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Pragmatic Development in First Language Acquisition
Edited by Danielle Matthews
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 10] 2014
► pp. 71–86

Conversation Analysis and pragmatic development

In this study the methods and findings of Conversation Analysis are applied to the examination of three interactions between young children aged 12 to 14 months in the context of a parent working to establish joint attention, working to get beyond joint attention and affirming a child action. The close attention to the micro details of the talk and what a child does in the next turn allow for a rich analysis and understanding about the pragmatic skills needed to initiate, respond and keep a conversation going. The study argues that such close attention to the minutiae of talk is necessary if we are to understand how the child works to engage successfully in co-creating and managing interaction, and in the process, what she learns about both language and interaction as she accumulates experience.

Published online: 26 June 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.10.05fil
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