, Leanna M.; Bookheimer, Susan Y.; Dapretto, Mirella

2013-01-01

Individuals with ASD show consistent impairment in processing pragmatic language when attention to multiple social cues (e.g., facial expression, tone of voice) is often needed to navigate social interactions. Building upon prior fMRI work examining how facial affect and prosodic cues are used to infer a speaker's communicative intent, the authors examined whether children and adolescents with ASD differ from typically developing (TD) controls in their processing of sincere versus ironic remarks. At the behavioral level, children and adolescents with ASD and matched TD controls were able to determine whether a speaker's remark was sincere or ironic equally well, with both groups showing longer response times for ironic remarks. At the neural level, for both sincere and ironic scenarios, an extended cortical network—including canonical language areas in the left hemisphere and their right hemisphere counterparts—was activated in both groups, albeit to a lesser degree in the ASD sample. Despite overall similar patterns of activity observed for the two conditions in both groups, significant modulation of activity was detected when directly comparing sincere and ironic scenarios within and between groups. While both TD and ASD groups showed significantly greater activity in several nodes of this extended network when processing ironic versus sincere remarks, increased activity was largely confined to left language areas in TD controls, whereas the ASD sample showed a more bilateral activation profile which included both language and “theory of mind” areas (i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex). These findings suggest that, for high-functioning individuals with ASD, increased activity in right hemisphere homologues of language areas in the left hemisphere, as well as regions involved in social cognition, may reflect compensatory mechanisms supporting normative behavioral task performance. PMID:24497750

Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics. Volume Twenty.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisiak, Jacek, Ed.

Papers on contrastive linguistics in this volume include: "Contrastive Discourse Analysis in Language Usage" (Juliane House); "Typology and Contrastive Analysis" (Vlasta Strakova); "On the Tenability of the Notion 'Pragmatic Equivalence' in Contrastive Analysis" (Karol Janicki); "On the Relevance of Phonetic,…

L'argumentation dans la langue (Argumentation in Language)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anscombre, J. C.; Ducrot, O.

1976-01-01

Questions the current distinction between semantics and pragmatics, and develops a theory of "argumentative scales" (Ducrot 1973), as well as a semantic model with three components and a revision of the notion of "illocutionary." (Text is in French.) (CDSH/AM)

Idiosyncratic Gesture Use in Atypical Language Development, and Its Interaction with Speech Rhythm, Word Juncture, Syntax, Pragmatics and Discourse: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Sara J.; Perkins, Michael R.; Sowden, Hannah

2012-01-01

Very little is known about the use of gesture by children with developmental language disorders (DLDs). This case study of "Lucy", a child aged 4;10 with a DLD, expands on what is known and in particular focuses on a type of idiosyncratic "rhythmic gesture" (RG) not previously reported. A fine-grained qualitative analysis was carried out of video…

Salience and Attention in Surprisal-Based Accounts of Language Processing.

PubMed

Zarcone, Alessandra; van Schijndel, Marten; Vogels, Jorrig; Demberg, Vera

2016-01-01

The notion of salience has been singled out as the explanatory factor for a diverse range of linguistic phenomena. In particular, perceptual salience (e.g., visual salience of objects in the world, acoustic prominence of linguistic sounds) and semantic-pragmatic salience (e.g., prominence of recently mentioned or topical referents) have been shown to influence language comprehension and production. A different line of research has sought to account for behavioral correlates of cognitive load during comprehension as well as for certain patterns in language usage using information-theoretic notions, such as surprisal. Surprisal and salience both affect language processing at different levels, but the relationship between the two has not been adequately elucidated, and the question of whether salience can be reduced to surprisal / predictability is still open. Our review identifies two main challenges in addressing this question: terminological inconsistency and lack of integration between high and low levels of representations in salience-based accounts and surprisal-based accounts. We capitalize upon work in visual cognition in order to orient ourselves in surveying the different facets of the notion of salience in linguistics and their relation with models of surprisal. We find that work on salience highlights aspects of linguistic communication that models of surprisal tend to overlook, namely the role of attention and relevance to current goals, and we argue that the Predictive Coding framework provides a unified view which can account for the role played by attention and predictability at different levels of processing and which can clarify the interplay between low and high levels of processes and between predictability-driven expectation and attention-driven focus.

Assessing child and adolescent pragmatic language competencies: toward evidence-based assessments.

PubMed

Russell, Robert L; Grizzle, Kenneth L

2008-06-01

Using language appropriately and effectively in social contexts requires pragmatic language competencies (PLCs). Increasingly, deficits in PLCs are linked to child and adolescent disorders, including autism spectrum, externalizing, and internalizing disorders. As the role of PLCs expands in diagnosis and treatment of developmental psychopathology, psychologists and educators will need to appraise and select clinical and research PLC instruments for use in assessments and/or studies. To assist in this appraisal, 24 PLC instruments, containing 1,082 items, are assessed by addressing four questions: (1) Can PLC domains targeted by assessment items be reliably identified?, (2) What are the core PLC domains that emerge across the 24 instruments?, (3) Do PLC questionnaires and tests assess similar PLC domains?, and (4) Do the instruments achieve content, structural, diagnostic, and ecological validity? Results indicate that test and questionnaire items can be reliably categorized into PLC domains, that PLC domains featured in questionnaires and tests significantly differ, and that PLC instruments need empirical confirmation of their dimensional structure, content validity across all developmental age bands, and ecological validity. Progress in building a better evidence base for PLC assessments should be a priority in future research.

Politics and Pragmatics in the Crosscultural Management of "Rapport"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawshaw, Robert; Harrison, Julia

2007-01-01

This paper examines the sociopragmatic character of intercultural communication between English Language Assistants (ELAs) and their "mentors" in French primary and secondary schools. With reference to Levinson's notion of "activity type", it argues that judgements by mentors as to what constitutes "allowable…

Clinical Focus on Prosodic, Discursive and Pragmatic Treatment for Right Hemisphere Damaged Adults: What's Right?

