Children's understanding of the opaque and transparent uses of language
Deepthi Kamawar2000
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Abstract
A developmental study of diildren's sensitivity to opaque contexts is reported. Sentences are cowidered opaque if the substitution of a term with a co-referential term can change the truth of the sentence (e.g., "John thinks that Venus is the Moming Star"). Opaque contexts often involve propositional attitude verbs such as 'know' and 'think'. Sensitivity to opacity requires understanding that a referent c m be represented in different ways, and that the specifïc description that is used is important. Two studies were conducted investigating children's ability to deal with opacity. In the first, 4-to &year-olds were given a variety of opacity tasks (referential, linguistic and intentional), false belief tasks, digit span, and vocabulary measures. The results of the first study indicated that children were more successful on opaque contexts with action referents than those with objed referents. The results also demonstrated that children find referential opacity easier than linguistic opaaty, and both easier than intentional opacity. Nonetheless, performance across the three types of opacity was related even when age, vocabulary and digit span were statistically controiled, supporting the view that there is an underlying comrnonality for the three contexts. The second study examuied whether performance on referentially opaque contexts could be predicted by metarepresentational ability and metalinguistic awareness. Metarepresentational ability was measured using false belief tasks and metahguistic abiiity was measured using ta& requuing dùldren to compare and evaluate statemenk containing referring expressions. In this second study, 5to 7-year-O lds were given opacity (referen tial and quo ta tional), false belief, metalinguistic awareness, digit span, and vocabulary measures. Hierarchical regressions indicated tha t even after the vanability from diildren's age, vocabulary scores and digit span performance is taken into account, metarepresentational ability and metalinguistic awareness still significantly, and independently, explained some of the remaining vanabiLity in performance on referential opacity tasks. These results are taken as support for the view that both metarepresentational ability and metaiinguistic awareness are necessary in order to deal with referentially opaque contexts. These studies are of interest to anyone concemed with: (1) children's understanding of the representational nature of language; and (2) the necessary abilities for sensitivity to opaque contexts. 1 would rike to thank Professor David Olsori for his advice and encouragement. His comments and questions were always helpful. One of the reasons I decided to pursue a Ph.D. was because of how much fun David made the leaming process; I am grateful to him for making my time at OISE/UT enjoyable. I also want to thank Professor Janet Astington for sharing her time and ideas with me. Over the years, she has been a source of support, guidance and expertise, for which I a m very grateful. 1 also appreciate the comments that Professor Phi1 Zelazo offered, both during the thesis preparation, and during the defence. I would like to thank Professor Ron Smyth for his thought-provoking (and challenging) questions during the defence, and Professor Daniela O'Neill for raising interesting questions for discussion. I would like to acknowledge the generous help of the principals, teachers, and students of The Scarborough Board of Education, especiaily my parents-in-law, Don and Donna MacLeod, who welcomed me into their schools. 1 am also grateful to Sue Elgie for sharing her statistical knowledge with me; her help was invaluable. Thanks also to my parents for their ongoing support and for their continuous words of encouragement. Their pride was always evident, and much appreciated. Finally, to my husband Mark: thee, thee, thee.
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