This project examined the flexibility with which children can use
pragmatic information to determine word reference. Extensive
previous research shows that children choose an unfamiliar object
as referent of a novel name—the disambiguation effect. We added a
pragmatic cue indirectly indicating a familiar object as intended
referent. In three experiments, preschool children’s ability to take
this cue into account was specifically associated with false belief
understanding and the ability to produce familiar alternative
names (e.g., rabbit, animal) for a given referent. The association
was predicted by the hypothesis that all three tasks require an
understanding of perspective (linguistic or mental). The findings
indicate that perspectival understanding is required to take into
account indirect pragmatic information to suspend the disam-
biguation effect. Implications for lexical principles and socioprag-
matic theories of word learning are discussed.