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.