The widespread view is that persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) suffer from a global pragmatic impairment, caused by difficulty in mindreading. Individuals with ASD are said to pay little attention to their interlocutor, and to excessively rely on literal meaning. The idea of a global pragmatic deficit, linked to dysfunctional mindreading, fits in well with widely popular theories which view pragmatics as underpinned by mindreading.

This project breaks away both from the idea of a global pragmatic impairment in ASD and from such monolithic conceptions of pragmatics. he main hypothesis is that the pragmatic profile of persons with ASD can be explained by a diminished cognitive flexibility. In three sets of experimental studies it is expected that while pragmatic processes that require adopting another perspective are impaired in autism, those aspects that rely on egocentric contextual salience are preserved.

Spokesperson

Mikhail Kissine

Center of research in linguistics (LaDisco)
Faculty of Letters, Translation and Communication

Dates
Created on August 31, 2018