Doctoral Dissertation Research: The role of input in the acquisition of factivity

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Language is used to communicate ideas and transfer information because it can reflect what our individual beliefs are and what our shared beliefs are. As one example, the way that words like "know" and "think" are used within a conversation reflects how sure the conversational participants are about what they believe, whether they agree about what they are discussing, and what they take to be facts or opinions. This project examines how children come to understand how belief words like "know" and "think" contribute to the exchange of information within a conversation. Do children from different backgrounds have similar experiences with these words? And to the degree that there are differences, how does that variation contribute to differences in acquiring an adult-like understanding of these words? To answer these questions, this project first conducts corpus analyses to investigate how parents use belief words in talking to their preschool-aged children. Then, these corpus results are combined with behavioral methods to reveal how linguistic experience relates to children's mastery of these words.Finding out how children come to learn words like "know" and "think" is important in understanding contributing factors to later academic and professional success. Specifically, these words require an understanding of the ways that information is exchanged and communicated through conversations. As a result, understanding these words leads to mastery in interpreting what their conversational partners believe and why they believe it. This, in turn, allows children to better understand academic and professional communication and may lead to greater achievement in school, and ultimately, in their careers.