Cover not available

In:Reference: From conventions to pragmatics
Edited by Laure Gardelle, Laurence Vincent-Durroux and Hélène Vinckel-Roisin
[Studies in Language Companion Series 228] 2023
► pp. 323–345

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

The choice of referring expressions in adult-child dialogues

The influence of formal and functional factors

 | Université du Québec à Montréal, ISC | CRBLM
 | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, CLESTHIA
 | Université de Lorraine, DevAH | ATILF
 | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, CLESTHIA
Published online: 2 February 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.228.17lem
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the choice of referring expressions in adult-child dialogues, and particularly on the identification of formal and functional conditions promoting the uses of personal and demonstrative pronouns. The study is based on a corpus of 22 parent-child dyads. Children are aged from 21 to 27 months and interact with their interlocutor in various activities. Referring expressions were analysed according to their syntactic function, the activity dyads were involved in, the discourse type and their position in the referential chain. Our results show a strong interaction between formal and functional factors, in adults’ and children’s discourse, and confirm that the acquisition of pronouns’ referential value originates in the uptake of discourse sequences within the frame of familiar activities.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The acquisition of referring expressions
    • 2.1The syntactic and referential factors involved in the use of referring expressions
    • 2.2Using referring expressions as a situated activity
  • 3.Studying the acquisition of pronouns: Data and method of analysis
    • 3.1A corpus of adult-child interactions
    • 3.2Coding
    • 3.3Statistics
  • 4.Results: Factors at play in the acquisition of pronouns
    • 4.1General distribution of referring expressions
    • 4.2The syntactic function
    • 4.3The position of the referent in the referential chain
    • 4.4The types of activities
    • 4.5The discourse types
    • 4.6Weighing each factor and interactions
      • 4.6.1Personal pronouns
      • 4.5.2Demonstrative pronouns
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (51)
References
Adam, Jean-Michel. 1987. Types de séquences textuelles élémentaires. Pratiques 56: 54–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. La linguistique textuelle. Introduction à l’analyse textuelle des discours. Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allen, Shanley E. M., Hughes, Mary E. & Skarabela, Barbora. 2015. The role of cognitive accessibility in children’s referential choice. In Serratrice & Allen (eds), 123–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Altinkamis, Feyza, Kern, Sophie & Sofu, Hatice. 2014. When context matters more than language: Verbs or nouns in French and Turkish caregiver speech. First language 34(6): 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ariel, Mira. 1990. Accessing Noun-phrase Antecedents. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Pragmatics and Grammar. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhaïl. 1979/1986. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, Douglas, Mächler, Martin, Bolker, Ben & Walker, Steve. 2015. Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67(1): 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas & Conrad, Susan. 2009. Register, Genre, and Style. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bronckart, Jean-Paul. 1996. Activité langagière, textes et discours. Pour un interactionnisme socio-discursif. Lausanne: Delachaux et Niestlé.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Les genres de textes et leur contribution au développement psychologique. Langages 153: 98–108.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruner, Jerome S. 1975. From communication to language: A psychological perspective. Cognition 3(3): 255–287. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1983. Child’s Talk; Learning to Use Language. New York NY: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace. 1976. Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view. In Subject and Topic, Charles N. Li (ed.), 27–55. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clancy, Patricia M. 2008. Dialogic priming and the acquisition of argument marking in Korean. In Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Psychology of Language: Research in the Tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin, Jiansheng Guo, Elena Lieven, Nancy Budwig, Susan Ervin-Tripp, Keiko Nakamura & Seyda Ozcaliskan (eds), 105–117. New York NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
da Silva-Genest, Christine, Salazar Orvig, Anne, Marcos, Haydée, Caët, Stéphanie & Heurdier, Julien. 2021. Young children’s uses of referring expressions. In Salazar Orvig, de Weck, Hassan & Rialland (eds), 81–113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Weck, Geneviève, Hassan, Rouba, Heurdier, Julien, Klein, Janina & Salagnac, Nathalie. 2021. Activities and social settings: their roles in the use of referring expressions. In Salazar Orvig, de Weck, Hassan & Rialland (eds), 261–286. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dore, John. 1975. Holophrases, speech acts and language universals. Journal of Child Language 2: 21–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, Barbara A. 1987. Discourse Structure and Anaphora. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
