Chapter 11. Referential features, speech genres and activity types
-
Anne Salazar-Orvig
, Haydée Marcos , Julien Heurdier and Christine da Silva-Genest
Abstract
Based on a dialogic theoretical framework, this chapter explores the influence of speech genres and activities on the use of referring expressions. The study examines a corpus of 25 dialogues of French speaking children aged between 1;10 and 2;04 in various activities. Results show that referring expressions are not homogenously used throughout activities and genres. Everyday activities increase the use of nouns and strong demonstrative pronouns, games with toys positively affect the use of strong demonstrative pronouns and iconic material entails a more frequent use of clitic demonstratives and to a lesser extent of 3rd person pronouns. However, discourse in activities is made of various speech genres which strongly affect the use of clitic pronouns. Clitic demonstratives are preferred for labeling and evaluation but 3rd person pronouns are used for description and narratives. The discussion deals with the way these associations could be factors accounting for children’s early choice of referring expressions.
Abstract
Based on a dialogic theoretical framework, this chapter explores the influence of speech genres and activities on the use of referring expressions. The study examines a corpus of 25 dialogues of French speaking children aged between 1;10 and 2;04 in various activities. Results show that referring expressions are not homogenously used throughout activities and genres. Everyday activities increase the use of nouns and strong demonstrative pronouns, games with toys positively affect the use of strong demonstrative pronouns and iconic material entails a more frequent use of clitic demonstratives and to a lesser extent of 3rd person pronouns. However, discourse in activities is made of various speech genres which strongly affect the use of clitic pronouns. Clitic demonstratives are preferred for labeling and evaluation but 3rd person pronouns are used for description and narratives. The discussion deals with the way these associations could be factors accounting for children’s early choice of referring expressions.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of authors (alphabetical) vii
- Introduction. What can variation tell us about first language acquisition? 1
-
Part I. Universals and cross-linguistic variation in acquisition
- Chapter 1. Templates in child language 27
- Chapter 2. Phonological categories and their manifestation in child phonology 45
- Chapter 3. Bootstrapping lexical and syntactic acquisition 63
- Chapter 4. Retrieving meaning from noun and verb grammatical contexts 81
- Chapter 5. Language-specificity in motion expression 103
- Chapter 6. Cross-linguistic variation in children’s multimodal utterances 123
- Chapter 7. Gesture and speech in adults’ and children’s narratives 139
-
Part II. Variation in input and contexts during acquisition
- Chapter 8. Conversational partners and common ground 163
- Chapter 9. Invariance in variation 183
- Chapter 10. New perspectives on input-output dynamics 201
- Chapter 11. Referential features, speech genres and activity types 219
- Chapter 12. Development of discourse competence 243
- Chapter 13. Texting by 12-year-olds 265
-
Part III. Variation in types of acquisition and types of learners
- Chapter 14. A unified model of first and second language learning 287
- Chapter 15. Online sentence processing in simultaneous French/Swedish bilinguals 313
- Chapter 16. The blossoming of negation in gesture, sign and oral productions 339
- Chapter 17. Motion expression in children’s acquisition of French Sign Language 365
- Chapter 18. Early predictors of language development in Autism Spectrum Disorder 391
- Chapter 19. Spoken and written narratives from French- and English-speaking children with Language Impairment\ 409
- Chapter 20. Non-literal language comprehension 427
- Language index 439
- Subject index 440
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of authors (alphabetical) vii
- Introduction. What can variation tell us about first language acquisition? 1
-
Part I. Universals and cross-linguistic variation in acquisition
- Chapter 1. Templates in child language 27
- Chapter 2. Phonological categories and their manifestation in child phonology 45
- Chapter 3. Bootstrapping lexical and syntactic acquisition 63
- Chapter 4. Retrieving meaning from noun and verb grammatical contexts 81
- Chapter 5. Language-specificity in motion expression 103
- Chapter 6. Cross-linguistic variation in children’s multimodal utterances 123
- Chapter 7. Gesture and speech in adults’ and children’s narratives 139
-
Part II. Variation in input and contexts during acquisition
- Chapter 8. Conversational partners and common ground 163
- Chapter 9. Invariance in variation 183
- Chapter 10. New perspectives on input-output dynamics 201
- Chapter 11. Referential features, speech genres and activity types 219
- Chapter 12. Development of discourse competence 243
- Chapter 13. Texting by 12-year-olds 265
-
Part III. Variation in types of acquisition and types of learners
- Chapter 14. A unified model of first and second language learning 287
- Chapter 15. Online sentence processing in simultaneous French/Swedish bilinguals 313
- Chapter 16. The blossoming of negation in gesture, sign and oral productions 339
- Chapter 17. Motion expression in children’s acquisition of French Sign Language 365
- Chapter 18. Early predictors of language development in Autism Spectrum Disorder 391
- Chapter 19. Spoken and written narratives from French- and English-speaking children with Language Impairment\ 409
- Chapter 20. Non-literal language comprehension 427
- Language index 439
- Subject index 440