PubMed Central

Ferré, Perrine; Ska, Bernadette; Lajoie, Camille; Bleau, Amélie; Joanette, Yves

2011-01-01

Researchers and clinicians acknowledge today that the contribution of both cerebral hemispheres is necessary to a full and adequate verbal communication. Indeed, it is estimated that at least 50% of right brain damaged individuals display impairments of prosodic, discourse, pragmatics and/or lexical semantics dimensions of communication. Since the 1990's, researchers have focused on the description and the assessment of these impairments and it is only recently that authors have shown interest in planning specific intervention approaches. However, therapists in rehabilitation settings still have very few available tools. This review of recent literature demonstrates that, even though theoretical knowledge needs further methodological investigation, intervention guidelines can be identified to target right hemisphere damage communication impairments in clinical practice. These principles can be incorporated by speech and language pathologists, in a structured intervention framework, aiming at fully addressing prosodic, discursive and pragmatic components of communication. PMID:22110970

Pragmatism and structuralism in occupational therapy: the long conversation.

PubMed

Hooper, Barb; Wood, Wendy

2002-01-01

The history of occupational therapy may be understood as a continual transaction between two cultural discourses: pragmatism and structuralism. Pragmatism is a way of thinking that presupposes humans are agentic by nature and knowledge is tentative and created within particular contexts. Structuralism is a way of thinking that assumes humans are composites of recurring general frameworks and that knowledge is objective and can be generalized to multiple contexts. Early in the field's history, both pragmatist and structuralist assumptions about the human and knowledge produced different readings, or interpretations, of what constituted the appropriate tools, methods, and outcomes for occupational therapy. Consequently, occupational therapy adopted an interesting mix of pragmatist language regarding the human and structuralist approaches to knowledge, resulting in professional identity problems still experienced today. However, recent developments offer an opportunity for occupational therapists to correct old identity problems through critically evaluating incompatible assumptions and carefully reading the prevailing cultural ethos.

On the incrementality of pragmatic processing: An ERP investigation of informativeness and pragmatic abilities

PubMed Central

Nieuwland, Mante S.; Ditman, Tali; Kuperberg, Gina R.

2010-01-01

In two event-related potential (ERP) experiments, we determined to what extent Grice’s maxim of informativeness as well as pragmatic ability contributes to the incremental build-up of sentence meaning, by examining the impact of underinformative versus informative scalar statements (e.g. “Some people have lungs/pets, and…”) on the N400 event-related potential (ERP), an electrophysiological index of semantic processing. In Experiment 1, only pragmatically skilled participants (as indexed by the Autism Quotient Communication subscale) showed a larger N400 to underinformative statements. In Experiment 2, this effect disappeared when the critical words were unfocused so that the local underinformativeness went unnoticed (e.g., “Some people have lungs that…”). Our results suggest that, while pragmatic scalar meaning can incrementally contribute to sentence comprehension, this contribution is dependent on contextual factors, whether these are derived from individual pragmatic abilities or the overall experimental context. PMID:20936088

Acoustics and sociolinguistics: Patterns of communication in hearing impairing classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKellin, William; Shahin, Kimary; Jamieson, Janet; Hodgson, Murray; Pichora-Fuller, Kathleen

2005-04-01

In elementary school classes, noise during student led activities is often taken as evidence of successful interaction and learning. In this complex social environment of elementary school classrooms, acquisition of complex language and social skills-the focus of activities in early education-is expected to take place in hearing-hostile environments. Communication and language processing in these contexts requires interactive strategies, discourse forms, and syntactic structures different from the educationally desired forms used in acoustically advantageous environments. Recordings were made of the interaction of groups of students in grades 1-3, 5, and 7 during collaborative group work in their regular classrooms. Each student wore microphones at the ear level and head-mounted video cameras. Each group as a whole was also audio- and videotaped and noise level readings were recorded. Analysis of the acoustical and phonological properties of language heard by each student has demonstrated that the language variety used in these noisy and reverberant settings is similar to that of individuals with hearing impairments. This paper reports similarities between the syntactic structures and pragmatic strategies used by hearing impaired children and normally hearing children in noisy contexts. [Work supported by Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia.

Longitudinal trajectories of peer relations in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Mok, Pearl L H; Pickles, Andrew; Durkin, Kevin; Conti-Ramsden, Gina

2014-05-01

Peer relations is a vulnerable area of functioning in children with specific language impairment (SLI), but little is known about the developmental trajectories of individuals. Peer problems were investigated over a 9-year period (from 7 to 16 years of age) in 171 children with a history of SLI. Discrete factor growth modelling was used to chart developmental trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate factors associated with group membership. Four distinct developmental trajectories were identified: low-level/no problems in peer relations (22.2% of participants), childhood-limited problems (12.3%), childhood-onset persistent problems (39.2%) and adolescent-onset problems (26.3%). Risk of poor trajectories of peer relations was greater for those children with pragmatic language difficulties. Prosocial behaviour was the factor most strongly associated with trajectory group membership. Overall, the more prosocial children with better pragmatic language skills and lower levels of emotional problems had less difficulty in developing peer relations. Analysis of developmental trajectories enriches our understanding of social development. A sizeable minority in the present sample sustained positive relations through childhood and adolescence, and others overcame early difficulties to achieve low levels of problems by their early teens; the majority, however, showed childhood-onset persistent or adolescent-onset problems. © 2014 The Authors Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley © Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Social communication disorder outside autism? A diagnostic classification approach to delineating pragmatic language impairment, high functioning autism and specific language impairment.

PubMed

Gibson, Jenny; Adams, Catherine; Lockton, Elaine; Green, Jonathan

2013-11-01

Developmental disorders of language and communication present considerable diagnostic challenges due to overlapping of symptomatology and uncertain aetiology. We aimed to further elucidate the behavioural and linguistic profile associated with impairments of social communication occurring outside of an autism diagnosis. Six to eleven year olds diagnosed with pragmatic language impairment (PLI), high functioning autism (HFA) or specific language impairment (SLI) were compared on measures of social interaction with peers (PI), restricted and repetitive behaviours/interests (RRBIs) and language ability. Odds ratios (OR) from a multinomial logistic regression were used to determine the importance of each measure to diagnostic grouping. MANOVA was used to investigate differences in subscale scores for the PI measure. Greater degrees of PI difficulties (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.05-1.41), RRBI (OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.06-1.42) and expressive language ability (OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.03-1.30) discriminated HFA from PLI. PLI was differentiated from SLI by elevated PI difficulties (OR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.70-0.96) and higher expressive language ability (OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.77-0.98), but indistinguishable from SLI using RRBI (OR = 1.01, 95% CI=0.94-1.09). A significant effect of group on PI subscales was observed (θ = 1.38, F(4, 56) = 19.26, p < .01) and PLI and HFA groups shared a similar PI subscale profile. Results provide empirical support for a conceptualisation of PLI as a developmental impairment distinguishable from HFA by absence of RRBIs and by the presence of expressive language difficulties. PI difficulties appear elevated in PLI compared with SLI, but may be less pervasive than in HFA. Findings are discussed with reference to the proposed new category of 'social communication disorder' in DSM-5. © 2013 The Authors Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2013 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Semantic Information and the Syntax of Propositional Attitude Verbs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Aaron S.; Hacquard, Valentine; Lidz, Jeffrey

2018-01-01

Propositional attitude verbs, such as "think" and "want," have long held interest for both theoretical linguists and language acquisitionists because their syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties display complex interactions that have proven difficult to fully capture from either perspective. This paper explores the…

Strategic Interaction: A Pragmatic Approach to Business Negotiation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCreary, Don R.

