Language and children's understanding of knowledge: Epistemic talk in early childhood

Abstract

Research on children's theory of mind often restricts conceptually meaningful talk about knowledge to instances where know references a corresponding mental state. This article offers a reappraisal of that view. From a social‐pragmatic perspective, even nonreferential talk is meaningful when appropriately embedded in social routines. A synthesis of corpus data suggests children's early talk about knowledge routinely occurs in question–answer contexts. It is argued that the influence of interrogative contexts is evident in children's over‐attributions of knowledge when someone is only guessing. This influence is taken as evidence for the role of linguistic practices in shaping the concept of knowledge.