Education, Science, Technology, Innovation and Life
Open Access
Sign In

The Development of Directives and the Role of Input: A Case Study of a Chinese Young Child

Download as PDF

DOI: 10.23977/langl.2023.060605 | Downloads: 17 | Views: 376

Author(s)

Tianzhe Jiao 1

Affiliation(s)

1 Lecturer of Haide College, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Street, Laoshan District, Qingdao, Shandong, China

Corresponding Author

Tianzhe Jiao

ABSTRACT

In the field of first language acquisition, research on pragmatics has received great attention, and the importance of it is undeniable. Many studies have paid special attention to the expression of directives, however, research on Chinese children is rare. In order to fill the research gap, by using quantitative method, the current study discusses the expression of requests and prohibitions of a Chinese boy, with specific stress on the role of input on production. Results show that Chinese children's acquisition sequence and expression of directives are significantly different from those of children whose mother tongue is other languages. Based on the study, it is hoped that special attention to Chinese culture can enrich the cultural diversity of studies in this area.

KEYWORDS

First Language Acquisition (FLA), directives, input, Chinese children

CITE THIS PAPER

Tianzhe Jiao, The Development of Directives and the Role of Input: A Case Study of a Chinese Young Child. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2023) Vol. 6: 23-29. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2023.060605.

REFERENCES

[1] Peccei, J. S. (2006). Child Language: A Resource Book for Students. London; New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
[2] Searle, J. (1998). Indirect speech acts. In Kasher, A. (Ed.), Pragmatics: Critical Concepts, Part 8: Indirect Speech Acts, vol. 5 (pp. 639– 657). London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
[3] Gleason, J. B., & Weintraub, S. (1976). The acquisition of routines in child language. Language in Society, 5(2), 129-136.
[4] Ervin-Tripp, S. (1977). Wait for me, roller skate! In Child discourse (pp. 165-188). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Academic Press.
[5] Ervin-Tripp, S., Guo, J., & Lampert, M. (1990). Politeness and persuasion in children's control acts. Journal of pragmatics, 14(2), 307-331.
[6] Garvey, C. (1975). Requests and responses in children's speech. Journal of child language, 2(1), 41-63.
[7] Becker-Bryant, Judith, 2009. Pragmatic development. In Bavin, E. L., & Naigles, L. R. (Eds.). The Cambridge handbook of child language (pp. 339-354). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
[8] Huls, E., & van Wijk, C. (2012). The development of a directive repertoire in context: A case study of a Dutch speaking young child. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(1), 83-103.
[9] Chejnová, P. (2015). Development of directives in child language: A case study of Czech. Topics in linguistics, 15(1). doi:10.2478/topling-2015-0002
[10] Burdelski, M. (2013). Socializing Children to Honorifics in Japanese: Identity and Stance in Interaction. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 32(2), 247-273.
[11] Takada, A. (2013). Generating morality in directive sequences: Distinctive strategies for developing communicative competence in Japanese caregiver-child interactions. Language & Communication, 33(4), 420-438. 
[12] Goodman, J. C., Dale, P. S., & Li, P. (2008). Does frequency count? Parental input and the acquisition of vocabulary. Journal of child language, 35(3), 515-531.
[13] Huttenlocher, J., Vasilyeva, M., Cymerman, E., & Levine, S. (2002). Language input and child syntax. Cognitive psychology, 45(3), 337-374.
[14] Leech, G. (2007). Politeness: is there an East-West divide? Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture, 3(2), 167-206.
[15] Chen, R., He, L., & Hu, C. (2013). Chinese requests: In comparison to American and Japanese requests and with reference to the “East-West divide”. Journal of Pragmatics, 55, 140-161.
[16] MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk: Volume I: Transcription format and programs, volume II: The database. Retrieved from https://childes.talkbank.org
[17] Bernicot, J., & Legros, S. (1987). Direct and indirect directives: What do young children understand? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 43(3), 346-358.
[18] Hoff, E. (2006). Environmental supports for language acquisition. Handbook of early literacy research, 2, 163-172.
[19] Kendrick, K. H., & Drew, P. (2016). Recruitment: Offers, requests, and the organization of assistance in interaction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 49(1), 1-19.
[20] Tsui, A. B., & Tollefson, J. W. (Eds.). (2017). Language policy, culture, and identity in Asian contexts. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
[21] Smolensky, P. (1996). On the comprehension/production dilemma in child language. Linguistic inquiry, 27, 720-731.
[22] Ambridge, B., Kidd, E., Rowland, C. F., & Theakston, A. L. (2015). The ubiquity of frequency effects in first language acquisition. Journal of child language, 42(2), 239-273.
[23] Tatsumi, T., Ambridge, B., & Pine, J. M. (2018). Disentangling effects of input frequency and morphophonological complexity on children's acquisition of verb inflection: An elicited production study of Japanese. Cognitive science, 42, 555-577.

All published work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2016 - 2031 Clausius Scientific Press Inc. All Rights Reserved.