CLA: pragmatic development Flashcards
Pragmatics…
… The social aspect of language.
George Keith said…
“Pragmatics is all about the meanings between the lexis and the grammar and the phonology…Meanings are implied and the rules being followed are unspoken, unwritten ones.”
Del Hymes mentioned…
‘communicative competence’
- When to speak
- How to respond to others
- Appropriate registers
Semantics:
the meanings of words and utterances
Pragmatics:
the message that is being conveyed when the context of the utterance is understood
Why does pragmatic development occur?
On a basic level, as children get older they gain more vocabulary and grammar and can create more sophisticated structures, for example when they learn to form questions.
On a different level, their parents and caregivers become less prepared to respond to blunt and apparently rude demands. They expect their children to recognise the rules of politeness.
What are Halliday’s seven functions of language?
Instrumental Regulatory Interactional Personal Representational Imaginative Heuristic
Instrumental
Fulfil a need (e.g. ‘want milk’)
Regulatory
Influence the behaviour of others (e.g. ‘pick up’)
Interactional
Develop and maintain social relationships (e.g. ‘love you’)
Personal
Covey individual opinions, ideas and personal identity
Representational
Convey facts and information (e.g. ’it hot’)
Imaginative
Create an imaginary world and may be seen in play predominantly (e.g. me shopkeeper)
Heuristic
Learn about the environment (e.g. ‘wassat?’)
Early years…
Children are introduced to important role of language in everyday life.
Adults speak to them a great deal.
Routine events are accompanied by regularly repeated utterances.
Child-parent/carer interactions prepare the child for later participation in conversation.
First utterances:
statements (rather than questions) and not always directed at anyone!
Ages 2 - 4 yrs:
- Significant development in conversational skills:
- Turn taking
- Response to questions
- Greetings
- Politeness forms
- Children develop increased sensitivity to the needs of their listener.
- Greater understanding of language more appropriate to formal situations (register).
Later Development:
John Sinclair and Malcolm Coulthard (1975) developed a model for analysing discourse that looked at secondary school classrooms to see the structure of interactions. A three-part structure was identified, following a pattern of initiation, response and feedback. This IRF structure can also be applied to interactions between caregivers and children, as below:
- Initiation: What are you making with that play-dough?
- Response: It is a mermaid.
- Feedback: A mermaid? That’s great. I love its tail.
Theory: Lev Vygotsky
Lev, Vygotsky, the Russian psychologist , examined children’s play in the early 1930s. He was particularly interested in pretence play, which begins very early and when the imaginary situation is fairly close to real adult life.
- He referred to an example of a child thrusting a spoon into a doll’s mouth mimicking a doctor who has taken her temperature
Theory: Catherine Garvey
- Garvey built on this idea, stating that by creating an imaginary situation, children are unconsciously exploring ideas about social rules and relationships in adult life. They can do this without experiencing the consequences of real life. She said that in practise play, children used:
- Roles or identities which are assigned to participants and imaginary others
- Plans for actions or storylines which are often combined to create extended dramas
- Objects and settings
- She called this type of play socio-dramatic play.
Theory: Albert Bandura
the bobo doll experiment
Behaviourism:
Children exposed to the violent model tended to imitate the exact behaviour they had observed when the adult was no longer present.
Boys who observed adult males behaving violently were more influenced than those who had observed female models behaving aggressively. Interestingly, the experimenters found in same-sex aggressive groups, boys were more likely to imitate physical acts of violence while girls were more likely to imitate verbal aggression.
Politeness
When children first start to use language, it is not confined to naming things or commenting on them. They also use language to participate in social events through ritualised formulas, rules and routines.
Theory: Del Hymes
‘communicative competence’
- When to speak
- How to respond to others
- Appropriate registers
What are Grice’s four maxims?
The maxim of quantity
The maxim of quality
The maxim of relation
The maxim of manner
The maxim of quantity
where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.
The maxim of quality
where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.
The maxim of relation
where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.
The maxim of manner
, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.
