Article published in:
Pragmatic Development in First Language AcquisitionEdited by Danielle Matthews
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 10] 2014
► pp. 37–52
The development of speech acts
Children, like adults, use language to get things done. However, gaining an accurate picture of children’s development of communicative intent is challenging. While the behaviours used by children to express intent are external and thus to some degree measurable, the underlying psychological characterisation of intent is much more elusive. Speech act analysis involves identifying the goal behind a speaker’s utterance, gesture or sign, and provides a useful starting point for the analysis of communicative intent during both the pre-linguistic and linguistic stage. In the current chapter we begin by discussing the origins of Speech Act Theory and its relevance to child language development. We then discuss the emergence of speech acts in the language of young children, and also the relationship between form and function from a Speech Act perspective.
Published online: 26 June 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.10.03cam
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.10.03cam
References
Astington, J.W.
Bates, E.
Bates, E., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V.
Bernicot, J., & Legros, S.
Bernicot, J., & Lavel, V.
Bucciarelli, M., Colle, L., & Bara, G.B.
Bloom, L.
Camaioni, L., Longobardi, E., Venuti, P., & Bornstein, M.
Cameron-Faulkner, T.
Cameron-Faulkner, T., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M.
Cameron-Faulkner, T., & Hickey, T.
Clark, H.H., & Lucy, P.
Creusere, M.A.
Dore, J.
Gordon, D.P., & Ervin-Tripp, S.
Goffman, E.
Halliday, M.A.K.
Naigles, L.R., Hoff, E., & Vear, D.
Ninio, A.
(1991) Introduction to the Ninio and Wheeler taxonomy of verbal communicative acts and to the INCA abridged version. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, Washington, April, 1991.
Ninio, A., & Wheeler, P.
Rakoczy, H., & Tomasello, M.
Rivero, M.
(2001) Pragmatic development in early infancy: The development of communicative intents expressed by three children during mealtimes. In M. Almgren, A. Barreña, M.J. Ezeizabarrena, I. Idiazabal, & B. MacWhinney (Eds.),
Research on Child Language Acquisition: Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Association for the Study of Child Language
(pp. 546–557). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Ryckebusch, C., & Marcos, H.
Sadock, J., & Zwicky, A.M.
Schlegoff, E.A.
Shatz, M.
Snow, C.E., Pan, B.A., Imbens-Bailey, A., & Herman, J.
Stefanowitsch, A.
Tarplee, C.
Wang, Y.
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Backus, Ad & Kutlay Yağmur
Bourjade, Marie, Hélène Cochet, Sandra Molesti & Michèle Guidetti
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 february 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.