This paper provides guidelines for writing and classifying scenarios for classroom practice of language skills through the strategic interaction method. The scripts, used for spontaneous or rehearsed role-playing or transactional games, are rated according to their information load (grammatical complexity), interactional value, and transactional…

Scalar Implicatures in Child Language: Give Children a Chance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foppolo, Francesca; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Chierchia, Gennaro

2012-01-01

Children's pragmatic competence in deriving conversational implicatures (and scalar implicatures in particular) offers an intriguing standpoint to explore how developmental, methodological, and purely theoretical perspectives interact and feed each other. In this paper, we focus mainly on developmental and methodological issues, showing that…

Teaching Russian Civilization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vakar, Nicholas

1949-01-01

Prior to World War Two, Slavic studies in America treated history, literature, and language as isolated disciplines and often neglected the study of Russian literature written after 1917. The pragmatic necessities of the war questioned the relevance of this traditional approach and specialists appeared, concentrating their efforts on the recent…

Communication Strategies of Adult ESL Learners: A Discourse Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clennell, Charles

1995-01-01

Examines the communication strategies used by adult second-language learners of English when performing contrasting pedagogic tasks. The article suggests that existing descriptions of communication strategies ignore the pragmatic function of such devices in interactive discourse and offers a reclassification that differentiates strategies…

Beyond the language given: the neural correlates of inferring speaker meaning.

PubMed

Bašnáková, Jana; Weber, Kirsten; Petersson, Karl Magnus; van Berkum, Jos; Hagoort, Peter

2014-10-01

Even though language allows us to say exactly what we mean, we often use language to say things indirectly, in a way that depends on the specific communicative context. For example, we can use an apparently straightforward sentence like "It is hard to give a good presentation" to convey deeper meanings, like "Your talk was a mess!" One of the big puzzles in language science is how listeners work out what speakers really mean, which is a skill absolutely central to communication. However, most neuroimaging studies of language comprehension have focused on the arguably much simpler, context-independent process of understanding direct utterances. To examine the neural systems involved in getting at contextually constrained indirect meaning, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging as people listened to indirect replies in spoken dialog. Relative to direct control utterances, indirect replies engaged dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, right temporo-parietal junction and insula, as well as bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and right medial temporal gyrus. This suggests that listeners take the speaker's perspective on both cognitive (theory of mind) and affective (empathy-like) levels. In line with classic pragmatic theories, our results also indicate that currently popular "simulationist" accounts of language comprehension fail to explain how listeners understand the speaker's intended message. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

How appropriate are the English language test requirements for non-UK-trained nurses? A qualitative study of spoken communication in UK hospitals.

PubMed

Sedgwick, Carole; Garner, Mark

2017-06-01

Non-native speakers of English who hold nursing qualifications from outside the UK are required to provide evidence of English language competence by achieving a minimum overall score of Band 7 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) academic test. To describe the English language required to deal with the daily demands of nursing in the UK. To compare these abilities with the stipulated levels on the language test. A tracking study was conducted with 4 nurses, and focus groups with 11 further nurses. The transcripts of the interviews and focus groups were analysed thematically for recurrent themes. These findings were then compared with the requirements of the IELTS spoken test. The study was conducted outside the participants' working shifts in busy London hospitals. The participants in the tracking study were selected opportunistically;all were trained in non-English speaking countries. Snowball sampling was used for the focus groups, of whom 4 were non-native and 7 native speakers of English. In the tracking study, each of the 4 nurses was interviewed on four occasions, outside the workplace, and as close to the end of a shift as possible. They were asked to recount their spoken interactions during the course of their shift. The participants in the focus groups were asked to describe their typical interactions with patients, family members, doctors, and nursing colleagues. They were prompted to recall specific instances of frequently-occurring communication problems. All interactions were audio-recorded, with the participants' permission,and transcribed. Nurses are at the centre of communication for patient care. They have to use appropriate registers to communicate with a range of health professionals, patients and their families. They must elicit information, calm and reassure, instruct, check procedures, ask for and give opinions,agree and disagree. Politeness strategies are needed to avoid threats to face. They participate in medical team discussions, and provide information. They have to be able to translate between everyday and medical registers. This requires socio-pragmatic competence, much of which is not tested by IELTS. In addition to linguistic knowledge and fluency, nursing requires considerable cultural and pragmatic knowledge and competence. Our findings support arguments for including socio-pragmatic competence in language tests specifically designed for nurses. They also indicate a need for further research to find or design more appropriate assessment, and greater awareness amongst policy makers of the principles of language test design and use. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reference Production in Young Speakers with and without Autism: Effects of Discourse Status and Processing Constraints

PubMed Central

Arnold, Jennifer E.; Bennetto, Loisa; Diehl, Joshua J.

