The communication game: dump and play

Communication entails much more than formulating a linguistic code to map underlying intents. It entails the utilization of a role-taking attitude in reconciling communicative obstacles that arise from significant speaker-listener discrepancies in form or code, reference or representation, and license or acceptability. Young children communicate in a "talk to" fashion that essentially is issuing or dumping messages. As role-taking attitudes become acquired, communicative efforts change from merely dumping messages to active resolution of communicative obstacles in an effort to achieve the message of best fit for a particular situation.