Acquiring Epistemic Modal Auxiliaries: the Role of Theory of Mind

Hannah N. M. De Mulder; Annette Gautero-Watzema

doi:10.2478/rela-2018-0004

Authors

Hannah N. M. De Mulder Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL)
Annette Gautero-Watzema

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/rela-2018-0004

Keywords:

epistemic modality, Theory of Mind, word learning, autism

Abstract

This study considers the acquisition of epistemic modal auxiliaries (EMA) in typically developing (TD) and autistic children and the role that Theory of Mind (ToM) plays in this development. Nineteen Dutch-speaking TD children and ten autistic children received tasks assessing ToM, general linguistic ability and EMA comprehension. Results suggest that both groups have some understanding of the Dutch EMA system, but no significant differences were found between groups. However, once participants were divided into ToM passers and ToM failers irrespective of clinical diagnosis, results showed that passers performed significantly better than failers on EMA understanding. Having a good understanding of others’ mental states, as evidenced by full marks on ToM tasks, thus seems important in the acquisition of EMA.

References

Astington, Janet Wilde and Baird, Jodie. A. 2005. Why Language Matters for Theory of Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Baillargeon, Renée. Scott, Rose M. and He, Zijing. 2010. False-belief understanding in infants. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14. 110-118.
Google Scholar

Baldwin, Dare A. 1993. Infants’ ability to consult the speaker for clues to word reference. Journal of Child Language 20. 395-418.
Google Scholar

Baldwin, Dare A. and Moses, Louis J. 2001. Links between social understanding and early word learning: Challenges to current accounts. Social Development 10. 309-329.
Google Scholar

Baron-Cohen, Simon, Baldwin, Dare and Crowson, Mary. 1997. Do children with autism use the speaker’s direction of gaze strategy to crack the code of language? Child Development 68. 48-57.
Google Scholar

Baron-Cohen, Simon, Leslie, Alan M. and Frith, Uta. 1985. Does the autistic child have a ‘theory of mind’? Cognition 21. 37-46.
Google Scholar

Baron-Cohen, Simon, Ring, Howard, Moriarty, John, Schmitz, Bettina, Costa, Durval and Ell, Peter. 1994. Recognition of mental state terms. Clinical findings in children with autism and a functional neuroimaging study of normal adults. British Journal of Psychiatry 165. 640-649.
Google Scholar

Bascelli, Elisabetta and Barbieri, Maria S. 2002. Italian children’s understanding of the epistemic and deontic modal verbs dovere must and potere may. Journal of Child Language 29. 87-107.
Google Scholar

Bloom, Paul. 2000. How Children Learn the Meaning of Words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Google Scholar

Bloom, Paul. 2002. Mindreading, communication and the learning of names for things. Mind & Language 17. 37-54.
Google Scholar

Capps, Lisa, Kehres, Jennifer and Sigman, Marian. 1998. Conversational abilities among children with autism and children with developmental delays. Autism 2. 325-344.
Google Scholar

Call, Josep and Tomasello, Michael. 1999. A nonverbal false belief task: The performance of children and great apes. Child Development 70. 381-395.
Google Scholar

De Mulder, Hannah. 2015. Developing communicative competence: A longitudinal study of the acquisition of mental state terms and indirect requests. Journal of Child Language 42. 969-1005.
Google Scholar

de Villiers, Jill. G. 2005. Can language acquisition give children a point of view? In Janet Wilde Astington and Jodie A. Baird (eds.) Why Language Matters for Theory of Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 186-219.
Google Scholar

de Villiers, Jill. 2007. The interface of language and Theory of Mind. Lingua 117. 1858-1878.
Google Scholar

Ding, Xiao. P., Wellman, Henry M., Wang, Yu, Fu, Genyue and Lee, Kang. 2015. Theory-of-Mind training causes honest young children to lie. Psychological Science 26. 1812-1821.
Google Scholar

Field, Andy. 2005. Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. London: Sage publications.
Google Scholar

Frith, Uta. 2003. Autism: Explaining the Enigma. Oxford: Blackwell publishing.
Google Scholar

