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The concept of theory of mind (ToM), a hot topic in cognitive psychology for the past twenty-five years, has gained increasing importance in the fields of linguistics and pragmatics. However, even though the relationship between ToM and verbal communication is now recognized, the extent, causality and full implications of this connection remain mostly to be explored. This book presents a comprehensive discussion of the interface between language, communication, and theory of mind, and puts forward an innovative proposal regarding the role of discourse connectives for this interface. The proposed analysis of connectives is tested from the perspective of their acquisition, using empirical methods such as corpus analysis and controlled experiments, thus placing the study of connectives within the emerging framework of experimental pragmatics.



Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
ix
Introduction
1 - 3
Chapter 1. The concept of theory of mind in pragmatics
5 - 25
Chapter 2. The co-acquisition of language and theory of mind
27 - 51
Chapter 3. Insights from autism on language and theory of mind
53 - 72
Chapter 4. Language as a window into children´s developing theory of mind
73 - 95
Chapter 5. Discourse connectives and theory of mind
97 - 122
Chapter 6. Empirical study on the acquisition of the French connective parce que
123 - 146
Chapter 7. Empirical study on the acquisition of the French connective puisque
147 - 172
Conclusion
173 - 176
Bibliography
177 - 189
Index