LEARNING HOW TO USE LANGUAGE

 Socialization
o Egocentric child
o Style shifts
o Gender differences?
 Pragmatic Competence
o Review of basic pragmatics
o Kinds of skills children need
o Non-verbal communication and pragmatic inferences
 Discourse Level abilities
o Narratives
o Cohesion and Coherence

Sociolinguistic development

Socialization

People of a given social group live in a certain way. Children learn to acquire this:
socialization.
Think of some examples of how language can affect this socialization. What kind of socio-
linguistic skills does the child need to acquire to function in a social environment (say in the
UK, or another country you have knowledge of). Socialization varies among cultures, there
are certain behaviours which are rude in one country but not in another.

The egocentric child

Jean Piaget (1926): children have limited abilities to modify their speech to relevant features
of a social setting. There is a period in the child’s life that they can only see things from their
point of view, they are not able to interpret others’ ideas or thoughts. They seemingly have
an inability to understand that other children/ adults will have thoughts, feelings, and a
viewpoint of their own. They do not have the ability to place themselves in other people’s
shoes. But how might this affect language?

Children’s conversations

They don’t always work the same as adult conversations. Conversations often turned into
monologues.

Piaget comments of the ego-centric child that turns are often unrelated. Children cannot
understand that others have a different view point to their own. This links to the

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psychological phenomenon of “Theory of Mind”, the ability to attribute mental states –
beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge, etc. – to oneself and to others, and to
understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different
from one's own.

Piaget: ages 2-5 y.o. is the “pre-operational stage”:

 Unstructured flow of thought
 Ego-centric perspective
 Collective Monologues
Collective Monologues = two children seem to be having a conversation, but in reality they
are both having “one-sided” conversations with no real interaction. They do not see
conversation as a cooperation.

Placing

Children are unable to place themselves in the position of the listener. There is an
assumption made that everybody else knows the same information as they do.

 Sally-Anne test:
How would an adult answer this
question?
If a child assumes that
everybody has the same
knowledge as themselves,
how might they answer the
same question?
What consequences do you
think an ego-centric
perspective may have on the
conversational patterns of
young children’s dialogue?

Children would assume that

Sally would look in the box
because they believe Sally
has the same knowledge as
them. They are not able to
put on others’ shoes.

Second-order theory of mind

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Private speech

Theories based on the fact that children talk to themselves when other people are around
(where adults would use conversation). These solitary monologues are ways of practising
speech and exploring different linguistic possibilities.

Features of this video:

 No evidence of engagement with a fellow interlocutor – not directed at anybody
 Topic of conversation is about the task she is currently engaged in. Narrative of what
the child is doing
 Similar to a “running commentary” of what they are doing, and other thoughts about
the task

Vygotsky

Vygotsky believed that this type of language is not exploring language, but a type of
behavioural self-guidance. At the ages 3-7 this kind of private speech is most pronounced.
As the child gets older, the private speech will become quieter, and harder to understand. It
will also move from whole sentences to the odd word – becoming less reliant of this kind of
guiding behaviour. This is evident into middle childhood (8-11), and even can remain into
adulthood (Duncan and Cheyne, 2002)

Collective monologues

Child 1: I’m gonna put on my gloves. Are you finished making your dog, honey?
Child 2: Almost
Child 1: Good
Child 2: I’m gonna get his nose on. Some of the parts are the same. This mechanical dog is
more than I thought it was gonna be. He’s taking it back. This will work.
Child 1: This is nice. Oh this is nice.
Schoeber-Peterson and Johnson, 1991. Children aged 4 y.o.

There is no real flow of conversation. Each of them is talking about themselves to each
other. There are no clear connections between the terms. Children go from parallel play
(children play adjacent to each other, but do not try to influence one another's behavior;

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they usually play alone but are interested in what other children are doing) to cooperative
play (negotiating, engaging with each other)

Julie: "I love my dolly, her name is Tina"

Carol: "I'm going to colour the sun yellow"
Julie: "She has long, curly hair like my auntie"
Carol: "Maybe I'll colour the trees yellow, too"
Julie: "I wonder what Tina's eyes are made of?"
Carol: "I lost my orange crayon"
Julie: " I know her eyes are made of glass."

Politeness

Children have to learn various forms of “polite” linguistic behaviour

 What are some examples of polite linguistic behaviour that you can think of?
 Do you think there is any differences in the learning of polite terms, instead of other
forms of linguistic development?
Grief and Gleason (1980) – Gift giving situation
 Only 7% of children said “Thanks/ Thank you” spontaneously. These are more
frequent because there are more contextual cues for them than for salutations;
there are more different contexts in which you have to say thank you, salutations
have more clear and limited contexts.
 Only 25% said “Hi” and “Goodbye” spontaneously
 Prompting by the parents was very common
 No differences found in gender for expectations on the child – BUT mothers were
more likely to themselves thank the assistant than fathers

Politeness is a big part of communication, it defines how we form communication. It is

different for different languages and cultures and it is not something that comes
automatically.

44 % maybe because of
shyness and redundancy

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Style shifts

Register/ Style: We adapt our speech to different situations. For instance, you wouldn’t
necessarily talk to your boss at work the same way you would talk to other students.

