Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:19:30.973Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Knowing what to say and wanting to say it: some communicative and structural aspects of single-word responses to questions*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Maris Monitz Rodgon
Maris Monitz Rodgon
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago Circle
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The interrelation of semantic and communicative factors was considered in three children's single-word responses to adult questions. Parents asked more yes/no than naming questions. Children were able to use yes and no appropriately, but did not always do so. The children seemed to have related the form of yes/no questions to the use of yes/no answers, but communicatively were not always willing or able to produce yes/no answers when required. Naming questions were more often followed by appropriate than by inappropriate utterances. The relation of these findings to the importance of naming in early language acquisition, and to the findings of Horgan (1977) and Steffensen (1977) was considered.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , February 1979 , pp. 81 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was supported by grant No. 709–02 from the State of Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities and by grants from the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle Research Board. The author would like to thank Jeanne Hetzel and Wayne Jankowski for their assistance in preparing the data and Dr Raymond Bennett for his invaluable assistance throughout the analysis. Computing services were provided by the UICC computing center. Portions of this paper were presented at the Stanford Child Language Research Forum, March, 1977. Address for correspondence: Department of Psychology, PO Box 4348, Chicago, Illinois 60680.

References

REFERENCES

Bruner, J. S. (1975). The ontogenesis of speech acts. JChLang 2. 1–20.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P., Smith, S. & Laufer, B. (1972). Communication and the beginnings of language. Unpublished draft.Google Scholar
Horgan, D. (1977). How to answer questions when you've got nothing to say. JChLang 5. 159–65Google Scholar
Howe, , Christine, (1977). Review of P. Greenfield & J. H. Smith, JChLang 4. 479–83.Google Scholar
Rodgon, M. (1976). Single-word usage, cognitive development, and the beginnings of combinatorial speech: a study of ten English-speaking children. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Rodgon, M. (1977). Not the final word. ContempPsych 22. 362–4.Google Scholar
Rodgon, M., Jankowski, W. & Alenskas, L. (1977). A multi-functional analysis of single-word speech. JChLang 4. 23–44.Google Scholar
Steffensen, M. (1977). Satisfying inquisitive adults: some simple methods of answering yes/no questions. JChLang 5. 221–36.Google Scholar