Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T17:11:56.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - The Acquisition and Processing of Pragmatics in Multilinguals and Third Language Learners

from Part II - L3/Ln across Linguistic Domains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

By
Kyriakos Antoniou  and
Orestis Michaelides
Edited by
Jennifer Cabrelli ,
Adel Chaouch-Orozco ,
Jorge González Alonso ,
Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares ,
Eloi Puig-Mayenco  and
Jason Rothman
Jennifer Cabrelli
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Adel Chaouch-Orozco
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jorge González Alonso
Affiliation:
Universidad Nebrija, Spain and UiT, Arctic University of Norway
Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Eloi Puig-Mayenco
Affiliation:
King's College London
Jason Rothman
Affiliation:
UiT, Arctic University of Norway and Universidad Nebrija, Spain
Get access

Summary

We review studies that investigated pragmatic acquisition and processing in multilingual children and adults, and third language (L3) learners. Studies on pragmatic differentiation in simultaneous multilingual children show that they can differentially and appropriately use their languages in a context-sensitive manner from the age of two. The evidence on implicature reveals that multilinguals exhibit interpretation skills comparable to monolinguals; and that degree of multilingualism, measured continuously, has a positive effect. Research that examined speech acts from the perspective of crosslinguistic influence has provided some evidence (though mixed and unclear) that the L1 can affect L2 and L3 speech act performance. This influence can also occur from the L3 to the L1 and L2 in young children. Moreover, work on speech acts has shown that bilinguals, and especially balanced bilinguals, enjoy an advantage in learning the pragmatics of an additional language. We close the chapter by suggesting directions for future work.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Third Language Acquisition , pp. 243 - 268
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adesope, O. O., Lavin, T., Thompson, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2010). A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Cognitive Correlates of Bilingualism. Review of Educational Research, 80, 207–245.Google Scholar
Alcón-Soler, E. (2012). Teachability and Bilingualism Effects on Third Language Learners’ Pragmatic Knowledge. Intercultural Pragmatics, 9, 511–541.Google Scholar
Alcón-Soler, E., Safont-Jordà, M. P., & Martínez-Flor, A. (2005). Towards a Typology of Modifiers for the Speech Act of Requesting: A Socio-pragmatic Approach. RAEL, Revista Electrónica De Lingüística Aplicada, 4, 1–35.Google Scholar
Antoniou, K. (2019). Multilingual Pragmatics: Implicature Comprehension in Adult L2 Learners and Multilingual Children. In Taguchi, N. (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics and Second Language Acquisition (pp. 495–510). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Antoniou, K. (2022). Multilingual and Bi-dialectal Irony Processing. In Culbertson, J, Perfors, A., Rabagliati, H., & Ramenzoni, V. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. eScholarship University of California.Google Scholar
Antoniou, K., & Katsos, N. (2017). The Effect of Childhood Multilingualism and Bilectalism on Implicature Understanding. Applied Psycholinguistics, 38, 787–833.Google Scholar
Antoniou, K., & Milaki, E. (2021). Irony Comprehension in Bidialectal Speakers. The Modern Language Journal, 105, 697–719.Google Scholar
Antoniou, K., Cummins, C., & Katsos, N. (2016). Why Only Some Adults Reject Under-Informative Utterances. Journal of Pragmatics, 99, 78–95.Google Scholar
Antoniou, K., Veenstra, A., Kissine, M., & Katsos, N. (2020). How Does Childhood Bilingualism and Bi-dialectalism Affect the Interpretation and Processing of Pragmatic Meanings? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23, 186–203.Google Scholar
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2017). The Bilingual Adaptation: How Minds Accommodate Experience. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 233–262.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., Green, D. W., & Gollan, T. H. (2009). Bilingual Minds. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 10, 89–129.Google Scholar
Bott, L., & Noveck, I. A. (2004). Some Utterances Are Underinformative: The Onset and Time Course of Scalar Inferences. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 437–457.Google Scholar
