Mental states are the essence of pragmatics: questions, answers and the Multiple Perspectives Theory of communication

The Multiple Perspectives Theory (MPT) is a cognitive architecture that aims to provide a mechanistic account of the ways in which mental states are represented and used in communication. The theory posits a cognitive architecture with two representations: a representation of self and a representation of the other, as well as a cognitive process that compares these representations to identify epistemic (a)symmetries. We illustrate how this theory can explain some of the most basic linguistic constructions and commonplace conversational moves, namely standard questions used to request information. We present examples of <i>wh-</i>questions (e.g. <i>When is the train coming?</i>), polar (<i>yes-no</i>) questions (e.g. <i>Is the train coming?</i>) and rising declaratives (e.g. <i>The train is coming?</i>) and argue that these conversational moves cannot be modelled by appealing to just one perspective. Instead, this requires considering the perspectives of both conversational partners, and computing their relative epistemic status. The fact that this ubiquitous, literal conversational move cannot be modelled without appealing to mental states provides strong evidence to the position that mental states are routinely used in communication. Thus, in this paper, we not only consider <i>when</i> mental states are used in communication-our answer is always-but also present an account of <i>how</i> they are used, specifically to model questions.This article is part of the theme issue 'At the heart of human communication: new views on the complex relationship between pragmatics and Theory of Mind.'