1887
Volume 23, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1018-2101
  • E-ISSN: 2406-4238

Abstract

This study aims to shed a light on children’s pragmatic development by examining Mandarin-speaking children’s requests in interactions with their parents. It is found that children between 24 and 36 months old appear to use various request forms, primarily with simple imperatives and WANT statements. A closer examination reveals that children prefer to use simple imperatives in activity-based interactions while both primary forms are found in unstructured daily conversations. The findings suggest that children’s preference for simple imperatives may be driven by their awareness of parents’ cooperativeness in interactional situations. It is thus speculated that simple imperatives and WANT statements may be children’s two primal request forms, but they may pivot on one request form when the situation is right.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/prag.23.2.02che
2013-01-01
2024-12-02
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Austin, J.L
    (1962) How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Axia, Giovanna
    (1996) How to persuade mum to buy a toy. First Language16: 301-317. doi: 10.1177/014272379601604803
    https://doi.org/10.1177/014272379601604803 [Google Scholar]
  3. Babelot, Géraldine , and Haydée Marcos
    (1999) Comprehension of directives in young children: Influence of social situation and linguistic form. First Language19: 165-186. doi: 10.1177/014272379901905602
    https://doi.org/10.1177/014272379901905602 [Google Scholar]
  4. Bates, Elizabeth
    (1976) Acquisition of polite forms: Longitudinal evidence. Language and context: The acquisition of pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, pp. 225-354.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bates, E. , L. Camaioni , and V. Volterra
    (1975) The acquisition of performatives prior to speech. Merrill Palmer Quarterly21: 205-226.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bosco, Francesca M. , Monica Bucciarelli , and Bruno Bara
    (2004) The fundamental context categories in understanding communicative intention. Journal of Pragmatics36: 467-488. doi: 10.1016/S0378‑2166(03)00055‑9
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(03)00055-9 [Google Scholar]
  7. Bruner, Jerome
    (1981) The social context of language acquisition. Language and Communication1: 115-178. doi: 10.1016/0271‑5309(81)90010‑0
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0271-5309(81)90010-0 [Google Scholar]
  8. (1983) Child’s talk: Learning to use language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Carter, Anne
    (1974) Communication in the sensorimoter period. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Berkeley, California: University of California-Berkeley.
  10. Clark, Eve V
    (2003) First language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Dore, John
    (1973) The development of speech acts. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. New York: City University of New York.
  12. Deutscher, Guy
    (2005) The unfolding of language: The evolution of mankind’s greatest invention. London: Arrow Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Ervin-Tripp, Susan
    (1976) Is Sybil there? The structure of some American English directives. Language in Society5: 25-66. doi: 10.1017/S0047404500006849
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500006849 [Google Scholar]
  14. (1977) Wait for me, roller skate!In Susan Ervin-Tripp , and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan (eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic Press, pp. 165-208. doi: 10.1016/B978‑0‑12‑241950‑8.50015‑0
    https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-241950-8.50015-0 [Google Scholar]
  15. (1980) Speech acts, social meaning and social learning. In Howard Giles , W. Peter Robinson , and Philip M. Smith (eds.), Language: Social psychological perspectives. Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 389-395.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Ervin-Tripp, Susan , Jiansheng Guo , and Martin Lampert
    (1990) Politeness and persuasion in children’s control acts. Journal of Pragmatics14: 307-331. doi: 10.1016/0378‑2166(90)90085‑R
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(90)90085-R [Google Scholar]
  17. Garton, Alison F. , and Chris Pratt
    (1990) Children’s pragmatic judgments of direct and indirect requests. First Language10: 51-59. doi: 10.1177/014272379001002905
    https://doi.org/10.1177/014272379001002905 [Google Scholar]
  18. Garvey, Catherine
    (1974) Requests and responses in children’s speech. Journal of Child Language2: 41-63.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Gordon, David , and Susan Ervin-Tripp
    (1984) The structure of children’s requests. In Richard L. Schiefelbusch , and J. Pickard (eds.), The acquisition of communicative competence. Baltimore: University Park Press, pp. 295-321.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood
    (1975) Learning how to mean. In Eric Lenneberg , and Elizabeth Lenneberg (eds.), A multidisciplinary perspective. London: Academic Press, pp. 239-265.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hsiao, Hui-chen
    (1999) A development study of polite registers in school-age children’s request. Unpublished M.A. thesis ofthe Catholic Fu-Jen University: Taipei, Taiwan.
  22. Hsu, Joseph H
    (1996) A study of the stages of development and acquisition of Mandarin Chinese by children in Taiwan. Taipei, Taiwan: The Crane Publishing, pp. 137-148.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Kelly, Barbara F
    (2007) “Mummy! Ball! Fish!”: Why English-learning children produce nouns earlier than verbs. In Illana Mushin , and Mary Laughren (eds.), Selected Papers from the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Australian Linguistic Society. Australia Linguistic Society.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Landis, J.R. , and G.G. Koch
    (1977) The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics33: 159-174. doi: 10.2307/2529309
    https://doi.org/10.2307/2529309 [Google Scholar]
  25. Leonard, Rosemary J
    (1993) Requests, refusals, and reasons in children’s negotiations. Social Development 2.2: 131-144. doi: 10.1111/j.1467‑9507.1993.tb00008.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.1993.tb00008.x [Google Scholar]
  26. MacWhinney, Brian
    (2000) The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk, Third Edition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Mitchell-Kernan, Claudia , and Keith T. Kernan
    (1977) Pragmatics of directive choice among children. In Susan Ervin-Tripp , and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan (eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic Press, pp. 189-208. doi: 10.1016/B978‑0‑12‑241950‑8.50016‑2
    https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-241950-8.50016-2 [Google Scholar]
  28. Ninio, Anat , and Catherine E. Snow
    (1996) Pragmatic development. Colorado: Westview Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Pan, Yuling
    (2000) Politeness in Chinese face-to-face interaction. Stamford, CT: Alex.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Searle, John R
    (1975) Indirect speech acts. In P. Cole , and J.L. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and semantics, vol. 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic Press, pp. 59-82.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Tomasello, Michael
    (1992) The social bases of language acquisition. Social Development 1.1: 67-87. doi: 10.1111/j.1467‑9507.1992.tb00135.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.1992.tb00135.x [Google Scholar]
  32. Tomasello, M. , M. Carpenter , J. Call , T. Behne , and H. Moll
    (2005) Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Science28: 675-735.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Wood, Barbara S. , and Royce Gardner
    (1980) How children “get their way”: Directives in communication. Communication Education29: 264-272. doi: 10.1080/03634528009378424
    https://doi.org/10.1080/03634528009378424 [Google Scholar]
  34. Yont, Kristine M. , Catherine E. Snow , and Lynne Vernon-Feagans
    (2003) The role of context in mother-child interactions: An analysis of communicative intents expressed during toy play and book reading with 12-month-olds. Journal of Pragmatics35: 435-454. doi: 10.1016/S0378‑2166(02)00144‑3
    https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00144-3 [Google Scholar]
  35. Zhou, Jing
    (2002) Pragmatic development of Mandarin-speaking children: From 14 months to 32 months. Nanjing: Nanjing Normal University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.23.2.02che
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Child pragmatic development; Context; Request
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