Breheny, R. E. (2019). Scalar Implicatures. In Katsos, N. & Cummins, C. (Eds.), Handbook of Experimental Pragmatics (pp. 39–62). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Breheny, R., Katsos, N., & Williams, J. (2006). Are Generalised Scalar Implicatures Generated by Default? An On-line Investigation into the Role of Context in Generating Pragmatic Inferences. Cognition, 100, 434–463.Google Scholar
Breheny, R., Ferguson, H. J., & Katsos, N. (2013). Taking the Epistemic Step: Toward a Model of On‐line Access to Conversational Implicatures. Cognition, 126, 423–440.Google Scholar
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Universals in Language Use: Politeness Phenomena. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cenoz, J. (2003). The Additive Effect of Bilingualism on Third Language Acquisition: A Review. International Journal of Bilingualism, 7, 71–87.Google Scholar
Cenoz, J. (2008). The Acquisition of Pragmatic Competence and Multilingualism in Foreign Language Contexts. In Soler, E. A. & Jordà, M. P. S. (Eds.), Intercultural Language Use and Language Learning (pp. 123–140). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Cenoz, J. (2013). The Influence of Bilingualism on Third Language Acquisition: Focus on Multilingualism. Language Teaching, 46(1), 71–86.Google Scholar
Cenoz, J. (2017). Bilingualism and Multilingualism. In Barron, A., Gu, Y., & Steen, G. (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics (pp. 139–150). Milton Park: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2019). Multilingualism, Translanguaging, and Minority Languages in SLA. The Modern Language Journal, 103, 130–135.Google Scholar
Cenoz, J., Hufeisen, B., & Jessner, U. (2001). Cross-Linguistic Influence in Third Language Acquisition: Psycholinguistic Perspectives. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Chiappe, D. L., & Chiappe, P. (2007). The Role of Working Memory in Metaphor Production and Comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 56, 172–188.Google Scholar
Comeau, L., Genesee, F., & Lapaquette, L. (2003). The Modeling Hypothesis and Child Bilingual Codemixing. International Journal of Bilingualism, 7, 113–126.Google Scholar
de Houwer, A., & Ortega, L. (2018). The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
de Neys, W., & Schaeken, W. (2007). When People Are More Logical under Cognitive Load: Dual Task Impact on Scalar implicature. Experimental Psychology, 54, 128–133.Google Scholar
Fairchild, S., & Papafragou, A. (2021). The Role of Executive Function and Theory of Mind in Pragmatic Computations. Cognitive Science, 45, e12938.Google Scholar
Fan, S. P., Liberman, Z., Keysar, B., & Kinzler, K. D. (2015). The Exposure Advantage: Early Exposure to a Multilingual Environment Promotes Effective Communication. Psychological Science, 26, 1090–1097.Google Scholar
Filippova, E (2014). Irony Production and Understanding. In Matthews, D. (Ed.), Pragmatic Development in First Language Acquisition (pp. 261–278). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Genesee, F., & Nicoladis, E. (2007). Bilingual First Language Acquisition. In Hoff, E. & Shatz, M. (Eds.), Handbook of Language Development (pp. 324–342). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Genesee, F., Nicoladis, E., & Paradis, J. (1995). Language Differentiation in Early Bilingual Development. Journal of Child Language, 22, 611–631.Google Scholar
Genesee, F., Tucker, G. R., & Lambert, W. E. (1975). Communication Skills of Bilingual Children. Child Development, 46(4), 1010–1014.Google Scholar
Gibbs, R. W., & Colston, H. L. (2012). Interpreting Figurative Meaning. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grey, S., & Tagarelli, K. M. (2018). Psycholinguistic Methods. In Phakiti, A., De Costa, P., Plonsk, L., & Starfield, S. (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Applied Linguistics Research Methodology (pp. 287–312). London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grodner, D., Klein, N., Carbary, K., & Tanenhaus, M. (2010). “Some,” and Possibly All, Scalar Inferences Are Not Delayed: Evidence for Immediate Pragmatic Enrichment. Cognition, 116(1) 42–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F., & Li, P. (2013). The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. (1989). Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Y., & Snedeker, J. (2009). Online Interpretation of Scalar Quantifiers: Insight into the Semantics‐Pragmatics Interface. Cognitive Psychology, 58, 376–415.Google Scholar
Hulstijn, J. H. (2010). Measuring Second Language Proficiency. In Blom, E. & Unsworth, S. (Eds.), Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research (pp. 185–199). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Kecskes, I. (2015). How Does Pragmatic Competence Develop in Bilinguals? International Journal of Multilingualism, 12, 419–434.Google Scholar
