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Children's production of commissive speech acts*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Janet W. Astington
Janet W. Astington*
Affiliation:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
*
Centre for Applied Cognitive Science, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor St West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6, Canada.
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Abstract

This study determined at what age and in what form children (aged 4;5 to 11;11) produce speech acts which commit them to some future action, by having them speak a doll's part in dialogues with the experimenter, who spoke for another doll. All children produced directive speech acts, indicating that the task was not too difficult for them, but only the commissive speech acts were analysed in detail. A majority of children at all ages produced at least one commissive speech act, but only the older children used the explicit performative verb promise to reassure the hearer of their commitment.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 411 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank David Olson, Lynd Ferguson and Bill Postl for their advice during the progress of this research, and to acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, through Doctoral Fellowship 453–84–0013, held at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

References

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