Developmental changes in the expressions of symbols in the construction of common ground

Abstract

The objective of the study was to ascertain whether the use of symbols by young children and adults changes under different conditions in which the ease of establishing common ground was contrasted. In the experiment, participants were randomly assigned to either a condition where they had to communicate about objects that were hidden from the addressee or a condition where the objects were visible to the addressee. The stimuli consisted of containers, half of which had typical shapes that were linguistically easy to describe, and the other half had atypical shapes that were linguistically harder to describe. The analyses focused on the production of adjectival expressions, ideophones, iconic gestures, and metaphorical expressions under each respective condition by participants. The findings demonstrated that both adults and young children utilized adjectival expressions when referencing stimuli of a typical shape and metaphorical expressions for atypically shaped items. Conversely, young children employed iconic gestures while referencing stimuli obscured from their partner’s sight. Moreover, five-year-olds used a greater number of ideophones when referring to stimuli invisible to the addressee. The findings underscore that metaphorical expressions serve a depictive function in communication and that the usage of iconic symbols by young children is influenced by the presence of a shared visual common ground with the addressee.