Chapter published in:
The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A dialogical approachEdited by Anne Salazar-Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan and Annie Rialland
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 28] 2021
► pp. 82–113
Chapter 3Young children’s uses of referring expressions
Christine da Silva-Genest | Université de Lorraine
Haydée Marcos | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
Anne Salazar Orvig | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
Stéphanie Caët | Université de Lille
Julien Heurdier | 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
- 1.1Children’s first referring expressions
- 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
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.28.03das
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.28.03das
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