Expressive Pragmatics and Prosody in Young Preschoolers are More Closely Related to Structural Language than to Mentalizing

Abstract

Pragmatics lies at the point where language meets the social world and encompasses both the linguistic and the social dimensions of communication. However, the relationship between pragmatic abilities, other language skills, and socio-cognitive aspects such as mentalizing is still a matter of wide debate. This study sets out to investigate the status of pragmatic abilities by testing from a developmental angle their relationship with other linguistic skills and mentalizing. We examined the role of structural language and mentalizing on both expressive pragmatic and prosodic skills in typically developing preschool children. A total of 105 3-to 4-year-old children were assessed on pragmatics and prosody with the Audiovisual Pragmatic Test, as well as on structural language skills (vocabulary and syntax) and a series of mentalizing measures (false belief, emotion understanding, and metacognitive vocabulary). A combined approach including correlations, regressions, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. Structural language was a strong positive predictor of both pragmatic and prosodic scores, while mentalizing predicted neither pragmatic nor prosodic performance. We suggest that in preschool years, expressive pragmatics and prosodic skills are more closely related to structural language skills than to mentalizing.

How theory of mind leads to positive first impressions.

“…Our results demonstrating a positive association between theory of mind accuracy and paralinguistic features are consistent with research in psycholinguistics indicating that the ability to produce and comprehend appropriate supralinguistic information that clarifies communicative intentions (e.g., prosodic contours and gestures) relates to theory of mind skills across development (see e.g., Chevalier et al, 2011; Pronina et al, 2023; Sabbagh, 1999). Our results extend this research and help to explain how individual differences in abstract social-cognitive skills manifest in daily life.…”

Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS) Brief Remote: a novel tool for the rapid and tele-evaluation of pragmatic skills in Italian

“…The validity of the APACS Brief Remote test was further supported by the significant associations with the measures of vocabulary and global cognitive profile. Previous literature emphasized the association between vocabulary skills and pragmatic abilities, both in typical and atypical populations and across ages (e.g., Andrés-Roqueta & Katsos, 2017;Pronina et al, 2022;Zanini et al, 2005). The role of vocabulary seems to be particularly important for the comprehension of figurative language, in particular for understanding metaphors (e.g., Cappelli et al, 2018;Kazmerski et al, 2003;Matthews et al, 2018) and humor (Bambini, Bischetti, et al, 2020;Bischetti et al, 2019).…”