Monolingual and bilingual use of the maximize presupposition principle

lecture at Università Ca' Foscari, Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Culturali Comparati, Venezia, 26. 11. 2020

Abstract

This talk is an experimental investigation of the status of Maximize presupposition as an operative pragmatic principle that regulates speakers’ preferences among semantically equivalent attitude reports. We present results from two acquisitional studies. The first study explores sensitivity of 5 and 7-year old Slovenian-speaking children to the principle from a developmental perspective. The second study examines the influence of bilingualism on the use of this principle by comparing monolingual Slovenian and Italian children to early bilingual children acquiring both languages. The results suggest that while even the youngest children demonstrate adherence to Maximize presupposition in an adult-like manner, bilingualism affects performance in pragmatic tasks and constitutes a potential advantage in the relevant area.

Keywords

bilingualism;pragmatic ability;implicated presupposition;Maximize presupposition;attitude verbs;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2020
Typology:	3.14 - Invited Lecture at Foreign University
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	81'1
COBISS:	50509315
Views:	1639
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