Cover not available
Part of
(Non)referentiality in Conversation
Edited by Michael C. Ewing and Ritva Laury
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 344] 2024
► pp. 80–102

Chapter 5
Young children’s experience of referentiality and nonreferentiality in dialogue

| Université du Québec à Montréal
| Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
| Université de Lorraine
| Université Sorbonne Nouvelle

This chapter focuses on young children’s experience of referential and nonreferential uses of noun phrases (NPs) in everyday dialogues. Our study of a corpus of interactions between adults and children aged 1;10 to 2;6 showed that the indeterminacy and instability that might characterise children’s uses can also be found in adults’ discourse. Not only are (non)referential values co-constructed, but children are also not exposed to clear-cut contrasts between the uses or values of NPs. On the contrary, both in the adults’ discourse and in the way adults react to children’s utterances, they seem to experience the fact that noun phrases potentially present various facets, which can be successively or simultaneously activated in dialogue.

Keywords: dialogue, indeterminacy, labelling, language acquisition, noun phrases, referentiality
Article outline
  • 1.Referentiality and nonreferentiality
  • 2.(Non)referentiality in child language
  • 3.Studying (non)referentiality: Data and method of analysis
    • 3.1A corpus of adult-child interactions
    • 3.2Identifying dialogical sequences to examine (non)referentiality
  • 4.Adult uses of NPs in the ongoing dialogue
  • 5.Child uses of NPs: The role played by the preceding context
  • 6.The evolution of the values of NPs in dialogue
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References
Abbott, Barbara
2014 “Reference.” In The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Yan Huang, 240–258. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, Shanley E. M., Mary Hughes, and Barbora Skarabela
2015 “The role of cognitive accessibility in children’s referential choice”. In The acquisition of reference, ed. by Ludovica Serratrice and Shanley E. M. Allen, 123–153. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Bach, Kent
2008 “On Referring and Not Referring”. In Reference: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Jeanette K. Gundel and Nancy Hedberg, 13–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhaïl
1979/1986 Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bassano, Dominique, Isabelle Maillochon, Katharina Korecky-Kröll, Marijn van Dijk, Sabine Laaha, Wolfgang U. Dressler and Paul van Geert
2011 “A Comparative and Dynamic Approach to the Development of Determiner Use in Three Children Acquiring Different Languages.” First Language 31 (3): 253–279. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bresson, François
1974 “Problèmes de psycholinguistique génétique : l’acquisition du système de l’article en français”. Problèmes actuels en psycholinguistique, 62–72. Paris: Editions du CNRS.Google Scholar
Bruner, Jerome S.
1975 “From Communication to Language: A Psychological Perspective.” Cognition 3 (3): 255–287. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1983 Child’s Talk: Learning to Use Language. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Chastain, Charles
1975 “Reference and Context.” In Language, Mind and Knowledge, ed. by Keith Gunderson, 194–269. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Ping
2009 “Aspects of Referentiality”. Journal of Pragmatics 41 (8): 1657–1674. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Cat, Cécile
2007 French Dislocation: Interpretation, Syntax, Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “Egocentric Definiteness Errors and Perspective Evaluation in Preschool Children.” Journal of Pragmatics 56: 58–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Weck, Geneviève, Rouba Hassan, Julien Heurdier, Janina Klein, and Nathalie Salagnac
2021 “Activities and Institutional Contexts: Their Role in the Use of Referring Expressions.” In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A Dialogic Approach, ed. by Anne Salazar Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan, and Annie Rialland, 261–286. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
de Weck, Geneviève, Anne Salazar Orvig, Stefano Rezzonico, Élise Vinel, and Mélanie Bernasconi
2019 “The Impact of the Interactional Setting on the Choice of Referring Expressions in Narratives.” First Language 39 (3): 298–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, John W.
1980 “Beyond Definiteness: The Trace of Identity in Discourse.” In The Pear Stories: Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production, ed. by Wallace L. Chafe, 203–274. Norwood, NJ.: Ablex.Google Scholar
Ford, Cecilia E., Barbara A. Fox, and Sandra A. Thompson
2003 “Social Interaction and Grammar.” In The New Psychology of Language, vol. 2, ed. by Michael Tomasello, 119–143. Malhaw, N.J.: Laurence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Gundel, Jeanette K., Nancy Hedberg, and Ron Zacharski
