The use of interrogative forms in the verbal interaction of three mothers and their children

Abstract

A classification of interrogatives according to their purposes was devised and applied to four, 100-utterance samples by three mothers to their children when their children had a mean utterance length of (1) two morphemes and (2) four morphemes. The distribution of mothers' utterances into interrogative and noninterrogative types and into the classification of interrogatives by purpose was obtained. Interrogatives comprise from 15 to 33% of mothers' utterances and interrogatives whose purpose is not to ask questions but rather to make suggestions, negative evaluations of the child's behavior, or to make reports occur with all mothers. A study of these mothers' children's interrogatives in the three-morpheme period revealed that at this early period in language development children already use the interrogative form analogously to their mothers for making suggestions and reports. An analysis of the development of this capacity based on the concept of the "speech act" is given which leads to the conclusion that it is the embeddedness of verbalizations in a particular personal relations, action context which fosters this development.

The acquisition of melodic form and meaning in yes-no interrogatives by Catalan and Spanish speaking children

“…Specifically, the five pragmatic types used in this analysis were based on a combination of work by Holzman (1972), Sosa (1999), and the Map Task system (Anderson et al 1991;Carletta et al 1995). The five different pragmatic types for yn-questions are: information-seeking, confirmation-seeking, offers, pure echoes, and presumptive (or counter-expectational) echoes.…”

Social Influences on the Development of Children's Adaptive Help Seeking: The Role of Parents, Teachers, and Peers

“…As a result of conversational experience with parents, toddlers learn the semantics and syntax of questioning (see Hood & Bloom, 1979;Smiley & Greene, 1995). Interrogatives are used to ask for information, to influence parents' actions, and to clarify miscommunications (Holzman, 1972). Children's understanding of the linguistic aspects of ques-tioning no doubt influences help seeking.…”

A case study in language socialization: Korean wh‐questions

“…Western mothers, for example, frequently test labels of objects (Heath, 1981(Heath, , 1983Holzman, 1972Holzman, , 1974Olsen-Fulero & Conforti, 1983;Schieffelin & Eisenberg, 1984;Shatz, 1978Shatz, ,1979Snow, 1978). In Papua, New Guinea, on the other hand, Kaluli adults do not ask children to label objects, but do expect them to answer questions naming their relatives (Schieffelin & Eisenberg, 1984).…”