Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-c654p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-28T16:46:47.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Complementary balance in the use of the interrogative form by nursery school dyads*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Ginger Berninger  and
Catherine Garvey
Ginger Berninger
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
Catherine Garvey
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Child partners were compared on their relative tendency to use the interrogative form in spontaneous dyadic verbal interactions. A given child's tendency to use the interrogative form more frequently than the other member of the dyad remained constant across partners. This relative stability in formulating utterances in interrogative form cannot be attributed to the child's producing more talk in general than the partner. The observed effect is explained as a type of conversational synchrony in which participants achieve a complementary balance rather than congruence. It was concluded that the interrogative form is a linguistic means for child peers to establish cooperation as well as controlling kinds of relationships during an ongoing interaction.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 1981 , pp. 297 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Berninger, G. & Garvey, C. (in press). Questions and the allocation, construction, and timing of turns in child discourse.Google Scholar
Garvey, C. (1975). Requests and responses in children's speech. JChLang 2. 41–63.Google Scholar
Garvey, C. (1977). The contingent query: a dependent act in conversation. In Lewis, M. & Rosenblum, L. (eds), Interaction, conversation, and the development of language: the origins of behavior. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Garvey, C. (1978). On responding. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Garvey, C. (1979) An approach to the study of children's role play. The Quarterly Newsletter, Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition.Google Scholar
Garvey, C. & Debba, M. Ben (1974). Effects of age, sex, and partner on children's dyadic speech. ChDev 45. 1159–61.Google ScholarPubMed
Garvey, C. & Berninger, G. (in press). Timing and turn-taking in children's conversations.Google Scholar
Gleason, J. (1977). Talking to children: some notes on feedback. In Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds), Talking to children: language input and acquisition. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. & Hymes, D. (1972). Directions in sociolinguistics: the ethnography of communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Hinde, R. & Stevenson-Hinde, J. (1976). In Bateson, P. P. G. & Hinde, R. A. (eds), Growing points in ethology. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Holtzman, M. (1972). The use of interrogative forms in the verbal interactions of three mothers and their children. JPsycholingRes 1. 311–36.Google Scholar
Mishler, E. (1975 a). Studies in dialogue and discourse; an exponential law of successive questioning. LangSoc 4. 31–51.Google Scholar
Mishler, E. (1975 b) Studies in dialogue and discourse. II. Types of discourse initiated by and sustained through questioning. JPsycholingRes 4. 99–121.Google Scholar
Mishler, E. (1978). Studies in dialogue and discourse. III. Utterance structure and utterance function in interrogative sequences. JPsycholingRes 7. 279–305.Google Scholar
Robinson, W. P. (1972). Language and social behaviour. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Lg 50. 696–735.Google Scholar
Snow, C. (1977). Mothers' speech research: from input to interaction. In Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds), Talking to children: language input and acquisition. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Welkowitz, J., Cariffe, G. & Feldstein, S. (1976). Socialization in children. ChDev 47. 269–72.Google Scholar