From speech with others to speech for self
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Dan I. Slobin
Abstract
The chapter is a case study of a particular kind of speech-for-self produced by a preschool-aged girl, characterized as “externalized dramas.” Unlike most such records of vocalized thought, this speech is not involved with guiding ongoing behavior, but rather with acting out problems of interpersonal relations with peers. Using two or more voices in dialog, the speech is full of insults and denials, claims and counter-claims, promises, excuses – all of the continuing struggles to define social roles and one’s own position. Externalized dramas practice and refine pragmatic devices of prosody, lexicon, and speech acts, while dealing with underlying problems of emotional states, violence, fantasy and reality, and other minds. It is suggested that audible inner speech goes inward to become silent speech that continues to be concerned with social dynamics and individual status and roles.
Abstract
The chapter is a case study of a particular kind of speech-for-self produced by a preschool-aged girl, characterized as “externalized dramas.” Unlike most such records of vocalized thought, this speech is not involved with guiding ongoing behavior, but rather with acting out problems of interpersonal relations with peers. Using two or more voices in dialog, the speech is full of insults and denials, claims and counter-claims, promises, excuses – all of the continuing struggles to define social roles and one’s own position. Externalized dramas practice and refine pragmatic devices of prosody, lexicon, and speech acts, while dealing with underlying problems of emotional states, violence, fantasy and reality, and other minds. It is suggested that audible inner speech goes inward to become silent speech that continues to be concerned with social dynamics and individual status and roles.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- introduction Language acquisition in interaction 1
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Part 1. The social and interactional nature of language input (five papers)
- Conversational input to bilingual children 13
- Social environments shape children’s language experiences, strengthening language processing and building vocabulary 29
- The interactional context of language learning in Tzeltal 51
- Conversation and language acquisition 83
- Taking the floor on time 101
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Part 2. The role of paralinguistic information in language learning (three papers)
- Temporal synchrony in early multi-modal communication 117
- Shared attention, gaze and pointing gestures in hearing and deaf children 139
- How gesture helps children learn language 157
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Part 3. Pragmatic forces in language learning (six papers)
- Referential pacts in child language development 175
- “We call it as puppy” 191
- Learning words through probabilistic inferences about speakers’ communicative intentions 207
- Word order as a structural cue and word reordering as an interactional process in early language acquisition 231
- The discourse basis of the Korean copula construction in acquisition 251
- Emergent clause-combining in adult-child interactional contexts 281
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Part 4. Interactional effects on language structure and use (three papers)
- Analytic and holistic processing in the development of constructions 303
- From speech with others to speech for self 315
- How to talk with children 333
- Index 353
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- introduction Language acquisition in interaction 1
-
Part 1. The social and interactional nature of language input (five papers)
- Conversational input to bilingual children 13
- Social environments shape children’s language experiences, strengthening language processing and building vocabulary 29
- The interactional context of language learning in Tzeltal 51
- Conversation and language acquisition 83
- Taking the floor on time 101
-
Part 2. The role of paralinguistic information in language learning (three papers)
- Temporal synchrony in early multi-modal communication 117
- Shared attention, gaze and pointing gestures in hearing and deaf children 139
- How gesture helps children learn language 157
-
Part 3. Pragmatic forces in language learning (six papers)
- Referential pacts in child language development 175
- “We call it as puppy” 191
- Learning words through probabilistic inferences about speakers’ communicative intentions 207
- Word order as a structural cue and word reordering as an interactional process in early language acquisition 231
- The discourse basis of the Korean copula construction in acquisition 251
- Emergent clause-combining in adult-child interactional contexts 281
-
Part 4. Interactional effects on language structure and use (three papers)
- Analytic and holistic processing in the development of constructions 303
- From speech with others to speech for self 315
- How to talk with children 333
- Index 353
