"Do you know" and "Do you remember" (DYK/R) questions explicitly ask whether one knows or remembers some information while implicitly asking for that information. This study examined how 104 4- to 9-year-old children testifying in child sexual abuse cases responded to DYK/R wh- and yes/no questions. When asked DYK/R questions containing an implicit wh- question requesting information, children often provided unelaborated "Yes" responses. Attorneys' follow-up questions suggested that children usually misunderstood the pragmatics of the questions. When DYK/R questions contained an implicit yes/no question, unelaborated "Yes" or "No" responses could be responding to the explicit or the implicit questions resulting in referentially ambiguous responses. Children often provided referentially ambiguous responses and attorneys usually failed to disambiguate children's answers. Although pragmatic failure following DYK/R wh- questions decreased with age, the likelihood of referential ambiguity following DYK/R yes/no questions did not. The results highlight the risks of serious miscommunications caused by pragmatic misunderstanding and referential ambiguity when children testify.

中文翻译：

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律师询问儿童证人“您知道/记得”问题时的语用失误和指称歧义。

“您知道”和“您是否记得”（DYK / R）问题明确地询问一个人是否知道或记住某些信息，同时隐式询问该信息。这项研究调查了104名4至9岁儿童在儿童性虐待案件中作证时如何回应DYK / R wh和yes / no问题。当被问及DYK / R问题包含一个隐式问问信息时，孩子们通常会给出明确的“是”回答。律师的后续问题表明，儿童通常误解了问题的语用。当DYK / R问题包含一个隐式的“是/否”问题时，未经说明的“是”或“否”响应可能是对显式或隐式问题的响应，从而导致引用性模棱两可的响应。儿童通常会提供参照性模棱两可的回答，而律师通常无法消除儿童回答的歧义。尽管随着年龄的增长，在DYK / R疑问句之后的语用失误减少，但是在DYK / R是/否问题之后的指称歧义的可能性没有。结果表明，儿童作证时，务实的误解和指称歧义会导致严重的沟通错误。