2008-01-01

We examine the referential choices (pronouns/zeros vs. names/descriptions) made during a narrative by high-functioning children and adolescents with autism and a well-matched typically developing control group. The process of choosing appropriate referring expressions has been proposed to depend on two areas of cognitive functioning: a) judging the attention and knowledge of one’s interlocutor, and b) the use of memory and attention mechanisms to represent the discourse situation. We predicted possible group differences, since autism is often associated with deficits in a) mentalizing and b) memory and attention, as well as a more general tendency to have difficulty with the pragmatic aspects of language use. Results revealed that some of the participants with autism were significantly less likely to produce pronouns or zeros in some discourse contexts. However, the difference was only one of degree. Overall, all participants in our analysis exhibited fine-grained sensitivity to the discourse context. Furthermore, referential choices for all participants were modulated by factors related to the cognitive effort of language production. PMID:19111285

Pragmatic Frames for Teaching and Learning in Human–Robot Interaction: Review and Challenges

PubMed Central

Vollmer, Anna-Lisa; Wrede, Britta; Rohlfing, Katharina J.; Oudeyer, Pierre-Yves

2016-01-01

One of the big challenges in robotics today is to learn from human users that are inexperienced in interacting with robots but yet are often used to teach skills flexibly to other humans and to children in particular. A potential route toward natural and efficient learning and teaching in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is to leverage the social competences of humans and the underlying interactional mechanisms. In this perspective, this article discusses the importance of pragmatic frames as flexible interaction protocols that provide important contextual cues to enable learners to infer new action or language skills and teachers to convey these cues. After defining and discussing the concept of pragmatic frames, grounded in decades of research in developmental psychology, we study a selection of HRI work in the literature which has focused on learning–teaching interaction and analyze the interactional and learning mechanisms that were used in the light of pragmatic frames. This allows us to show that many of the works have already used in practice, but not always explicitly, basic elements of the pragmatic frames machinery. However, we also show that pragmatic frames have so far been used in a very restricted way as compared to how they are used in human–human interaction and argue that this has been an obstacle preventing robust natural multi-task learning and teaching in HRI. In particular, we explain that two central features of human pragmatic frames, mostly absent of existing HRI studies, are that (1) social peers use rich repertoires of frames, potentially combined together, to convey and infer multiple kinds of cues; (2) new frames can be learnt continually, building on existing ones, and guiding the interaction toward higher levels of complexity and expressivity. To conclude, we give an outlook on the future research direction describing the relevant key challenges that need to be solved for leveraging pragmatic frames for robot learning and teaching. PMID:27752242

Pragmatic Frames for Teaching and Learning in Human-Robot Interaction: Review and Challenges.

PubMed

Vollmer, Anna-Lisa; Wrede, Britta; Rohlfing, Katharina J; Oudeyer, Pierre-Yves

2016-01-01

One of the big challenges in robotics today is to learn from human users that are inexperienced in interacting with robots but yet are often used to teach skills flexibly to other humans and to children in particular. A potential route toward natural and efficient learning and teaching in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is to leverage the social competences of humans and the underlying interactional mechanisms. In this perspective, this article discusses the importance of pragmatic frames as flexible interaction protocols that provide important contextual cues to enable learners to infer new action or language skills and teachers to convey these cues. After defining and discussing the concept of pragmatic frames, grounded in decades of research in developmental psychology, we study a selection of HRI work in the literature which has focused on learning-teaching interaction and analyze the interactional and learning mechanisms that were used in the light of pragmatic frames. This allows us to show that many of the works have already used in practice, but not always explicitly, basic elements of the pragmatic frames machinery. However, we also show that pragmatic frames have so far been used in a very restricted way as compared to how they are used in human-human interaction and argue that this has been an obstacle preventing robust natural multi-task learning and teaching in HRI. In particular, we explain that two central features of human pragmatic frames, mostly absent of existing HRI studies, are that (1) social peers use rich repertoires of frames, potentially combined together, to convey and infer multiple kinds of cues; (2) new frames can be learnt continually, building on existing ones, and guiding the interaction toward higher levels of complexity and expressivity. To conclude, we give an outlook on the future research direction describing the relevant key challenges that need to be solved for leveraging pragmatic frames for robot learning and teaching.

Inference comprehension in text reading: Performance of individuals with right- versus left-hemisphere lesions and the influence of cognitive functions.

PubMed

Silagi, Marcela Lima; Radanovic, Marcia; Conforto, Adriana Bastos; Mendonça, Lucia Iracema Zanotto; Mansur, Leticia Lessa

2018-01-01

Right-hemisphere lesions (RHL) may impair inference comprehension. However, comparative studies between left-hemisphere lesions (LHL) and RHL are rare, especially regarding reading comprehension. Moreover, further knowledge of the influence of cognition on inferential processing in this task is needed. To compare the performance of patients with RHL and LHL on an inference reading comprehension task. We also aimed to analyze the effects of lesion site and to verify correlations between cognitive functions and performance on the task. Seventy-five subjects were equally divided into the groups RHL, LHL, and control group (CG). The Implicit Management Test was used to evaluate inference comprehension. In this test, subjects read short written passages and subsequently answer five types of questions (explicit, logical, distractor, pragmatic, and other), which require different types of inferential reasoning. The cognitive functional domains of attention, memory, executive functions, language, and visuospatial abilities were assessed using the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT). The LHL and RHL groups presented difficulties in inferential comprehension in comparison with the CG. However, the RHL group presented lower scores than the LHL group on logical, pragmatic and other questions. A covariance analysis did not show any effect of lesion site within the hemispheres. Overall, all cognitive domains were correlated with all the types of questions from the inference test (especially logical, pragmatic, and other). Attention and visuospatial abilities affected the scores of both the RHL and LHL groups, and only memory influenced the performance of the RHL group. Lesions in either hemisphere may cause difficulties in making inferences during reading. However, processing more complex inferences was more difficult for patients with RHL than for those with LHL, which suggests that the right hemisphere plays an important role in tasks with higher comprehension demands. Cognition influences inferential processing during reading in brain-injured subjects.

Decomposing metaphor processing at the cognitive and neural level through functional magnetic resonance imaging.

PubMed

Bambini, Valentina; Gentili, Claudio; Ricciardi, Emiliano; Bertinetto, Pier Marco; Pietrini, Pietro

