The interpretation of presuppositional utterances by adults with autism

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47456/rctl.v19i42.48276

Keywords:

Presupposition, Autism, Pragmatics, Psycholinguistic experiment

Abstract

Inserting itself in the literature about the relationship between pragmatics and autism, this study investigates how autistic adults deal with structures containing presupposition triggers. First, we hypothesize that individuals with autism face more difficulties in comprehending these utterances compared to neurotypical individuals. Secondly, based on the semantic-pragmatic analysis of the Counter-expectation Construction with Bem (CCB), we hypothesize the existence of a new type of presupposition, called expectation presupposition. According to our proposal, there would be processing differences between expectation presupposition and knowledge presupposition, with the former being more challenging in terms of interpretation. To test these hypotheses, a psycholinguistic experiment was conducted with autistic and neurotypical participants. The experiment involved two types of presupposition triggers: CCB (an example of expectation presupposition trigger) and change of state verbs (CSV; an example of knowledge presupposition trigger). The results confirmed our first hypothesis, indicating that autistic individuals show atypicalities in understanding presuppositional sentences compared to neurotypical individuals. However, the second hypothesis was not confirmed, as the data revealed greater processing difficulties in statements with CSV than with the CCB – which, although contrary to the initial prediction, still allows us to support the proposal regarding the existence of expectation.

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Author Biographies

  • Brendha Portela, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

    Mestre e doutoranda pelo Programa de Pós-graduação em Linguística da UFRJ (bolsista CAPES) e integrante do Laboratório de Linguística Cognitiva (LinC). Desde 2017, pesquisa na área de Gramática de Construções. Especificamente, investiga a compreensão e a produção de construções de intersubjetividade por autistas adultos falantes nativos de português brasileiro.

  • Diogo Pinheiro, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

    Professor Associado da UFRJ e um dos líderes do Grupo LinC (Laboratório de Linguística Cognitiva), certificado pelo CNPq. Com atuação nos campos da Gramática de Construções e da Linguística Cognitiva, desenvolve pesquisa quantitativa (experimental e baseada-em-corpus) sobre a relação entre gramática e intersubjetividade.

  • Priscila Starosky, Universidade Federal Fluminense

    Professora Adjunta do Departamento de Formação Específica em Fonoaudiologia da Universidade Federal Fluminense (Instituto de Saúde de Nova Friburgo, RJ). Desenvolve pesquisas na área da Linguística Aplicada à Fonoaudiologia, dos estudos Socioculturais em interação e da Fonoaudiologia Bilíngue para Surdos.

  • Tatiana Bagetti, Universidade Federal Fluminense

    Professora Adjunta do curso de Fonoaudiologia, do Departamento de Formação Específica em Fonoaudiologia (FEF) da Universidade Federal Fluminense. Tem experiência na área de aquisição e processamento da linguagem, transtornos do desenvolvimento da Linguagem (TDL), transtornos fonológicos e dificuldades e transtornos de aprendizagem.

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Published

27-11-2025

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Vol. 19 No. 42 (2025): Revista (Con)Textos Linguísticos - Fluxo Contínuo

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