Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T05:35:02.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adverbial connectivity in conversations of children 6 to 12*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Cheryl M. Scott
Cheryl M. Scott
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Natural language samples of 114 children aged 6 to 12 years are analysed for instances of discourse connectivity via adverbial conjuncts and disjuncts. Conjunct use is just emerging at 6 and is limited to the encoding of a subset of possible logical relations with only one lexical item per relation (transitional now, inferential then, result so and concessive though). Developmental progress takes the form of increasing use of the same conjuncts, plus additional logical relations and an increasing repertoire of lexical items per relation. Disjunct use is rare at all ages and largely limited to really and probably. Developmental interactions between form, content and use (discourse context) are probed. The 12-year-old child falls far short of an adult rate of production but is learning a similar set of connectivity forms.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1984 , pp. 423 - 452
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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 undertaken while the author was on sabbatical leave as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Linguistic Science, University of Reading, in the spring of 1982. I am indebted to David Crystal for his valuable counsel at various points in the project and to Michael Garman and Paul Fletcher for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper. I am also grateful to Robin Fawcett and Michael Perkins for their efforts in recording, transcribing and publishing the child language corpus analysed here. Address for correspondence: Department of Speech and Language Pathology and Audiology, 120 Hanner, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74074.

References

REFERENCES

Allerton, D. & Cruttenden, A. (1974). English sentence adverbials: their syntax and their intonation in British English. Lingua 27. 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, L., Lahey, M., Hood, L., Lifter, K. & Fiess, K. (1980). Complex sentences: acquisition of syntactic connectives and the semantic relations they encode. JChLang 7. 235–61.Google ScholarPubMed
Bloom, L., Rocissano, L. & Hood, L. (1976). Adult–child discourse: developmental interaction between information processing and linguistic knowledge. CogPsychol 8. 521–52.Google Scholar
Chomsky, C. (1969). The acquisition of syntax in children 5 to 10. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Clark, R. & Delia, J. (1976). The development of functional persuasive skills in childhood and early adolescence. ChDev 47. 1008–14.Google Scholar
Crystal, D. (1981). Directions in applied linguistics. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Crystal, D. & Davy, D. (1975). Advanced conversational English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Crystal, D., Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (1976). The grammatical analysis of language disability. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Fawcett, R. & Perkins, M. (1980). Child language transcripts 6–12, Vols. 1–4. Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales: Department of Behavioural and Communication Studies, Polytechnic of Wales.Google Scholar
Greenbaum, S. (1969). Studies in English adverbial usage. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Johnston, J. (1982). Narratives: a new look at communication problems in language disordered children. LSHSS 13. 144–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1979). Language development after five. In Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (eds), Studies in language acquisition. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1981). The grammatical marking of thematic structure in the development of language production. In Deutsch, W. (ed.), The child's construction of language. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, S. & Owen, M. (1982). Conversational topics and activities. (Final report of the project on topic organization in conversation.) Cambridge.Google Scholar
Loban, W. (1976). Language development: kindergarten through grade twelve. National Council of Teachers of English, Research Report No. 18.Google Scholar
Matthews, P. (1981). Syntax. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1928), Judgement and reasoning in the child. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. (1972). A grammar of contemporary English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Rees, N. (1974). The speech pathologist and the reading process. ASHA 16. 255–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Reichman, R. (1978). Conversational coherency. CogSci 2. 283–327.Google Scholar
Scott, C. (1982). Review of R. Fawcett & M. Perkins, Child language transcripts 6-12, JChLang 9. 704–8.Google Scholar
Scott, C. (in prep.) You know, well, and all that stuff: conversational forms and functions in children 6–12.Google Scholar
Templin, M. (1957). Certain language skills in children. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westby, C. (1982). Cognitive and linguistic aspects of children's narrative development. CommunDis 7. 1–16.Google Scholar
Wiig, E. & Semel, E. (1980). Language assessment and intervention for the learning disabled. Columbus: Charles Merrill.Google Scholar