2011-10-10

Prior neuroimaging studies on metaphor comprehension have tended to focus on the role of the right hemisphere, without reaching consensus and leaving aside the functional architecture of this process. The present work aimed to break down metaphor comprehension into its functional components. The study rationale is two-fold: on the one hand, the large-scale network model as emerging in cognitive neuroscience led us to a consideration of metaphor as supported by a distributed and bilateral network; on the other hand, we based on the accounts of figurative language put forward in pragmatics and cognitive science to postulate a decomposition of such a network into multiple sub-systems. During scanning, participants implicitly processed metaphorical (familiar and unfamiliar) and non-metaphorical passages, while being explicitly involved in an adjective matching task to be performed after reading the target passages. Several regions showed greater activity to metaphors as compared to non-metaphors, including left and right inferior frontal gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus, left angular gyrus, and anterior cingulate. This pattern of activations, markedly bilateral, can be decomposed into circumscribed functional sub-systems mediating different aspects of metaphor resolution, as foreseen in the pragmatic and cognitive literature: (a) the conceptual/pragmatic machinery in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and in the left angular gyrus, which supports the integration of linguistic material and world knowledge in context; (b) the attentional component in the anterior cingulate and prefrontal areas, which is set to monitor and filter for the relevant aspects of context and for the appropriate meanings; (c) the Theory of Mind system along the right superior temporal sulcus, which deals with the recognition of speakers' communicative intentions and is more extensively activated by unfamiliar metaphors. The results have several implications for the field of neuropragmatics, especially on the neuropsychological side and on the right hemisphere hypothesis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Information Structure, Grammar and Strategy in Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevens, Jon

2013-01-01

This dissertation examines two information-structural phenomena, Givenness and Focus, from the perspective of both syntax and pragmatics. Evidence from English, German and other languages suggests a "split" analysis of information structure--the notions of Focus and Givenness, often thought to be closely related, exist independently at…

Developing Idiomatic Competence in the ESOL Classroom: A Pragmatic Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liontas, John I.

2015-01-01

Building on previous theoretical constructs and empirical findings on idioms, this article advances an integrated theoretical and methodological framework for developing idiomatic competence in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). Beginning with a definition of the term "idiomatic competence," the author then presents a…

The Syntax of Sentential Complementation in Turkish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Predolac, Esra

2017-01-01

This dissertation examines primarily the syntactic, but also the semantic/pragmatic behavior of sentential complement clauses in Turkish and proposes a new classification of such complements. A head-final language, Turkish lacks an overt, lexical complementizer akin to English "that". The most frequent types of sentential complementation…

Affect in the "Communicative" Classroom: A Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acton, William

Recent research on affective variables and classroom second language learning suggests that: (1) affective variables are context-sensitive in at least two ways; (2) attitudes are contagious, and the general attitude of students can be influenced from various directions; (3) research in pragmatics, discourse analysis, and communicative functions…

Children's Storytelling: The Effect of Preschool and Family Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fekonja-Peklaj, Urska; Marjanovic-Umek, Ljubica; Kranjc, Simona

2010-01-01

Storytelling reflects children's pragmatic language ability, which develops rapidly in early childhood and is related to various characteristics of the child's environment. This study examines the effect of preschool, maternal education and quality of the home environment on children's storytelling skills. The sample included 229 Slovenian…

Forty Years of Struggle and Still No Right to Inuit Education in Nunavut

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasmussen, Derek

2011-01-01

In this article issues related to policy and education in the Canadian Arctic are critically put to question. The focus is on the struggle for Inuit education, language issues, and supporting minority rights, with pragmatic solutions proposed to the problems confronting Nunavut.

Second Language Learners and Speech Act Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holtgraves, Thomas

2007-01-01

Recognizing the specific speech act ( Searle, 1969) that a speaker performs with an utterance is a fundamental feature of pragmatic competence. Past research has demonstrated that native speakers of English automatically recognize speech acts when they comprehend utterances (Holtgraves & Ashley, 2001). The present research examined whether this…

Pragmatic characteristics of patient-reported outcome measures are important for use in clinical practice.

PubMed

Kroenke, Kurt; Monahan, Patrick O; Kean, Jacob

2015-09-01

Measures for assessing patient-reported outcomes (PROs) that may have initially been developed for research are increasingly being recommended for use in clinical practice as well. Although psychometric rigor is essential, this article focuses on pragmatic characteristics of PROs that may enhance uptake into clinical practice. Three sources were drawn on in identifying pragmatic criteria for PROs: (1) selected literature review including recommendations by other expert groups; (2) key features of several model public domain PROs; and (3) the authors' experience in developing practical PROs. Eight characteristics of a practical PRO include: (1) actionability (i.e., scores guide diagnostic or therapeutic actions/decision making); (2) appropriateness for the relevant clinical setting; (3) universality (i.e., for screening, severity assessment, and monitoring across multiple conditions); (4) self-administration; (5) item features (number of items and bundling issues); (6) response options (option number and dimensions, uniform vs. varying options, time frame, intervals between options); (7) scoring (simplicity and interpretability); and (8) accessibility (nonproprietary, downloadable, available in different languages and for vulnerable groups, and incorporated into electronic health records). Balancing psychometric and pragmatic factors in the development of PROs is important for accelerating the incorporation of PROs into clinical practice. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The logical syntax of number words: theory, acquisition and processing.

PubMed

Musolino, Julien

2009-04-01

Recent work on the acquisition of number words has emphasized the importance of integrating linguistic and developmental perspectives [Musolino, J. (2004). The semantics and acquisition of number words: Integrating linguistic and developmental perspectives. Cognition93, 1-41; Papafragou, A., Musolino, J. (2003). Scalar implicatures: Scalar implicatures: Experiments at the semantics-pragmatics interface. Cognition, 86, 253-282; Hurewitz, F., Papafragou, A., Gleitman, L., Gelman, R. (2006). Asymmetries in the acquisition of numbers and quantifiers. Language Learning and Development, 2, 76-97; Huang, Y. T., Snedeker, J., Spelke, L. (submitted for publication). What exactly do numbers mean?]. Specifically, these studies have shown that data from experimental investigations of child language can be used to illuminate core theoretical issues in the semantic and pragmatic analysis of number terms. In this article, I extend this approach to the logico-syntactic properties of number words, focusing on the way numerals interact with each other (e.g. Three boys are holding two balloons) as well as with other quantified expressions (e.g. Three boys are holding each balloon). On the basis of their intuitions, linguists have claimed that such sentences give rise to at least four different interpretations, reflecting the complexity of the linguistic structure and syntactic operations involved. Using psycholinguistic experimentation with preschoolers (n=32) and adult speakers of English (n=32), I show that (a) for adults, the intuitions of linguists can be verified experimentally, (b) by the age of 5, children have knowledge of the core aspects of the logical syntax of number words, (c) in spite of this knowledge, children nevertheless differ from adults in systematic ways, (d) the differences observed between children and adults can be accounted for on the basis of an independently motivated, linguistically-based processing model [Geurts, B. (2003). Quantifying kids. Language Acquisition, 11(4), 197-218]. In doing so, this work ties together research on the acquisition of the number vocabulary with a growing body of work on the development of quantification and sentence processing abilities in young children [Geurts, 2003; Lidz, J., Musolino, J. (2002). Children's command of quantification. Cognition, 84, 113-154; Musolino, J., Lidz, J. (2003). The scope of isomorphism: Turning adults into children. Language Acquisition, 11(4), 277-291; Trueswell, J., Sekerina, I., Hilland, N., Logrip, M. (1999). The kindergarten-path effect: Studying on-line sentence processing in young children. Cognition, 73, 89-134; Noveck, I. (2001). When children are more logical than adults: Experimental investigations of scalar implicature. Cognition, 78, 165-188; Noveck, I., Guelminger, R., Georgieff, N., & Labruyere, N. (2007). What autism can tell us about every. . . not sentences. Journal of Semantics,24(1), 73-90. On a more general level, this work confirms the importance of integrating formal and developmental perspectives [Musolino, 2004], this time by highlighting the explanatory power of linguistically-based models of language acquisition and by showing that the complex structure postulated by linguists has important implications for developmental accounts of the number vocabulary.

Can You Play with Fire and Not Hurt Yourself? A Comparative Study in Figurative Language Comprehension between Individuals with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Chahboun, Sobh; Vulchanov, Valentin; Saldaña, David; Eshuis, Hendrik

2016-01-01

Individuals with High functioning autism (HFA) are distinguished by relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive skills. However, problems with pragmatic language skills have been consistently reported across the autistic spectrum, even when structural language is intact. Our main goal was to investigate how highly verbal individuals with autism process figurative language and whether manipulation of the stimuli presentation modality had an impact on the processing. We were interested in the extent to which visual context, e.g., an image corresponding either to the literal meaning or the figurative meaning of the expression may facilitate responses to such expressions. Participants with HFA and their typically developing peers (matched on intelligence and language level) completed a cross-modal sentence-picture matching task for figurative expressions and their target figurative meaning represented in images. We expected that the individuals with autism would have difficulties in appreciating the non-literal nature of idioms and metaphors, despite intact structural language skills. Analyses of accuracy and reaction times showed clearly that the participants with autism performed at a lower level than their typically developing peers. Moreover, the modality in which the stimuli were presented was an important variable in task performance for the more transparent expressions. The individuals with autism displayed higher error rates and greater reaction latencies in the auditory modality compared to the visual stimulus presentation modality, implying more difficulty. Performance differed depending on type of expression. Participants had more difficulty understanding the culturally-based expressions, but not expressions grounded in human experience (biological idioms). This research highlights the importance of stimulus presentation modality and that this can lead to differences in figurative language comprehension between typically and atypically developing individuals. The current study also contributes to current debates on the role of structural language in figurative language comprehension in autism. PMID:28036344

Can You Play with Fire and Not Hurt Yourself? A Comparative Study in Figurative Language Comprehension between Individuals with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Chahboun, Sobh; Vulchanov, Valentin; Saldaña, David; Eshuis, Hendrik; Vulchanova, Mila

2016-01-01

Individuals with High functioning autism (HFA) are distinguished by relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive skills. However, problems with pragmatic language skills have been consistently reported across the autistic spectrum, even when structural language is intact. Our main goal was to investigate how highly verbal individuals with autism process figurative language and whether manipulation of the stimuli presentation modality had an impact on the processing. We were interested in the extent to which visual context, e.g., an image corresponding either to the literal meaning or the figurative meaning of the expression may facilitate responses to such expressions. Participants with HFA and their typically developing peers (matched on intelligence and language level) completed a cross-modal sentence-picture matching task for figurative expressions and their target figurative meaning represented in images. We expected that the individuals with autism would have difficulties in appreciating the non-literal nature of idioms and metaphors, despite intact structural language skills. Analyses of accuracy and reaction times showed clearly that the participants with autism performed at a lower level than their typically developing peers. Moreover, the modality in which the stimuli were presented was an important variable in task performance for the more transparent expressions. The individuals with autism displayed higher error rates and greater reaction latencies in the auditory modality compared to the visual stimulus presentation modality, implying more difficulty. Performance differed depending on type of expression. Participants had more difficulty understanding the culturally-based expressions, but not expressions grounded in human experience (biological idioms). This research highlights the importance of stimulus presentation modality and that this can lead to differences in figurative language comprehension between typically and atypically developing individuals. The current study also contributes to current debates on the role of structural language in figurative language comprehension in autism.

[The Spanish adapted version of the Children's Communication Checklist identifies disorders of pragmatic use of language and differentiates between clinical subtypes].

PubMed

Crespo-Eguilaz, N; Magallon, S; Sanchez-Carpintero, R; Narbona, J

2016-01-01

The Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) by Bishop is a useful scale for evaluation of pragmatic verbal abilities in school children. The aim of the study is to ascertain the validity and reliability of the CCC in Spanish. Answers to the CCC items by parents of 360 children with normal intelligence were analyzed. There were five groups: 160 control children; 68 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, 77 with procedural non-verbal disorder, 25 children with social communication disorder and 30 with autism spectrum disorder. Investigations included: factorial analysis in order to cluster checklist items, reliability analyses of the proposed scales and discriminant analysis to check whether the scale correctly classifies children with pragmatic verbal abilities. Seven factors were obtained (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin: 0.852) with moderate similarity with those of the original scale: social relationships, interests, and five more that can be grouped into pragmatic verbal ability (conversational abilities, coherence-comprehension, empathy nonverbal communication and appropriateness). All factors are significantly correlated with each other in the control group, and the five that compose pragmatic verbal ability correlate with each other in the clinical groups (Pearson r). The scales have good reliability (Cronbach's alpha: 0.914). The questionnaire correctly classifies 98.9% of grouped cases with and without pragmatic disorder and 78% of subjects in their appropriate clinical group. Besides, the questionnaire allows to differentiate the pathologies according to the presence and intensity of the symptoms. This Spanish version of the CCC is highly valid and reliable. The proposed statistics can be used as normative-reference values.

The role of pragmatics in mediating the relationship between social disadvantage and adolescent behavior.

