Lo sviluppo di abilità pragmatiche nei bambini bilingui della Val di Fassa: le implicature scalari

Scalar implicatures have been studied extensively in the field of experimental pragmatics. However, most research has focused on monolingual children and adults, with a few notable exceptions dealing also with early bilinguals and adult L2 learners. These latter studies seem to reveal a bilingual advantage in the development of pragmatic abilities. Following up on previous research on scalar implicatures in bilinguals, this paper aims to test the pragmatic advantages of children living in the Fassa Valley. This geographical area is home to a par- ticular type of bilingualism, in so far as most inhabitants speak both Italian and Ladin, a minority language of the valley. Results confirm the bilingual advantage found in previous studies, and show interesting variation between early and late bilinguals with respect to the development of pragmatic abilities.