Papafragou Anna, Grigoroglou Myrto
Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228, USA.
Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 3G3.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2025 Aug 14;380(1932):20230502. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0502.
A foundational assumption in theoretical models of communication is that the derivation of pragmatic meaning involves the calculation of speaker intention and hence relies on a form of Theory of Mind (ToM). Recent theorizing, however, has challenged the conclusion that ToM is required for all types of pragmatic processing. Here, we provide a theoretical synthesis of a wide-ranging but seemingly conflicting set of empirical findings on the role of ToM in pragmatic processing in children and adults, focusing on two key phenomena, reference and implicature. We argue that the state of the art offers no reason to abandon the hypothesis that both adults and children rely on ToM for the computation of pragmatic meanings. We propose that, across these and other pragmatic phenomena, apparent differences in ToM involvement can be attributed to principled and predictable outcomes based on how ToM is applied to the context in hand. We conclude by outlining new ways of studying the contributions of ToM to pragmatic interpretation.This article is part of the theme issue 'At the heart of human communication: new views on the complex relationship between pragmatics and Theory of Mind'.
沟通理论模型中的一个基本假设是，语用意义的推导涉及对说话者意图的计算，因此依赖于一种心理理论（ToM）形式。然而，最近的理论化对“所有类型的语用处理都需要心理理论”这一结论提出了挑战。在这里，我们对一系列广泛但看似相互矛盾的实证研究结果进行了理论综合，这些研究结果涉及心理理论在儿童和成人语用处理中的作用，重点关注两个关键现象：指称和含意。我们认为，现有研究没有理由放弃“成人和儿童在计算语用意义时都依赖心理理论”这一假设。我们提出，在这些以及其他语用现象中，心理理论参与程度的明显差异可以归因于基于心理理论如何应用于手头语境的有原则且可预测的结果。我们通过概述研究心理理论对语用解释贡献的新方法来结束本文。本文是主题为“人类沟通的核心：关于语用学与心理理论复杂关系的新观点”的一部分。
