TY - JOUR

T1 - Common Ground and Development

AU - Bohn, Manuel

AU - Köymen, Bahar

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Authors. Child Development Perspectives © 2017 The Society for Research in Child Development

PY - 2018/6/1

Y1 - 2018/6/1

N2 - Language and other forms of communication are inherently ambiguous and therefore require some form of common ground to specify the intended meanings of utterances. Theoretical accounts usually focus on interactions between adults and consider recursive mindreading a prerequisite to establishing common ground. Contrasting these accounts, in this article, we offer a developmental perspective on common ground. We propose that instead of using recursive mindreading, infants rely initially on the expectation that communicative partners act rationally in light of previous interactions, which serves as a starting point for common ground to develop. We describe the changing role of common ground across development. Initially, common ground constrains the meaning of ambiguous communicative acts and facilitates children's acquisition of language. Later in development, common ground makes communication efficient by helping speakers coordinate their actions and intentions, and eventually arrive at recursive mindreading.

AB - Language and other forms of communication are inherently ambiguous and therefore require some form of common ground to specify the intended meanings of utterances. Theoretical accounts usually focus on interactions between adults and consider recursive mindreading a prerequisite to establishing common ground. Contrasting these accounts, in this article, we offer a developmental perspective on common ground. We propose that instead of using recursive mindreading, infants rely initially on the expectation that communicative partners act rationally in light of previous interactions, which serves as a starting point for common ground to develop. We describe the changing role of common ground across development. Initially, common ground constrains the meaning of ambiguous communicative acts and facilitates children's acquisition of language. Later in development, common ground makes communication efficient by helping speakers coordinate their actions and intentions, and eventually arrive at recursive mindreading.

KW - common ground

KW - language development

KW - theory of mind

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85033501675&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/cdep.12269

DO - 10.1111/cdep.12269

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85033501675

VL - 12

SP - 104

EP - 108

JO - Child Development Perspectives

JF - Child Development Perspectives

SN - 1750-8592

IS - 2

ER -