1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Interactional Linguistics
  4. Volume 1, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 1, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2666-4224
  • E-ISSN: 2666-4232
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

The present study examines the development of ‘but’-introduced clauses in adult-toddler conversations, distinguishing between autonomous productions () and adult-child co-constructed uses (Adult: , Child: ). Analyses covered all adult and child ‘but’ uses in three longitudinal Hebrew corpora (age-range: 1;5–3;3), showing that: (1) both adults and children mostly use ‘but’ in co-construction rather than autonomously; (2) adults begin co-constructing ‘but’-clauses with children months before the children start using ‘but’, mostly by elaborating on single-word child productions before adding the ‘but’-clause (Child: , Adult: ); (3) as children start combining more clauses, adults gradually conjoin more ‘but’-clauses directly with the children’s productions, without elaboration (Child: . Adult: ). These patterns suggest that the main function of ‘but’-clauses in adult-child discourse is co-constructing ideas contributed by two (or more) interlocutors. Such co-constructions are initially scaffolded by the adults, until the children are able to contribute full-fledged propositions to co-constructions. These findings provide further evidence of the role of adult-child interaction in introducing and familiarizing children with new linguistic structures, and advancing their developing grammar.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/il.20007.lus
2021-06-11
2024-10-03

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/il.20007.lus
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Berman, R. A.
    (2004) Between emergence and mastery: The long developmental route of language acquisition. InR. A. Berman (Ed.), Language development across childhood and adolescence. (Trends in Language Acquisition Research, Vol. 3) (pp.9–34). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tilar.3.05ber
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.3.05ber [Google Scholar]
  2. (2009) Beyond the sentence: Language development in narrative contexts. InE. Bavin (Ed.), Handbook of Child Language (pp.354–375). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511576164.020
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511576164.020 [Google Scholar]
  3. Berman, R. A. & Lustigman, L.
    (2014) Emergent clause-combining in adult-child interactional contexts. InI. Arnon, M. Casillas, C. Kurumada, & B. Estigarribia (Eds.), Language in interaction: studies in honor of Eve V. Clark (pp.281–300). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tilar.12.20ber
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.12.20ber [Google Scholar]
  4. Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B.
    (2009) Clause-packaging in narratives: A crosslinguistic developmental study. InJ. Guo, (Eds.), Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Psychology of Language: Research in the Tradition of Dan I. Slobin (pp.149–162). New York: Taylor & Francis.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Berman, R. A. & Slobin, D. I.
    (1994) Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Bernstein Ratner, N.
    (2013) Why talk with children matters: clinical implications of infant- and child-directed speech research. Seminars in Speech and Language, 34 (4), 131–142.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Bloom, L.
    (1973) One word at a time. The Hague: Mouton.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. (1991) Language development from two to three. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Brown, R.
    (1973) A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 10.4159/harvard.9780674732469
     https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674732469 [Google Scholar]
  10. Chouinard, M. M., & Clark, E. V.
    (2003) Adult reformulations of child errors as negative evidence. Journal of Child Language, 301, 637–669. 10.1017/S0305000903005701
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000903005701 [Google Scholar]
  11. Clark, E. V.
    (2001) Emergent categories in first language acquisition. InM. Bowerman & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Language acquisition and conceptual development (pp.379–405). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511620669.015
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620669.015 [Google Scholar]
  12. (2016) First language acquisition (3rd edn). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781316534175
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316534175 [Google Scholar]
  13. Clark, E. V. & de Marneffe, M.-C.
    (2012) Constructing verb paradigms in French: adult construals and emerging grammatical contrasts. Morphology, 221, 89–120. 10.1007/s11525‑011‑9193‑6
     https://doi.org/10.1007/s11525-011-9193-6 [Google Scholar]
  14. Clark, H. H.
    (1996) Using language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511620539
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620539 [Google Scholar]
  15. Diessel, H.
    (2004) The acquisition of complex sentences. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511486531
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486531 [Google Scholar]
  16. Diessel, H. & Tomasello, M.
    (2000) The development of relative clauses in English. Cognitive Linguistics, 111, 131–151.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. (2001) The acquisition of finite complement clauses in English: A corpus-based analysis. Cognitive Linguistics, 121, 97–141. 10.1515/cogl.12.2.97
     https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.12.2.97 [Google Scholar]
  18. Dromi, E. & Berman, R. A.
    (1986) Language-general and language-specific in developing syntax. Journal of Child Language, 141, 371–387. 10.1017/S0305000900008114