PubMed

Law, James; Rush, Robert; Clegg, Judy; Peters, Tim; Roulstone, Susan

2015-06-01

The relationship between social disadvantage, behavior, and communication in childhood is well established. Less is known about how these 3 interact across childhood and specifically whether pragmatic language skills act as a mediator between early social disadvantage and adolescent behavior. The sample was the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a representative birth cohort initially recruited in England in 1991/1992 and followed through to adolescence and beyond. Of the original 13,992 live births, data were available for 2926 children at 13 years. Univariable analysis was first used to identify sociodemographic and other predictors of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at 13 years. The mediational role of the pragmatics scale of the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) at 9 years was then tested, controlling for age, gender, and IQ. There was evidence of both a direct effect from social disadvantage (path C') to SDQ Total Behavior Score at 13 years (-.205; p < .001) and an indirect effect from social disadvantage to SDQ Total (-.225; p < .001) after adjusting for the CCC pragmatics scale as a mediator. The latter represents a reduction in the magnitude of the unadjusted effect or "total effect" (-.430), demonstrating that the pragmatics scale partially mediates the relationship of early social disadvantage and adolescent behavior (even after controlling for other covariates). The same relationship held for all but the pro-social subscale of the SDQ. The results provide evidence to suggest that there maybe a causal relationship between these variables, suggesting that interventions targeting pragmatic skills have the potential to reduce adolescent behavioral symptoms.

A pragmatic trial to improve adherence with scheduled appointments in an inner-city pain clinic by human phone calls in the patient's preferred language.

PubMed

Andreae, Michael H; Nair, Singh; Gabry, Jonah S; Goodrich, Ben; Hall, Charles; Shaparin, Naum

2017-11-01

We investigated if human reminder phone calls in the patient's preferred language increase adherence with scheduled appointments in an inner-city chronic pain clinic. We hypothesized that language and cultural incongruence is the underlying mechanism to explain poor attendance at clinic appointments in underserved Hispanic populations. Pragmatic randomized controlled clinical trial SETTING: Innercity academic chronic pain clinic with a diverse, predominantly African-American and Hispanic population PATIENTS: All (n=963) adult patients with a scheduled first appointment between October 2014 and October 2015 at the Montefiore Pain Center in the Bronx, New York were enrolled. Patients were randomized to receive a human reminder call in their preferred language before their appointment, or no contact. We recorded patients' demographic characteristics and as primary outcome attendance as scheduled, failure to attend and/or cancellation calls. We fit Bayesian and classical multinomial logistic regression models to test if the intervention improved adherence with scheduled appointments. Among the 953 predominantly African American and Hispanic/Latino patients, 475 patients were randomly selected to receive a language-congruent, human reminder call, while 478 were assigned to receive no prior contact, (after we excluded 10 patients, scheduled for repeat appointments). In the experimental group, 275 patients adhered to their scheduled appointment, while 84 cancelled and 116 failed to attend. In the control group, 249 patients adhered to their scheduled appointment, 31 cancelled and 198 failed to attend. Human phone reminders in the preferred language increased adherence (RR 1.89, CI95% [1.42, 1.42], (p<0.01). The intervention seemed particularly effective in Hispanic patients, supporting our hypothesis of cultural congruence as possible underlying mechanism. Human reminder phone calls prior in the patient's preferred language increased adherence with scheduled appointments. The intervention facilitated access to much needed care in an ethnically diverse, resource poor population, presumably by overcoming language barriers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adult psychosocial outcomes of children with specific language impairment, pragmatic language impairment and autism

PubMed Central

Whitehouse, Andrew J O; Watt, Helen J; Line, E A; Bishop, Dorothy V M

2009-01-01

Background: The few studies that have tracked children with developmental language disorder to adulthood have found that these individuals experience considerable difficulties with psychosocial adjustment (for example, academic, vocational and social aptitude). Evidence that some children also develop autistic symptomatology over time has raised suggestions that developmental language disorder may be a high-functioning form of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is not yet clear whether these outcomes vary between individuals with different subtypes of language impairment. Aims: To compare the adult psychosocial outcomes of children with specific language impairment (SLI), pragmatic language impairment (PLI) and ASD. Methods & Procedures: All participants took part in research as children. In total, there were 19 young adults with a childhood history of Specific Language Impairment (M age = 24;8), seven with PLI (M age = 22;3), 11 with high functioning ASD (M age = 21;9) and 12 adults with no history of developmental disorder (Typical; n = 12; M age = 21;6). At follow-up, participants and their parents were interviewed to elicit information about psychosocial outcomes. Outcomes & Results: Participants in the SLI group were most likely to pursue vocational training and work in jobs not requiring a high level of language/literacy ability. The PLI group tended to obtain higher levels of education and work in ‘skilled’ professions. The ASD participants had lower levels of independence and more difficulty obtaining employment than the PLI and SLI participants. All groups had problems establishing social relationships, but these difficulties were most prominent in the PLI and ASD groups. A small number of participants in each group were found to experience affective disturbances. The PLI and SLI groups showed lower levels of autistic symptomatology than the ASD group. Conclusions & Implications: The between-group differences in autistic symptomatology provide further evidence that SLI, PLI, and ASD are related disorders that vary along qualitative dimensions of language structure, language use and circumscribed interests. Childhood diagnosis showed some relation to adult psychosocial outcome. However, within-group variation highlights the importance of evaluating children on a case-by-case basis. PMID:19340628

Salience and Attention in Surprisal-Based Accounts of Language Processing

PubMed Central

Zarcone, Alessandra; van Schijndel, Marten; Vogels, Jorrig; Demberg, Vera

2016-01-01

The notion of salience has been singled out as the explanatory factor for a diverse range of linguistic phenomena. In particular, perceptual salience (e.g., visual salience of objects in the world, acoustic prominence of linguistic sounds) and semantic-pragmatic salience (e.g., prominence of recently mentioned or topical referents) have been shown to influence language comprehension and production. A different line of research has sought to account for behavioral correlates of cognitive load during comprehension as well as for certain patterns in language usage using information-theoretic notions, such as surprisal. Surprisal and salience both affect language processing at different levels, but the relationship between the two has not been adequately elucidated, and the question of whether salience can be reduced to surprisal / predictability is still open. Our review identifies two main challenges in addressing this question: terminological inconsistency and lack of integration between high and low levels of representations in salience-based accounts and surprisal-based accounts. We capitalize upon work in visual cognition in order to orient ourselves in surveying the different facets of the notion of salience in linguistics and their relation with models of surprisal. We find that work on salience highlights aspects of linguistic communication that models of surprisal tend to overlook, namely the role of attention and relevance to current goals, and we argue that the Predictive Coding framework provides a unified view which can account for the role played by attention and predictability at different levels of processing and which can clarify the interplay between low and high levels of processes and between predictability-driven expectation and attention-driven focus. PMID:27375525

