ABSTRACT
The advent of language in the history of our species allows people to learn much more about the world than ever would be possible if people only had first-hand experience to rely upon. A multiplicity of lifetime’s experiences can be condensed and encapsulated in language. The accumulated wisdom of our ancestors is no longer lost with each generation but can be transmitted to our progeny and cultural heirs, initially just by word of mouth but now also by the more enduring written word. A traditional vision of preschool children is that they are overliteral in their interpretation of speech. A minimum criterion for showing that they have some insight into communication as a bridge between minds, then, would be any sign that they adapt the content of their utterance to match the listener’s informational needs, such that they say not too little and not too much.
