Children do ask, but do not know how to do asking: Epi-pragmatic vs. meta-pragmatic skill
Children do ask, but do not know how to do asking: Epi-pragmatic vs. meta-pragmatic skill

Summary/Abstract: Old findings on children’s comprehension of ask and tell were subject to different interpretations reflecting progress in the field of language acquisition. We want to show that acquiring a particular skill does not necessarily include competence of its intentional control and use. Development of linguistic skills takes place at different levels starting from early spontaneous, implicit abilities to the level of meta-pragmatic reflexive knowledge that enables deliberate monitoring, planning, and practice. The present study was aimed at exploring two extreme points in development: early epi-pragmatic and late reflexive metapragmatic competence. The first part aims at finding the earliest instances of children spontaneous ability to pass ask-instructions, and the evidence is provided for the ages as early as 22 to 40 months (much earlier than recorded in the previous studies). The second part is experimental and focuses on children’s ability to respond to ask- and tell-instructions in the context of a cancelled conversational rule (Gricean Maxim of Quantity) which requires deliberate monitoring and use. The results show that this meta-pragmatic reflexive ability becomes stable only at the age of 6 years.

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