Bridging the gap between DeafBlind minds: interactional and social foundations of intention attribution in the Seattle DeafBlind community

PubMed Central

Edwards, Terra

2015-01-01

This article is concerned with social and interactional processes that simplify pragmatic acts of intention attribution. The empirical focus is a series of interactions among DeafBlind people in Seattle, Washington, where pointing signs are used to individuate objects of reference in the immediate environment. Most members of this community are born deaf and slowly become blind. They come to Seattle using Visual American Sign Language, which has emerged and developed in a field organized around visual modes of access. As vision deteriorates, however, links between deictic signs (such as pointing) and the present, remembered, or imagined environment erode in idiosyncratic ways across the community of language-users, and as a result, it becomes increasingly difficult for participants to converge on objects of reference. In the past, DeafBlind people addressed this problem by relying on sighted interpreters. Under the influence of the recent “pro-tactile” movement, they have turned instead to one another to find new solutions to these referential problems. Drawing on analyses of 120 h of videorecorded interaction and language-use, detailed fieldnotes collected during 12 months of sustained anthropological fieldwork, and more than 15 years of involvement in this community in a range of capacities, I argue that DeafBlind people are generating new and reciprocal modes of access to their environment, and this process is aligning language with context in novel ways. I discuss two mechanisms that can account for this process: embedding in the social field and deictic integration. I argue that together, these social and interactional processes yield a deictic system set to retrieve a restricted range of values from the extra-linguistic context, thereby attenuating the cognitive demands of intention attribution and narrowing the gap between DeafBlind minds. PMID:26500576

Cognitive Adequacy in a Dialogic Functional Discourse Grammar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackenzie, J. Lachlan

2012-01-01

Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), as a theory of the organization of natural languages, seeks to attain pragmatic, typological and cognitive adequacy. The attempt to achieve cognitive adequacy has been fraught with problems stemming from the vagueness of the concept and the difficulty of adapting to trends in psycholinguistics. Specifically,…

Request Modification in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication: The Role of Focused Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, D. Joseph

2016-01-01

The pairing of telecollaboration and focused instruction can lead to measurable gains in second language learners' pragmatic competence (Belz & Vyatkina, 2005, 2008; Vyatkina & Belz, 2006). This article examines speech act production in telecollaborative exchange, focusing on the requesting behavior of American learners of German for…

Promoting Task-Based Pragmatics Instruction in EFL Classroom Contexts: The Role of Task Complexity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Youjin; Taguchi, Naoko

2015-01-01

Robinson's (2001) Cognition Hypothesis claims that more complex tasks promote interaction and language development. This study examined the effect of task complexity in the learning of request-making expressions. Task complexity was operationalized as [+/- reasoning] following Robinson's framework. The study employed a pretest-posttest research…

Asperger Syndrome: A Primer for Behavioral Interventionists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polirstok, Susan Rovet; Houghteling, Lawrence

2006-01-01

Children and adolescents with Asperger Syndrome are intellectually capable, rigid and often obsessive, adhere to stereotypic routines, demonstrate difficulties with pragmatic language and characteristically lack social skills. While the extent of these behaviors may wax and wane and vary by individual, they are in stark contrast with the high…

Principles for Pragmatics Teaching: "Apologies" in the EFL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Limberg, Holger

2015-01-01

Intercultural Communicative Competence is a paramount goal of modern foreign language teaching. It is the ability to communicate in culturally sensitive and contextually appropriate ways with speakers from other cultures. Being able to apologize is one component of this competence. Uttering apologies allows learners to rectify breaches of social…

"Denuncio pero lo lamento...": Attitudinal Hedges and the Pragmatics of the Explicitly Performative Verb in Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Miranda

2013-01-01

on hedging in a variety of languages (e.g. Myers 1989; Markannen & Schroder 1997; Hyland 2005), primarily concentrating on its use in academic writing and identifying cultural differences in the propensity to hedge between different communities of practice. Furthermore,…

R. S. Peters: The Reasonableness of Ethics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haynes, Felicity

2013-01-01

This article will begin by examining the extent to which R. S. Peters merited the charge of analytic philosopher. His background in social psychology allowed him to become more pragmatic and grounded in social conventions and ordinary language than the analytic philosophers associated with empiricism, and his gradual shift from requiring internal…

Promoting Metapragmatic Development through Assessment in the Zone of Proximal Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Compernolle, Remi A.; Kinginger, Celeste

2013-01-01

The assessment of second language (L2) pragmatic competence typically involves questionnaires, such as discourse completion tasks. This article describes a novel approach to using questionnaires to assess L2 metapragmatic capacities while simultaneously promoting their development: engaging learners in cooperative interaction as they complete the…

A Game-Theoretic Model of Grounding for Referential Communication Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, William

2009-01-01

Conversational grounding theory proposes that language use is a form of rational joint action, by which dialog participants systematically and collaboratively add to their common ground of shared knowledge and beliefs. Following recent work applying "game theory" to pragmatics, this thesis develops a game-theoretic model of grounding that…

Nativelike Right-Dislocation in Near-Native French

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donaldson, Bryan

2011-01-01

Recent research on advanced and near-native second-language (L2) speakers has focused on the acquisition of interface phenomena, for example at the syntax-pragmatics interface. Proponents of the Interface Hypothesis (e.g. Sorace, 2005; Sorace and Filiaci, 2006; Tsimpli and Sorace, 2006; Sorace and Serratrice, 2009) argue that (external) interfaces…

Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence through Online Exchanges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chun, Dorothy M.

2011-01-01

Based on Byram's (1997) definition of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and on specific types of discourse analysis proposed by Kramsch and Thorne (2002) and Ware and Kramsch (2005), this article explores how online exchanges can play a role in second language learners' development of pragmatic competence and ICC. With data obtained…

Pour Savoir ou vous en etes. Evaluez vous-meme vos connaissances (Knowing Where You Are. Evaluate Your Knowledge by Yourself).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aiello, Angelo; And Others

1986-01-01

A form is presented for language teacher self-evaluation concerning attitudes and knowledge about learning theories, general linguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, teaching methodology, the communicative approach, class activities, class management, instructional support, and evaluation. (MSE)