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The relationship of pragmatic dimensions of mothers' speech to the referential-expressive distinction*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Maria Della Corte ,
Helen Benedict  and
Diane Klein
Maria Della Corte
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Helen Benedict
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Diane Klein
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Abstract

A 50-utterance corpus for each of sixteen mothers during caretaking situations (diapering, dressing, bathing) was extracted from in-home tape recordings obtained over a three-day period. The children ranged from 1; 3.15 to 1; 7 and were classified according to Nelson's referential-expressive distinction. A coding scheme consisting of three categories – communicative intent, focus of attention and evaluation – was employed to characterize the mothers' speech. Mothers of referential children produced a greater number of utterances per caretaking incident, more description and less prescriptives than did mothers of expressive children. The findings suggest that Nelson's referential-expressive distinction in child's speech is related to differences in mothers' pragmatic speech characteristics.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1983 , pp. 35 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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Footnotes

[*]

We would like to thank Laurie Rotblatt and Jim Barnyak for their dedication and contribution to the classification of the data. Helen Benedict is now at Baylor University, and Diane Klein at the Kansas Neurological Institute. Address for correspondence: Maria Della Corte, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824.

References

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