The ability of kindergarten, second and fourth grade children (N=90) to interpret meanings related to two categories of conversational implicature, bridges and flouts, was investigated. Bridges and flouts are types of indirect reply to a speaker's utterances that require a hearer to infer the reply's relevance to the preceeding conversation. Each…

A study used two auditory tests of reaction time to compare second language learners' and native speakers' detection of ambiguity or acceptability of sentences. The subjects were Finnish learners of English as a second language and native English-speakers. The investigation found that Finnish-speakers' reactions were generally similar to the…