Frith, Uta and Happé, Francesca. 1994. Language and communication in autistic disorders. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences 346. 97-104.
Google Scholar

Happé, Francesca. 1993. Communicative competence and theory of mind in autism: A test of relevance theory. Cognition 48. 101-119.
Google Scholar

Happé, Francesca and Loth, Eva. 2002. ‘Theory of Mind’ and tracking speakers’ intentions. Mind & Language 17. 24-36.
Google Scholar

Hirst, William and Weil, Joyce. 1982. Acquisition of epistemic and deontic meaning of modals. Journal of Child Language 9. 659-666.
Google Scholar

Ifantidou, Elly. 2005. Evidential particles and mind-reading. Pragmatics & Cognition 13. 253-295.
Google Scholar

Kazak, Sibel, Collis, Glyn M. and Lewis, Vicky. 1997. Can young people with autism refer to knowledge states? Evidence from their understanding of know and guess. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 38. 1001-1009.
Google Scholar

Leslie, Alan. M. and Thaiss, Laila. 1992. Domain specificity in conceptual development: Neuropsychological evidence from autism. Cognition 43. 225-251.
Google Scholar

Milligan, Karen, Astington, Janet Wilde and Dack, Lisa Ain. 2007. Language and Theory of Mind: Meta-analysis of the relation between language ability and false-belief understanding. Child Development 77. 622-646.
Google Scholar

Moore, Chris, Pure, Kiran and Furrow, David. 1990. Children’s understanding of the modal expressions of speaker certainty and uncertainty and its relation to the development of a representational theory of mind. Child Development 61. 722-730.
Google Scholar

Noveck, Ira A., Ho, Simon and Sera, Maria. 1996. Children’s understanding of epistemic modals. Journal of Child Language 23. 621-643.
Google Scholar

Papafragou, Anna. 1998. The acquisition of modality: Implications for theories of semantic representation. Mind & Language 13. 370-399.
Google Scholar

Papafragou, Anna. 2001. Linking early linguistic and conceptual capacities: The role of theory of mind. In Alan Cienki, Barbara Luka and Michael Smith (eds.) Conceptual Structure, Discourse and Language IV. Stanford: CSLI Publications: 169-184.
Google Scholar

Papafragou, Anna. 2002. Modality and theory of mind: Perspectives from language development and autism. In Sjef Barbiers, Frits Beukema and Wim van der Wurff (eds.) Modality and its Interaction with the Verbal System. Amsterdam: Benjamins: 185-204.
Google Scholar

Papafragou, Anna and Li, Peggy. 2001. Evidential morphology and theory of mind. In Barbora Skarabela, Sarah Fish and Anna H.-J. Do (eds.) Proceedings from the 26th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press: 510-520.
Google Scholar

Perner, Josef, Leekam Susan. R. and Wimmer, Heinz. 1987. Three year olds’ difficulty with false belief: the case for a conceptual deficit. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 5. 125-137.
Google Scholar

Schlichting, Liesbeth. 2005. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III-NL. Harcourt test Publishers: Amsterdam.
Google Scholar

Tager-Flusberg, Helen. 1992. Autistic children’s talk about psychological states: Deficits in the early acquisition of a theory of mind. Child Development 63. 161-172.
Google Scholar

Van Eldik, Marcia C. M., Schlichting, Liesbeth E. P. T., lutje Spelberg, Henk C., van der Meulen, Bieuwe F. and van der Meulen, Sjoeke. 1995. Reynell Test voor Taalbegrip. Nijmegen: Berkhout.
Google Scholar

Wimmer, Heinz and Perner, Josef. 1983. Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception. Cognition 13. 103-128.
Google Scholar

Yirmiya, Nurit, Erel, Osnat, Shaked, Michal and Solomonica-Levi, Daphna. 1998. Meta-analyses comparing theory of mind abilities of individuals with autism, individuals with mental retardation and normally developing individuals. Psychological Bulletin 124. 283-307.
Google Scholar

Ziatas, Kathryn, Durkin, Kevin and Pratt, Chris. 1998. Belief term development in children with autism, Asperger syndrome, specific language impairment, and normal development: Links to theory of mind development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 39. 755-763.
Google Scholar