Synapse
⌘+K
Synapse
PulseExploreClubsResearchersJournals
Instagram
HomeClubsExplore
December 9, 2025Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesOpen Access

Three distinct components of pragmatic language use: Social conventions, intonation, and world knowledge–based causal reasoning

View Full Paper
Ask AI
Bookmark
Share

Authors

SFSammy FloydOJOlessia JouravlevMPMoshe Poliak

Discussion

Loading...

Member takes

Overview

Study demonstrates connections between intonation, causal reasoning, and cognitive ability in language comprehension, indicating complexities involved in pragmatic language use.

Key Points

  • The research aims to identify distinct components of pragmatic language use and their interplay in nonliteral language comprehension.
  • Two large samples were analyzed with an 8-hour battery of 20 nonliteral comprehension tasks.
  • Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify clusters of cognitive abilities related to pragmatic language.
  • The structure was replicated in a second preregistered experiment with a new sample.
  • Three clusters emerged: social conventions, emotional intonation, and causal inferences based on world knowledge.
  • The analysis controlled for general cognitive ability, revealing unique components of language processing.
  • The findings hold implications for understanding communication difficulties in individuals with brain disorders.

Cite This Study

Floyd et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69401efa2d562116f28f98bchttps://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2424400122
View Full Paper
Ask AI
Bookmark
Share

Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 2 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science2022 · 395 citations
  2. 2The reliability paradox: Why robust cognitive tasks do not produce reliable individual differences2017 · 1,598 citations