Hostname: page-component-69cd664f8f-fq6ln Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-12T14:37:29.426Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Repetition as ratification: How parents and children place information in common ground*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2008

EVE V. CLARK  and
JOSIE BERNICOT
EVE V. CLARK*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
JOSIE BERNICOT*
Affiliation:
Université de Poitiers
*
Addresses for correspondence: Eve V. Clark, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2150, USA. Email: [email protected].
Josie Bernicot, Université de Poitiers – CNRS, 99 avenue du Recteur Pineau, F-86000 Poitiers, France. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Repetition is used for a range of functions in conversation. In this study, we examined all the repetitions used in spontaneous conversations by 41 French adult–child dyads, with children aged 2 ; 3 and 3 ; 6, to test the hypotheses that adults repeat to establish that they have understood, and that children repeat to ratify what adults have said. Analysis of 978 exchanges containing repetitions showed that adults use them to check on intentions and to correct errors, while children use them to ratify what the adult said. With younger children, adults combine their repeats with new information. Children then re-repeat the form originally targeted by the adult. With older children, adults check on intentions but less frequently, and only occasionally check on forms. Older children also re-repeat in the third turn but, like adults, add further information. For both adults and children, repeats signal attention to the other's utterances, and place the information repeated in common ground.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 349 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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

*

We thank the CNRS and the Université de Poitiers for support for the first author's appointment as Professeur Invitée at the Université de Poitiers, Spring 2006. We are grateful to Emilie Despax, our graduate assistant, for her invaluable help with coding and organizing the data, and we would also like to acknowledge the Groupe Pergame who coordinated the original data collection. Finally, we thank Alain Bert-Eboul for statistical advice, and Herbert H. Clark, Bruno Estigarribia and Edy Veneziano for helpful comments on earlier versions.

References

Bernicot, J., Comeau, J. & Feider, H. (1994). Dialogues between French-speaking mothers and daughters in two cultures: France and Québec. Discourse Processes 18, 19–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernicot, J. & Roux, M. (1999). The pragmatic aspects of only children and second born children: analysis of conversations between French-speaking mothers and children. In Verschueren, J. (ed.), Pragmatics in 1998: Selected papers from the 6th International Pragmatics Conference, Vol. 2, 33–44. Antwerp: International Pragmatics Association.Google Scholar
Bloom, L., Hood, L. & Lightbown, P. M. (1974). Imitation in language development: if, when, and why. Cognitive Development 6, 380–420.Google Scholar
Bloom, L., Rocissano, L. & Hood, L. (1976). Adult-child discourse: developmental interaction between information processing and linguistic knowledge. Cognitive Psychology 8, 521–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, S. & Clark, H. H. (1996). Conceptual pacts and lexical choice in conversation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning & Cognition 6, 1482–93.Google Scholar
Brice Heath, S. (1983). Ways with words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, P. (1998). Conversational structure and language acquisition: the role of repetition in Tzeltal adult and child speech. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 8, 197–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavajay, P. & Rogoff, B. (1999). Cultural variation in management of attention by children and their caregivers. Developmental Psychology 35, 1079–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Childers, J. B., Vaughan, J. & Burquest, D. A. (2007). Joint attention and word learning in Ngas-speaking toddlers in Nigeria. Journal of Child Language 34, 199–225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chouinard, M. M. & Clark, E. V. (2003). Adult reformulations of child errors as negative evidence. Journal of Child Language 30, 637–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, E. V. (1987). The principle of contrast: a constraint on language acquisition. In MacWhinney, B. (ed.), Mechanisms of language acquisition, 1–34. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1993). The lexicon in acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. (2007). Young children's uptake of new words in conversation. Language in Society 36, 157–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, H. H. & Haviland, S. E. (1977). Comprehension and the given-new contract. In Freedle, R. O. (ed.), Discourse processes: Advances in research and theory, Vol. 1: Discourse production and comprehension, 1–40. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. & Schaefer, E. F. (1989). Contributing to discourse. Cognitive Science 13, 259–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demetras, M. J., Post, K. N. & Snow, C. (1986). Feedback to first language learners: the role of repetitions and clarification questions. Journal of Child Language 13, 275–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Estigarribia, B. & Clark, E. V. (2007). Getting and maintaining attention in talk to young children. Journal of Child Language 34, 799–814.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farrar, M. J. (1992). Negative evidence and grammatical morpheme acquisition. Developmental Psychology 28, 90–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francik, E. P. (1985). Referential choice and focus of attention in narratives. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P. M. & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (1993). Comparing communicative competence in child and chimp: the pragmatics of repetition. Journal of Child Language 20, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grice, H. P. (1989). Ways with words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gundel, J. K., Hedberg, N. & Zacharski, R. (1993). Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language 69, 274–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoff, E. (2003). Causes and consequences of SES-related differences in parent-to-child speech. In Bornstein, M. H. (ed.), Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development, 145–160. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Jefferson, G. (1982). On exposed and embedded correction in conversation. Studium Linguisticum 14, 58–68.Google Scholar
Johnstone, B.(ed.) (1994). Repetition in discourse: interdisciplinary perspectives. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A. II. (1976). -ing, -s, and -ed: a study of the acquisition of certain verb inflections. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Marchman, V. A. & Bates, E. (1994). Continuity in lexical and morphological development: a test of the critical mass hypothesis. Journal of Child Language 21, 339–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marcos, H., Salazar Orvig, A., Bernicot, J., Guidetti, M., Hudelot, C. & Préneron, C. (2004). Apprendre à parler: influence du mode de garde. Paris: Harmattan.Google Scholar
McTear, M. (1985). Children's conversation. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ochs, E. (1977). Making it last: repetition in children's discourse. In Ervin-Tripp, S. & Mitchell, C. (ed.), Child discourse, 125–38. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Otomo, K. (2001). Maternal responses to word approximations in Japanese children's transition to language. Journal of Child Language 28, 29–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Réger, Z. (1986). The functions of imitation in child language. Applied Psycholinguistics 7, 323–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A. & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking in conversation. Language 50, 696–735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saxton, M. (2000). Negative evidence and negative feedback: immediate effects on the grammaticality of child speech. First Language 20, 221–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A. (1972). Notes on a conversational practice: formulating place. In Sudnow, D. (ed.), Studies in conversational interaction, 75–119. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Speidel, G. E. & Nelson, K. E. (eds) (1989). The many faces of imitation in language learning. Berlin: Springerverlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svennevig, J. (2004). Other-repetition as display of hearing, understanding and emotional stance. Discourse Studies 6, 489–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veneziano, E. (2001). Displacement and informativeness in child-directed talk. First Language 21, 323–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, M. A. (1996) Inferring acceptance and rejection in dialog by default rules of inference. Language & Speech 39, 265–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar