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dc.contributor.authorRubio-Fernandez, Paula
dc.date.accessioned2021-09-20T17:30:03Z
dc.date.available2021-09-20T17:30:03Z
dc.date.issued2020-07-08
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/131736
dc.description.abstractAbstract Language and Theory of Mind come together in communication, but their relationship has been intensely contested. I hypothesize that pragmatic markers connect language and Theory of Mind and enable their co-development and co-evolution through a positive feedback loop, whereby the development of one skill boosts the development of the other. I propose to test this hypothesis by investigating two types of pragmatic markers: demonstratives (e.g., ‘this’ vs. ‘that’ in English) and articles (e.g., ‘a’ vs. ‘the’). Pragmatic markers are closed-class words that encode non-representational information that is unavailable to consciousness, but accessed automatically in processing. These markers have been associated with implicit Theory of Mind because they are used to establish joint attention (e.g., ‘I prefer that one’) and mark shared knowledge (e.g., ‘We bought the house’ vs. ‘We bought a house’). Here I develop a theoretical account of how joint attention (as driven by the use of demonstratives) is the basis for children’s later tracking of common ground (as marked by definite articles). The developmental path from joint attention to common ground parallels language change, with demonstrative forms giving rise to definite articles. This parallel opens the possibility of modelling the emergence of Theory of Mind in human development in tandem with its routinization across language communities and generations of speakers. I therefore propose that, in order to understand the relationship between language and Theory of Mind, we should study pragmatics at three parallel timescales: during language acquisition, language use, and language change.en_US
dc.publisherSpringer Netherlandsen_US
dc.relation.isversionofhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02768-zen_US
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attributionen_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_US
dc.sourceSpringer Netherlandsen_US
dc.titlePragmatic markers: the missing link between language and Theory of Minden_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.contributor.departmentMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
dc.identifier.mitlicensePUBLISHER_CC
dc.eprint.versionFinal published versionen_US
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticleen_US
eprint.statushttp://purl.org/eprint/status/PeerRevieweden_US
dc.date.updated2020-07-09T05:05:31Z
dc.language.rfc3066en
dc.rights.holderThe Author(s)
dspace.embargo.termsN
dspace.date.submission2020-07-09T05:05:31Z
mit.licensePUBLISHER_CC
mit.metadata.statusAuthority Work and Publication Information Needed


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