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900008114 [Google Scholar]
  19. Farrar, M. J.
    (1992) Negative evidence and grammatical morpheme acquisition. Developmental Psychology, 28(1), 90–98. doi:  10.1037/0012‑1649.28.1.90
     https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.1.90 [Google Scholar]
  20. Fernald, A., Marchman, V. A., & Weisleder, A.
    (2013) SES differences in language processing skill and vocabulary are evident at 18 months. Developmental Science, 161, 234–48. 10.1111/desc.12019
     https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12019 [Google Scholar]
  21. Gleitman, L., Newport, E., & Gleitman, H.
    (1984) The Current Status of the Motherese Hypothesis. Journal of Child Language, 111, 43–79. 10.1017/S0305000900005584
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900005584 [Google Scholar]
  22. Haiman, J. & Thompson, S. A.
    (Eds.) (1988) Clause combining in grammar and discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tsl.18
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.18 [Google Scholar]
  23. Hoff-Ginsberg, E.
    (1985) Some contributions of mothers’ speech to their children’s syntactic growth. Journal of child language, 12(2), 367–385. 10.1017/S0305000900006486
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900006486 [Google Scholar]
  24. Karmiloff-Smith, A.
    (1992) Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Bradford, UK: Bradford Books, MIT Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Karmiloff, K. & Karmiloff-Smith, A.
    (2001) Pathways to language: From fetus to adolescent. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Katzenberger, I.
    (2004) The development of clause packaging in spoken and written texts. Journal of Pragmatics, 361, 1921–1948. 10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.010
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.01.010 [Google Scholar]
  27. Kidd, E., Brandt, S., Lieven, E. V. M., & Tomasello, M.
    (2007) Object relatives made easy: A cross-linguistic comparison of the constraints influencing young children’s processing of relative clauses. Language and Cognitive Processes, 221, 860–897. 10.1080/01690960601155284
     https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960601155284 [Google Scholar]
  28. Lustigman, L. & Berman, R. A.
    (2016) Form and function in early clause-combining. Journal of Child Language, 431, 157–185. 10.1017/S0305000915000100
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000915000100 [Google Scholar]
  29. Lustigman, L. & Clark, E. V.
    (2019) Exposure and feedback in language acquisition: adult construals of children’s early verb-form use in Hebrew. Journal of Child Language, 461, 241–264. 10.1017/S0305000918000405
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000918000405 [Google Scholar]
  30. MacWhinney, B.
    (2000) The CHILDES Project: Tools for Analyzing Talk. (3rd edn). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Schiff, D. & Ravid, D.
    (2012) Linguistic processing in Hebrew-speaking children from low and high SES backgrounds. Reading & Writing, 251, 1427–1448. 10.1007/s11145‑011‑9326‑7
     https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9326-7 [Google Scholar]
  32. Scollon, R.
    (1976) Conversations with a one year old. A case study of the developmental foundation of syntax. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. (1979) A real early stage: an unzippered condensation of a dissertation on child language. InE. Ochs & B. Schieffelin (Eds.), Developmental pragmatics (pp.215–227). New York: Academic Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Slobin, D. I.
    (1982) Universal and particular in language acquisition. InL. R. Gleitman & E. Wanner (Eds.), Language acquisition: The state of the art (pp.128–170). Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Tomasello, M.
    (2003) Constructing a Language: A Usage-based Theory of Language Acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Veneziano, E.
    (1999) Early lexical, morphological and syntactic development in French: Some complex relations. International Journal of Bilingualism, 31, 183–217. 10.1177/13670069990030020501
     https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069990030020501 [Google Scholar]
  37. (2005) Effects of conversational functioning on early language acquisition: When both caregivers and children matter. InB. Bokus (Ed.), Studies in the psychology of child language (pp.47–69). Warsaw: Matrix.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. (2014) Conversation and language acquisition: Unique properties and effects. InI. Arnon, M. Casillas, C. Kurumada, & B. Estigarribia (Eds.), Language in interaction: Studies in honor of Eve V. Clark. (pp.83–100). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/tilar.12.08ven
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.12.08ven [Google Scholar]
  39. Veneziano, E., & Parisse, C.
    (2010) The acquisition of early verbs in French: Assessing the role of conversation and child-directed speech. First Language, 301, 287–311. 10.1177/0142723710379785
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723710379785 [Google Scholar]
  40. Vygotsky, L. S.
    (1962) Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 10.1037/11193‑000
     https://doi.org/10.1037/11193-000 [Google Scholar]
  41. (1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/il.20007.lus
Loading
Early collaborations
Interactional Linguistics 1, 216 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1075/il.20007.lus
/content/journals/10.1075/il.20007.lus
/content/journals/10.1075/il.20007.lus
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): adult-child conversations; clause combining; co-construction; developmental phases; scaffolding

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error