Abstract
The study describes the sequence through which children pass between the ages of two and six as they become able to draw an inference about the speaker's intentions and to apply a pragmatic discourse rule. The form of utterance that was presented had the literal form of a prohibitive (Don't) and the illocutionary force of an indirect imperative (Do). Fifty-seven children, 27 F and 30 M, between the ages of 2;0 and 6;1, were asked to respond to three such indirect imperatives. The two youngest subjects (2;0 and 2;2 years of age) disobeyed the prohibitive. Children between 2;4 and 4;0 years of age were literally obedient. Those between 4;6 and 6;1 acted on the inference of the utterance in the way that adults would; and those between 4;0 and 4;6 were found to be transitional. Inferential females differed from their male counterparts in that they more frequently sought clarification before proceeding, whereas the males tended to act on the pragmatic discourse rule without raising a question about the speaker's intentions.
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