ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors consider three of the most widely studied genres of connected discourse—narratives, explanations, and definitions—asking in each case how children solve the problem of taking into account in their linguistic productions the listener's state of mind. Complexity of information structure is not one of the dimensions directly relevant to pragmatics, except insofar as it exacerbates the pragmatic problems of taking the listener's state of mind into account. Providing explanations that take the listener's perspective into account is a great challenge, one adults fail regularly. In some cases, even knowing which genre to select involves having some sense of the listener's state of mind, as well as knowledge of genre-specific rules. Adults often need to take into account their listeners' expertise to avoid boring them or appearing presumptuous. The topic of extended discourse injects into our discussion of pragmatics a new level of organization of talk.
