Influences of School-Age Children’s Beliefs and Goals on Their Elicited Pragmatic Performance: Lessons Learned From Kissing the Blarney Stone

Fulfilling a life-long dream to test the mythical promise of eloquence, I recently kissed the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in Ireland. Later in the gift shop I selected the obligatory “I kissed the Blarney Stone!” T-shirt and took it to the cashier. After we engaged in a brief conversation, she cocked an eye at me and said “And did ye really kiss the Blarney Stone?” Having already acquired the Irish discourse style of answering a question with another question, I grinned and replied “Sure, and can’t you tell?” Not missing a beat, she parried with “Sure, and doesn’t it take a few days to kick in sometimes?”