1993 “Cognitive Status and the Form of Referring Expressions in Discourse”. Language 69(2): 274–307.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J.
1998 “Emergent Grammar.” In The New Psychology of Language: Cognitive and Functional Approaches to Language Structure, ed. by Michael Tomasello, 155–175. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
2015 “An Emergentist Approach to Grammar.” In The Handbook of Language Emergence, ed. by Brian MacWhinney and William O’Grady, 314–327. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, Annette
1979 A Functional Approach to Child Language: A Study of Determiners and Reference. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
1985 “Language and Cognitive Processes from a Developmental Perspective.” Language and Cognitive Processes 1(1): 61–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kupisch, Tanja
2007 “Determiners in Bilingual German-Italian Children: What They Tell Us about the Relation Between Language Influence and Language Dominance”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10 (1): 57–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laury, Ritva
2001 “Definiteness and Reflexivity: Indexing Socially Shared Experience.” Pragmatics 11 (4): 401–420.Google Scholar
Le Mené-Guigourès, Marine
2017 L’acquisition d’un paradigme: éclairage multidimensionnel sur la mise en place des déterminants chez quatre enfants entre 1;6 et 3;5 (PhD dissertation, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, Paris, France). Retrieved from [URL]
Le Mené, Marine, Anne Salazar Orvig, Christine da Silva-Genest, and Haydée Marcos
2023 “The Choice of Referring Expressions in Adult-Child Dialogues. The influence of formal and functional factors”. In Reference: From conventions to pragmatics ed. by Laure Gardelle, Laurence Vincent-Durroux, and Hélène Vinckel-Roisin, 323–345. Amsterdam : John Benjamins Publisher. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maratsos, Michael P.
1974 “Preschool Children’s Use of Definite and Indefinite Articles”. Child Development 45(2): 446–455.Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson
(eds) 1996 Interaction and Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peters, Ann M.
2001 “Filler Syllables: What is Their Status in Emerging Grammar?” Journal of Child Language 28: 229–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rozendaal, Margot I. and Anne E. Baker
2008 “A Cross-Linguistic Investigation of the Acquisition of the Pragmatics of Indefinite and Definite Reference in Two-Year-Olds.” Journal of Child Language 35: 773–808. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salazar Orvig, Anne, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan, and Annie Rialland
(eds.) 2021 The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A Dialogical Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salazar Orvig, Anne, Haydée Marcos, Stéphanie Caët, Cristina Corlateanu, Christine Da Silva, Rouba Hassan, Julien Heurdier, Marine Le Mené, Jocelyne Leber-Marin, and Aliyah Morgenstern
2013 “Definite and Indefinite Determiners in French-Speaking Toddlers: Distributional Features and Pragmatic-Discursive factors.” Journal of Pragmatics 56: 88–112. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salazar Orvig, Anne, Haydée Marcos, Julien Heurdier, and Christine da Silva
2018 “Referential Features, Speech Genres and Activity Types.” In Sources of Variation in First Language Acquisition: Languages, Contexts, and Learners, ed. by Maya Hickmann, Harriet Jisa, and Edy Veneziano, 219–242. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schaeffer, Jeannette and Lisa Matthewson
2005 “Grammar and Pragmatics in the Acquisition of Article Systems”. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 23(1): 53–101.Google Scholar
Schafer, Robin J. and Jill de Villiers
2000 “Imagining Articles: What ‘a’ and ‘the’ Can Tell Us about the Emergence of DP”. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. 2, ed. by S. Catherine Howell, Sarah A. Fish, and Thea Keith-Lucas, 609–620. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A.
1997 “Discourse Motivations for the Core-Oblique Distinction as a Language Universal.” In Directions in Functional Linguistics, ed. by Akio Kamio, 59–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Veneziano, Edy
2003 “The Emergence of Noun and Verb Categories in the Acquisition of French.” Psychology of Language and Communication 7: 23–36.Google Scholar
Vinel, Élise, Anne Salazar Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Salma Nashawati, and Somayeh Rahmati
2021 “The Impact of Speech Genres on the Use of Referring Expressions.” In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A Dialogical Approach, ed. by Anne Salazar Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan, and Annie Rialland, 287–316. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, Lev S.
1934/1962 Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Wood, David, Jerome S. Bruner, and Gail Ross
1976 “The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 17 (2): 89–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar