Children ’ s Use of referring expressions : What Can it tell Us aboUt theory of Mind ?

This paper presents results of investigations of children’s use of referring expressions in spontaneous conversation with adults, and considers possible implications of this work for questions relating to development of a theory of mind. The study further confirms previous findings that children use the full range of referring forms (definite and indefinite articles, demonstrative determiners, and demonstrative and personal pronouns) appropriately by age 3 or earlier. It also provides support for two distinct stages in mind-reading ability. The first, which is implicit, includes the ability to assess non-propositional cognitive states such as familiarity and focus of attention in relation to the intended referent; the second, which is representational and more conscious, includes the ability to assess epistemic states such as knowledge and belief. Distinguishing these two stages supports attempts to reconcile seemingly inconsistent results concerning the age at which children develop a theory of mind. It also makes it possible to explain why children learn to use 73 Children’s use of referring expressions referring forms in ways consistent with the cognitive statuses they encode before they exhibit the pragmatic ability to consider and calculate quantity implicatures, which require assessment of how much information is relevant for the addressee.