Abstract
Humans alone acquire language. According to one influential school of thought, we do this because we possess a uniquely human ability to act with and attribute “Gricean” communicative intentions. A challenge for this view is that attributing communicative intent seems to require cognitive abilities that infant language learners lack. After considering a range of responses to this challenge, I argue that infant language development can be explained, because Gricean communication is cognitively less demanding than many suppose. However, a consequence of this is that abilities for Gricean communication are unlikely to be uniquely human.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e12550 |
Journal | Philosophy Compass |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2018 |