There is evidence that children also adapt their speech styles depending on who they are
talking to (Sachs and Devin, 1976):
1. Adults – more likely to use polite forms (please, thank you)
2. Own age – no special forms used
3. Younger children – using child directed speech (also to babies and toys!)

Mothers (242.06) are changing

the way the communicate and
taking more turns.

When talking to their mothers,

everything is higher because
they are more comfortable,
spend more time with them,
they are supporting or
scaffolding their dialogue and
asking questions.

When talking to other children, specially if they are similar ages, communication is lower
since there is more opportunity to egocentric communication.

Gender difference

Research has argued that there are differences between male and female speech. E.g.
women tend to use more overtly prestigious forms than men do. Do we see any evidence
that this genderisation of speech takes place during childhood as well?
Romaine (1984) – study of non-standard language (accents, slang…) between girls and boys

Differing speech styles

Some studies claim that pre-school boys are more assertive and demanding and dominate
mixed-sex conversations from early ages (Sheldon, 1990; Kyratzis and Ervin-Tripp, 1999).
However, other studies have found the pre-school girls can be more assertive than boys.
Also in mixed-gender discourse (Sheldon, 1992)
 But through different means: double voiced discourse
 Taking someone else’s voice in a conflict into your own in order to express dialogue

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  Goodwin (e.g. 1990) – African American girls can be more assertive than boys in
mixed-gender discourse
 Cook-Gumperz and Szymanski (2001): Latino culture in USA
Is this related to language use at home? What is different in the experiences of girls and
boys (say in school)
Social styles and gender

Children play in same-sex groups, but these are quite different for boys and girls. Boys play
in larger groups, with different status for different members. Girls tend to play in pairs or
small groups with more homogeneous status.

Maltz & Borker (1982)

Girls language:
 Creates & maintains close relationships
 Criticises others in acceptable ways
 Interprets accurately speech of others

Boys language:
 Asserts a position of dominance
 Attracts and maintains and audience
 Asserts themselves when another speaker has the floor.

Coates (1993): argues that while girls’ talk can be described as collaboration-orientated,
boys’ talk can be described as competition-orientated.

Unmitigated: an
order (open the
window).

Mitigated:
softened (could
you open the
window?)

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Principles of pragmatics: Gricean Maxims

 Quantity: Provide as much information as required; Do not provide more

information than required
 Quality: Be truthful; only say what you have sufficient evidence for.
 Relation: Be relevant
 Manner: Avoid ambiguity; be logical in order of expressions; avoid obscurity
Children develop an understanding of these concepts at an early age.
Eskritt et al. (2008): Three to five-year olds aware of these maxims. When given a choice in a
sticker finding game, prefers communication that adheres to these maxims.

Speech Act Theory

Work of Austin and Searle. Austin believed speech was used for primarily social functions.
He said much of language was performative – carrying out actions that change something in
the world (marriage vows, christening etc).
 Performative verbs: I now pronounce you husband and wife; You are under arrest.

There are different components to the speech act: locutionary act, illocutionary act and
perlocutionary act.
 Locutionary Act: the literal and structural meaning of the sentence (linguistic form).
 Illocutionary Act: the action expressed/ meaning transmitted by performing a
particular utterance (intended function).
 Perlocutionary Act: action accomplished by saying something (effect on hearer).

Different stages of development

 Having effects: Children have effect on listener but often without intention to
communicate.
 Having intentions: Children become aware they can use behaviour to communicate.
 Using conventional signals: children start using words to express communicative
behaviour.

These stages are perlocutionary, illocutionary and locutionary. Changes start taking place
around 10 months. At this stage, children can relate to an object and a person at the same
time.

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How do children relate?

 Primary intersubjectivity (children share themselves with others)

The child is aware of itself and expresses some aspect of it’s own thoughts and
feelings to caregivers
 Secondary intersubjectivity (children share experiences with others)
“[At around 9 months], an infant gained a more serious interest in doing things
together with her mother, taking particular interest in a companion’s ideas about
what to do with the selected object […] and to communicate about them. We called
this new kind of socialibility ‘secondary intersubjectivity’ (Trevarthen and Dealfield-
Butt, 2017: 29)
Children realise that others are like them. They realise others can attend to things and want
to communicate. Reports have shown that the more time children spend in joint attention,
the more rapid their development of language.

Children start out by having one way of expressing each item of intent, but develop multiple
linguistic ways of performing communicative functions. Halliday (e.g. 1993): move from
protolanguage to grammar
 Protolanguage: single meaning-to-form mappings
 Language: Acquisition of grammar allows multiple mappings between meanings and
forms
Children start by only referring to objects and people that are present, but by around 24
months, children can refer to absent objects and events and can use language imaginatively.

Influences on pragmatic development

Adults in many societies treat infants as conversational partners almost from birth.
Baby: smiles
Mother: Oh, what a nice smile. Yes, isn’t that nice. There’s a nice smile.
Researchers have suggested that adults use such interactions to draw children into
communicative exchanges. A child exposed to these interactions is going to have an ahead
start in adultlike communication (negotiation).

