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Children's communicative abilities revisited: verbal versus perceptual disambiguating strategies in referential communication*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Joel Pynte ,
Vittorio Girotto  and
Thierry Baccino
Joel Pynte*
Affiliation:
CNRS and Université de Provence
Vittorio Girotto
Affiliation:
Istituto di Psicologia del CNR, Rome
Thierry Baccino
Affiliation:
CNRS and Université de Provence
*
CREPCO, Université de Provence, 29, Av. R. Schumann, 13621 Aix-en-Provence, France.
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Abstract

The way seven- and nine-year-old French children and adults interpret ambiguous object descriptions was studied in four experiments. All four experiments followed the same basic procedure and consisted of two phases. During the training phase, plastic blocks varying in shape, colour and size were associated with fruit names. Some objects were always given just one label, the generic term, whereas others could be given either the generic or the specific label. For example, large circles were referred to as ‘pommes’ (‘apples’), and large BLUE circles as ‘reinettes’ (a kind of apple). Still others were given no name at all. During the test phase of the experiment, subjects were presented with referentially ambiguous messages and asked to point to a given object (Experiments 1, 2 and 3) or to draw an object (Experiment 4). The messages consisted of either a generic term preceded by an article (e.g. ‘(la pomme’ – ‘the apple’) or a verbal description based on a colour adjective (e.g. ‘le bleu’ – ‘the blue one’). When presented with the generic term, older children and adults persistently chose the object for which no specific term had been given during the training phase. When presented with an adjective description, they chose the referent for which no fruit name had been given during the training phase. Younger children's choices depended on whether the article preceding the description was definite or indefinite. These results are consistent with the Gricean approach to referential communication proposed by Jackson & Jacobs (1982) and with an extended version of the principle of contrast proposed by Clark (1987, 1988).

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 1991 , pp. 191 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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Footnotes

*

The authors are grateful to the children and staff of Cuques and Marcel Pagnol Schools in Aix-en-Provence, France, for their co-operation. The research reported here was partly supported by grants from the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, France, and the CNR, Italy, to Vittorio Girotto.

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