Requests and responses in children's speech

Abstract

An investigation of children's ability to convey and respond to requests for action was based on the spontaneous speech of 36 dyads of nursery school children (3; 6–5; 7). Direct request forms (e.g. Give me the hammer) were frequent and the majority were acknowledged verbally. Examination of the contexts of direct requests indicated that speaker and addressee shared an understanding of the interpersonal meaning factors relevant to requesting. These meaning factors were invoked in justifying, refusing and in repeating or paraphrasing a request, and they also provided a basis for the communication of indirect requests. Examples of inferred requests are discussed, and a relationship between the structure of the speech act and conversational sequences is proposed.

Children's perspectives of the family: A phenomenological inquiry

“…Children, like adults, communicate in diverse situations (e.g., Bates, 1976;Clark and Delia, 1977;Delia and O'Keefe, 1979;Garvey, 1975;Haslett, 1983Haslett, , 1984Johnson, 1977;Rice and Wartella, 1981). They learn conversation skills from birth, and become sophisticated conversational partners with their parents (Wartella and Reeves, 1987).…”

Systemic choices and discourse processes

“…7 The term TEMPORIZATION is borrowed from Garvey (1975). However, the way it is defined here differs from the way Garvey defines it.…”

Clarification requests in everyday interaction involving children with cochlear implants

“…Several forms of clarification requests have been identified (24)(25)(26). These include specific and nonspecific requests for clarification, specific requests for confirmation, and/or for repetition of a specific constituent (24)(25).…”

“…These include specific and nonspecific requests for clarification, specific requests for confirmation, and/or for repetition of a specific constituent (24)(25). Nonspecific, open requests for clarification may for example occur when there is a hearing problem, but also at an abrupt shift of topic or be used as an inappropriate or disagreeing response (26).…”