Does responsiveness affect communication?

Research showed experiences of responsive partners can help children discover that
communication is possible. Bell and Ainsworth looked at mothers’ responses to infants
crying.

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Results showed that children who had most responsive mothers when they were 6-12
months old, cried less at 12 months and were more communicative in vocalizations and
non-verbal behaviour.

High: negative correlation

Low: positive correlation
Crying negatively correlates with communication level
Claim: if mother’s respond to crying – children cry less. Therefore need to develop other
communication means (i.e. language) to replace it.

What other pragmatic skills do children need?

 Knowing you have to answer when a question has been asked.

 Being able to take turns in a conversation.
 The ability to notice and respond to non-verbal behaviour.
 Knowledge that topic has to be introduced for another listener to understand.
 Knowing which sentence/answer types to use.
 Ability to maintain a topic.
 Ability to maintain appropriate eye-contact.
 Ability to talk differently to different people and know when not to talk.

Case study: Kelly (2001)

It explores the role of nonverbal pointing and eye gaze.

Ambiguity – language can be ambiguous; we don’t always say what we mean.

Mother: ‘it’s almost dinner time’.
How might what the mother says differ from what she means? What is the ambiguity here?
The child can use contextual cues to resolve this ambiguity

This study looked at whether non-vocal cues can also help the child understand/ resolve
ambiguity Previous research (e.g. Ackerman, 1978) argue that contextual information can be

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incorporated by 5-6 years of age. But this seems like a big “jump” – are there any precursors
to help out this?

Experiment 1

Children observe video of mother/child interaction.

One condition ‘speech only’, the other ‘speech + nonverbal’.
Looking at the ability to understand indirect requests
In the first, the mother says target sentence without any nonverbal behaviour towards
target, in the other condition, they point and gaze at an object.

Different responses:
 No understanding response
 Reiteration response
 Action response (intended action; relevant action; irrelevant action).

Any kind of action response Intended Action Response

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Second experiment

Child participates in experiment.

With target sentence, three conditions:
 Speech only
 Nonverbal only
 Speech + nonverbal
Speech only caused many not to understand; non-verbal caused children to respond.

Any kind of action response Intended action response

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Conversations

We looked at early ‘conversations’ that aren’t really conversations. Over time the child’s
contribution increases and roles become more equal. First they may use action, then
language. So they seem to be getting an understanding of the discourse structure that they
are required to engage in. But, they may not be comfortable enough with their language –
so resort to non-linguistic means to test out the discourse structure

As children get older, they develop a number of different conversational skills: They
successfully initiate more topics. They become more efficient at changing topics in a logical
manner. They become more able to contribute relevantly to a conversation – less tangential
contributions. Their tendency to repeat what has come before is reduced.

Narratives

Initial talk about past is initiated by adults, who ask specific questions
 What kinds of questions do you think adults might ask children to scaffold them in
narratives?

Children then depend less on this scaffolding. Can produce new information, and can be
general rather than just specific. In final stage, children need less help and can include
particular information.
Story grammar

Setting and one or more episodes.

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Setting includes place and characters.
Each episode includes an initiating event, a problem or obstacle and a resolution.
Fundamentals can begin relatively early for discourse competence
 Basics can be in place as early as 2.5 years (Appleby, 1978)
 But the development of narrative structure can go-on into adult hood (Berman and
Slobin, 1994)

Order of narratives

 Abstract
 Orientation
 Complicating action
 Evaluation
 Result or resolution
 Coda

Narrative uses of lexical items

Lexical Item: “And”

Peterson and McCabe (1988) – 3 and 4 years olds mainly use it in its first usage
Later moves to stage 2, and this then comes to dominate
Later on (can be as late as 9/10) they start to use all three types appropriately

Coherence and cohesion

Coherence refers to the structure of a story, sequence must be ordered. Children need to
use linguistic devices to allow them to do so. This is limited by their level of cognitive
development. Children’s ability to participate depends on how demands are being made
simultaneously.

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Peterson and Dodsworth (1991)

Example: child aged 3;8

It’s a bee. There’s a dog. And there’s a frog, and slippers, and another slipper, and there’s
boots. He’s wake up! They put her hand in the pot. Going down. The dog barked, and here
they calling frog. There’s bees. And the hole in the tree. Ack!! A owl. And he’s running
through there and he fell off. Look, oh, he’s up there! He’s awake. He fell off – in the pool.
And there’s no head. Then there’s a frog. Seem he caughted a frog

Later example: 10-year-old (same task)

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There’s a boy who has a pet frog and a pet dog, and one night after he goes to beg, the frog
sneaks out. And he wakes up and it’s gone. So he and his dog look all over the place for it. So
then they go outside and start calling for it.

Another example of issues with reference

Interviewer: Can you tell me about the barbecue that you had?
Child: We had a barbecue right over there, and I told him to don’t put it… and I told Dan
what he was doing.
I: You told Dan what he was doing?
C: Yeah. And when I was doing it, I turned, pushed him, what I do, pushed way up high.
I: You pushed him way up high?
C: Yes, but he turned to go?
I: But he what?
C: He turned to go on me. He didn’t come to my house.

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