Language acquisition involves learning not only grammatical rules and a lexicon but also what people are intending to convey with their utterances: the semantic/pragmatic component of language. In this article we separate the contributions of linguistic development and cognitive maturity to the acquisition of the semantic/pragmatic component of…

Analysis of results of tests of cognitive development in Papua New Guinea children indicated that membership of different language/culture groups was an important source of variance. (Editor)

Examines the spontaneous language of deaf children without forcing the analysis to fit the features of a spoken language system. Suggests linguistic competence of deaf children is commensurate with their cognitive age and is not adequately described by the standard spoken English language tests. (EKN)