Koike, D. A., & Palmiere, D. T. (2011). First and Second Language Pragmatics in Third Language Oral and Written Modalities. Foreign Language Annals, 44, 80–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, L., & Kager, R. (2017). Perception of Tones by Bilingual Infants Learning Non-tone Languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20, 561–575.Google Scholar
Marcus, G. F., Pinker, S., Ullman, M., et al. (1992). Overregularization in Language Acquisition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 57(4), 1–182.Google Scholar
Marty, P. P., & Chemla, E. (2013). Scalar Implicatures: Working Memory and a Comparison with Only. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 403.Google Scholar
Matthews, D., Biney, H., & Abbot-Smith, K. (2018). Individual Differences in Children’s Pragmatic Ability: A Review of Associations with Formal Language, Social Cognition, and Executive Functions. Language Learning and Development, 14, 186–223.Google Scholar
Montanari, S. (2008). Pragmatic Differentiation in Early Trilingual Development. Journal of Child Language, 36, 597–627.Google Scholar
Politzer‐Ahles, S. (2020). What Can Electrophysiology Tell Us about the Cognitive Processing of Scalar Implicatures? Language and Linguistics Compass, 14, 1–22.Google Scholar
Portolés-Falomir, L. (2015). Multilingualism and Very Young Learners. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Quay, S. (2008). Dinner Conversations with a Trilingual Two-Year-Old: Language Socialization in a Multilingual Context. First Language, 28, 5–33.Google Scholar
Rahimi Domakani, M., Hashemian, M., & Mansoori, S. (2013). Pragmatic Awareness of the Request Speech Act in English as an Additional Language: Monolinguals or Bilinguals? Research in Applied Linguistics, 4, 88–110.Google Scholar
Rothman, J., González Alonso, J., & Puig-Mayenco, E. (2019). Third Language Acquisition and Linguistic Transfer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2003). Metapragmatic Awareness and Pragmatic Production of Third Language Learners of English: A Focus on Request Acts Realizations. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 7, 43–69.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2005a). Third Language Learners: Pragmatic Production and Awareness, vol. 12. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2005b). Pragmatic Production of Third Language Learners of English: A Focus on Request Acts Modifiers. International Journal of Multilingualism, 2, 84–104.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2007). Pragmatic Production of Third Language Learners: A Focus on Request External Modification Items. In Safont-Jordà, M. P. & Alcón-Soler, E. (Eds.), Intercultural Language Use and Language Learning (pp. 167–189). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2011). Early Requestive Development in a Consecutive Third Language Learner. International Journal of Multilingualism, 8, 256–276.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2012). A Longitudinal Analysis of Catalan, Spanish and English Request Modifiers in Early Third Language Learning. In Gabrys-Barker, D. (Ed.), Cross-Linguistic Influences in Multilingual Language Acquisition (pp. 99–114). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2013a). Pragmatic Competence in Multilingual Contexts. In Chappelle, C. (Ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 4510–4516). New York: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2013b). Early Stages of Trilingual Pragmatic Development: A Longitudinal Study of Requests in Catalan, Spanish and English. Journal of Pragmatics, 59, 68–80.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. (2017). Third Language Acquisition in Multilingual Contexts. In Cenoz, J., Gorter, D. & May, S. (Eds.), Language Awareness and Multilingualism (pp. 137–148). Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P. & Alcón-Soler, E. (2012). Teachability of Request Act Peripheral Modification Devices in Third Language Learning Contexts. In Economidou-Kogetsidis, M. & Woodfield, H. (Eds.), Interlanguage Request Modification (pp. 275–314). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Safont-Jordà, M. P., & Portolés-Falomir, L. (2013). Research Methods Effects on Third Language Learners’ Refusals. In Martí, O. & Salazar, P. (Eds.), Refusals in Instructional Contexts and Beyond (pp. 213–235). Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Schroeder, S. R. (2018). Do Bilinguals Have an Advantage in Theory of Mind? A Meta-analysis. Frontiers in Communication, 3, article 36.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. (1976). The Classification of Illocutionary Acts. Language in Society, 5, 1–24.Google Scholar
