ACHIZITIA LIMBAJULUI SI "TEORIA MINTII"

Written by Ioanna BERTHOUD-PAPANDROPOULOU, Helga KILCHER on 15 December 2006. Posted in Special issue: Typical And Atypical Development, Guest Editors: Oana BENGA, Thea IONESCU, Volume VIII, Nr. 3-4

Abstract:

Are children able to spontaneously invoque a speaker's mental states in order to explain his talk? Ninety-six children aged five to nine were presented with utterances produced in a conversation between speakers-puppets, and then asked " why did the speaker say that? ". Two mental states were studied: false belief and uncertainty. Two hypotheses were tested: firstly, we supposed that the reasons given develop with age; secondly, we supposed that false belief is easier to treat than uncertainty. Results show the existence of four hierarchically ordered types of reasons, with the most elementary being referential ones. Mental reasons are invoqued for uncertainty only from the age of 7-8 onwards, while appearing at earlier ages for false belief. The intermediary types of reasons are discussed both from a developmental and pragmatic point of view.

Keywords: theory of mind, explanatory behaviour, language development, pragmatic competences