This paper examines the relation between literacy and children's understanding of a set of concepts referred to as the "say/mean distinction," which is the notion that what a text says contrasts with subjective interpretations a reader or listener brings. (Author/MT)

As part of a larger project concerned with the development of changes in children's understanding of meaning as they become literate, this study examined the age at which listeners begin to acknowledge paraphrasing as a legitimate response to questions about the utterances of characters in stories. Subjects were 54 native English speakers from…

Suggests a parallelism between children's mastery of mental language and their thinking about the world. Recounts a study in which children's mastery of verbs was measured and a relationship between reading skill and looking to the text to justify answers was established. (AEW)