1 Autism and Pragmatics of Language

This paper describes different aspects of Autism and attempts to explain the syndrome using the theoretical framework of Modular Pragmatics of Language. We review definitions and classifications of the disorder from the first description of the syndrome by Kanner (1943), through the Theory of Mind (Leslie, 1987) interpretation of the core impairments in Autism, to the most recent DSM-IV (Volkmar et al., 1994) classification. We present in this paper the point of view of Pragmatics of Language, based on the theoretical model of Kasher (1991), under which the autistic core impairments are analysed in terms of the knowledge required for the various pragmatic areas. This theoretical framework can account for the core deficits of Autism as presented in the DSM-IV (1994). The analysis is illustrated by clinical cases