Various studies in developmental pragmatics have shown that children tend to derive more literal interpretations than adults do when it comes to understanding the meaning of expressions that require pramgatic strengthening, such as deriving a scalar implicature from the quantifier 'some'.  But what about cases of pragmatic weakening, e.g., imprecise interpretations of Maximum Standard Absolute adjectives (such as understanding the word 'straight' to mean 'straight-ish', or 'straight enough')? In a series of experiments, we investigated Norwegian children's (ages 3-8) comprehension of precise and imprecise usages of adjectives like 'full', 'empty', and 'straight' (maximum standard absolute adjectives), and found that children are actually more pragmatically tolerant of imprecise interpretations than adults are. We provide an explanation based on Katsos and Bishop's (2011) pragmatic tolerance account, and explore the effect of social categorization (e.g., whether the speaker is an adult or a child) on children's comprehension strategies. 

Zoom Link: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/67006790336?pwd=rRaKDZBnYM3MruCGUuQCZCSJIvgzLJ.1