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The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A dialogical approach
Edited by Anne Salazar-Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan and Annie Rialland
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 28] 2021
► pp. 82–113

Chapter 3
Young children’s uses of referring expressions

ORCID logo | Université de Lorraine
ORCID logo | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
ORCID logo | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
ORCID logo | Université de Lille
| Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3

This chapter investigates the repertoire and the uses of referring expressions in natural dialogues of 28 French-speaking children, aged between 1;7 and 2;6 years old. We focus on three strong forms (nouns, strong demonstrative pronouns and strong personal pronouns) and three weak forms (clitic personal pronouns, null forms and fillers). Their uses are analyzed for the following factors: the linguistic development, the type of referent (participants vs. entities), the syntactic function, and the attentional and discursive status of the referent. The results reveal contrasted uses of referring expressions. Nouns are mainly used for new or reintroduced referents, generally in syntactic functions other than subject, whereas clitic personal pronouns (as well as the other weak forms) are mainly used for given referents and always as subjects. The type of referent (entities vs. participants) also influences the use of referring expressions. The discussion addresses the issue of the intertwining of morphological, syntactic and pragmatic development.

Keywords: referential choice, accessibility, strong forms, weak forms, syntactic function, attentional status, discursive status, entities, self, addressee
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Children’s first referring expressions
      • 1.1.1Factors affecting the use of expressions referring to entities
      • 1.1.2Factors affecting the uses of expressions referring to the discourse participants
    • 1.2The aim of this study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants and data collection
    • 2.2Coding system
      • 2.2.1Types of referring expressions
      • 2.2.2Intercoder agreement and statistics
  • 3.Factors affecting the use of referring expressions
    • 3.1Impact of linguistic development on the use of referring expressions
    • 3.2Impact of syntactic function on the use of referring expressions
    • 3.3Type of referent
    • 3.4Attentional and discursive status of the referent
    • 3.5Interactions between factors
      • 3.5.1Nouns
      • 3.5.2Strong demonstrative pronouns
      • 3.5.3Strong personal pronouns
      • 3.5.4Clitic personal pronouns
      • 3.5.5Fillers
      • 3.5.6Null forms
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.28.03das
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