INTRODUCTION

An interactionist approach to the analysis of similarities and differences between spoken and written language is a social and functionalist approach that has its basic theoretical underpinnings in L. S. Vygotsky's conception of language development. For Vygotsky, each individual's language development originates in social interaction, and then language development and social interaction continue a mutually mediating and transforming relationship within the semiotic system of the given culture. Various authors have referred to the Vygotskian approach as “sociohistorical.” Ochs (1984, p. 327), as one example, has defined the sociohistorical approach to language development and use as acknowledging the need in language studies to

It is possible to use the term “interactionist” to refer to several different levels of analysis: (1) In its broadest sense, “interactionist” refers to the Vygotskian conception of the “unification of nature and culture in the course of ontogenetic development” (John-Steiner and Tatter, 1983, p. 95) as opposed to either nativist or behaviorist conceptions of human development. (See also Wertsch, 1985a, 1985b; and Scinto, 1986). (2) In a second sense, “interactionist” refers to the use of language as social action and the understanding of language as based in human interaction in the various contexts available in the social semiotic of a given culture.