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Functional changes in early child language: the appearance of references to the past and of explanations*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Edy Veneziano  and
Hermina Sinclair
Edy Veneziano*
Affiliation:
Université de Genève and Université de Nancy II
Hermina Sinclair
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
*
F.P.S.E., Université de Genève – 11, Route de Drize, 1227 Carouge, Switzerland.
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Abstract

Spontaneous speech samples from children during the period of transition from one word to multi-word utterances in interaction with their French-speaking mothers were explored in order to study the appearance and development of functional changes in their use of language. Two types of such change were noted in the longitudinal records of four children when they were still essentially one-word speakers: the beginnings of references to the past, and the appearance of explanations and justifications, especially in communicative situations of request and refusal. The co-appearance of these behaviours is discussed in relation to two more general developmental changes: a detachment from the immediately perceptible situation linked to a further elaboration of the signifier-signified relation, and a socio-cognitive development leading to a view of the interlocutor as an alter ego, as a person whose psychological states may be different from the child's own.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , October 1995 , pp. 557 - 581
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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Footnotes

[*]

The research reported in this paper was supported in part by the Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique (grants no. 11–30927.91 and no. 11–37304.93 to E. Veneziano and H. Sinclair).

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