Siegal, M., Matsuo, A., Pond, C., & Otsu, Y. (2007). Bilingualism and Cognitive Development: Evidence from Scalar Implicatures. In Otsu, Y. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eighth Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics (pp. 265–280). Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
Siegal, M., Iozzi, L., & Surian, L. (2009). Bilingualism and Conversational Understanding in Young Children. Cognition, 110, 115–122.Google Scholar
Siegal, M., Tallandini, M.A., Pelizzoni, S., & Michelin, C. (2012). Exploring the Effects of Bilingualism on Children’s Conversational Understanding and Moral Sense. In Siegal, M. & Surian, L. (Eds.), Access to Language and Cognitive Development (pp. 219–240). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Slabakova, R. (2010). Scalar Implicatures in Second Language Acquisition. Lingua, 120, 2444–2462.Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2011). Pinning Down the Concept of “Interface” in Bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1, 1–33.Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2012). Pinning Down the Concept of Interface in Bilingual Development: A Reply to Peer Commentaries. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 2, 209–217.Google Scholar
Sorace, A., & Serratrice, L. (2009). Internal and External Interfaces in Bilingual Language Development: Beyond Structural Overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13, 195–210.Google Scholar
Spotorno, N., & Noveck, I.A. (2014). When Is Irony Effortful? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(4) 1649–1665.Google Scholar
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (2002). Pragmatics, Modularity and Mind‐Reading. Mind & Language, 17, 3–23.Google Scholar
Stavans, A., & Webman Shafran, R. (2018). The Pragmatics of Requests and Refusals in Multilingual Settings. International Journal of Multilingualism, 15, 149–168.Google Scholar
Syrett, K., Lingwall, A., Perez-Cortes, S., et al. (2017). Differences between Spanish Monolingual and Spanish–English Bilingual Children in Their Calculation of Entailment-Based Scalar Implicatures. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 2(1), article 31.Google Scholar
Taguchi, N. (2009). Pragmatic Competence. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Taguchi, N., & Yamaguchi, S. (2019). Comprehension of Implicature in L2 Pragmatics Research. In Taguchi, N. (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Pragmatics (pp. 31–46). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tiv, M., Rouillard, V., Vingron, N., Wiebe, S., & Titone, D. (2019). Global Second Language Proficiency Predicts Self-Perceptions of General Sarcasm Use among Bilingual Adults. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 38, 459–478.Google Scholar
Tiv, M., Deodato, F., Rouillard, V., Wiebe, S., & Titone, D. (2021). Second Language Experience Impacts First Language Irony Comprehension among Bilingual Adults. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue Canadienne De Psychologie Expérimentale, 75, 126.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2008). Origins of Human Communication. MIT PressGoogle Scholar
Tomlinson Jr, J. M., Bailey, T. M., & Bott, L. (2013). Possibly All of That and Then Some: Scalar Implicatures Are Understood in Two Steps. Journal of Memory and Language, 69, 18–35.Google Scholar
Trebits, A. (2019). Degree of Multilingualism, Code-Switching and Intensity of Target Language Contact Predict Pragma-linguistic Awareness in an English as a Foreign Language Context. International Journal of Multilingualism, 18(3), 475–490.Google Scholar
Trosborg, A. (1995). Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints, and Apologies. New York: Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Webman Shafran, R. (2019). Level of Directness and the Use of Please in Requests in English by Native Speakers of Arabic and Hebrew. Journal of Pragmatics, 148, 1–11.Google Scholar
Wright, W. E., Boun, S., & García, O. (2017). The Handbook of Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Yow, W. Q., & Markman, E. M. (2011a). Bilingualism and Children’s Use of Paralinguistic Cues to Interpret Emotion in Speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14, 562–569.Google Scholar
Yow, W. Q., & Markman, E. M. (2011b). Young Bilingual Children’s Heightened Sensitivity to Referential Cues. Journal of Cognition and Development, 12, 12–31.Google Scholar
Zand-Moghadam, A., & Adeh, A. (2020). Investigating Pragmatic Competence, Metapragmatic Awareness and Speech Act Strategies Among Turkmen–Persian Bilingual and Persian Monolingual EFL Learners: A Cross-cultural Perspective. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 49, 22–40.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×