François, Frédéric. 1984. Problèmes et esquisse méthodologique. In Conduites linguistiques chez le jeune enfant, Frédéric François, Christian Hudelot & Emilie Sabeau-Jouannet (eds), 13–116. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gee, Julie & Savasir, Iskender. 1985. On the use of will and gonna: Toward a description of activity-types for child language. Discourse Processes 8(2): 143–175. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gundel, Jeannette. K. 2010. Reference and accessibility from a givenness hierarchy perspective. International Review of Pragmatics 2(2): 148–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gundel, Jeannette K., Hedberg, Nancy & Zacharski, Ron. 1993. Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language 69: 274–307. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickmann, Maya. 2002. Children’s Discourse. Person, Space and Time across Languages. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickmann, Maya & Hendricks, Henriëtte. 1999. Cohesion and anaphora in children’s narratives: A comparison of English, French, German, and Chinese. Journal of Child Language 26: 419–452. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickmann, Maya, Schimke, Sarah & Colonna, Saveria. 2015. From early to late mastery: Multifunctionality and linguistic diversity. In The Acquisition of Reference, [Trends on Language Acquisition Research 15] Ludovica Serratrice & Shanley Allen (eds), 181–211. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hothorn, Torsten & Zeileis, Achim. 2015. partykit: A modular toolkit for recursive partitioning in. Journal of Machine Learning Research 16: 3905–3909.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine & Traverso, Véronique. 2004. Types d’interactions et genres de l’oral. Langages 1: 41–51.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kern, Sophie & Raffara, Angélique. 2012. Effet du type de support imagé sur la production du récit chez l’enfant. In Récits d’enfants: Développement, genre, contexte, Régine Delamotte & Mehmet-Ali Akinci (eds), 97–115. Rouen/Le Havre: Publications des universités de Rouen et du Havre.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kern, Sophie & Chenu, Florence. 2010. Contextes de production et LAE en français: Caractéristiques pragmatiques et syntaxiques. In Actes du congrès mondial de linguistique française, Franck Neveu, Valelia Muni Toke, Thomas Klingler, Jacques Durand, Lorenza Mondada & Sophie Prévost (eds), 1527–1537. Paris: Institut de linguistique française. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. The transformation of experience in narrative syntax. In Language in the Inner City, William Labov (ed.), 354–396. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 1979. Activity types and language. Linguistics 17: 365–399. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES Project: Tools for Analyzing Talk. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marcos, Haydée, Salazar Orvig, Anne, da Silva-Genest, Christine & Heurdier, Julien. 2021. The influence of dialogue in young children’s uses of referring expressions. In Salazar Orvig, de Weck, Hassan & Rialland (eds), 203–232. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nelson, Katherine. 2007. Young Minds in Social Worlds: Experience, Meaning, and Memory. Cambridge MA.: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ninio, Anat & Snow, Catherine. 1996. Pragmatic Development. Boulder CA: Westview Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peters, Ann. M. 2001. Filler syllables: What is their status in emerging grammar? Journal of Child Language 28: 229–242. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salazar Orvig, Anne, de Weck, Geneviève, Hassan, Rouba, & Rialland, Annie (eds). 2021. The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A Dialogic Approach [Trends in Language Acquisition Research 28]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salazar Orvig, Anne, Marcos, Haydée, Heurdier, Julien, & da Silva, Christine. 2018. Referential features, speech genres and activity types. In Sources of Variation in First Language Acquisition: Languages, Contexts, and Learners [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 22] Maya Hickmann, Harriet Jisa & Edy Veneziano (eds), 219–242. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salazar Orvig, Anne, Marcos, Haydée, Morgenstern, Aliyah, Hassan, Rouba, Leber-Marin, Jocelyne & Parès, Jacques. 2010. Dialogical factors in toddler’s use of clitic pronouns. First Language 30(3–4): 374–402. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schnedecker, Catherine. 2021. Les chaînes de référence en français. Paris: Éditions Ophrys.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. Reference chains and genre identification. In The Grammar of Genres and Styles: From Discrete to Non-Discrete Units, Dominique Legallois, Thierry Charnois & Meri Larjavaara (eds), 39–66. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serratrice, Ludovica, & Allen, Shanley. E. M. 2015. Introduction: An overview of the acquisition of reference. In The Acquisition of Reference, [Trends on Language Acquisition Research 15] Ludovica Serratrice & Shanley Allen (eds), 1–24. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. 1999. The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Constructing a Language. A Usage-based Theory of Language Acquisition. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Veneziano, Edy. 2003. The emergence of noun and verb categories in the acquisition of French. Psychology of Language and Communication 7: 23–36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vinel, Élise, Salazar Orvig, Anne, de Weck, Geneviève, Nashawati, Salma & Rahmati, Somayeh. 2021. The impact of speech genres on the use of referring expressions. In Salazar Orvig, de Weck, Hassan & Rialland (eds), 287–316. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vygotsky, Lev S. 1978. Mind in society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wertsch, James V. 1991. Voices of the Mind. Hemel Hemstead: Harverster Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Krykoniuk, Kateryna, Michelle Aldridge-Waddon, Lise Fontaine & Seán G. Roberts
2025. Reference to Patients in Nurse Shift Handover Meetings: Exploring the Dynamics of Referring Expressions. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 32:1 ► pp. 54 ff. DOI logo
Le Mené, Marine, Anne Salazar Orvig, Christine da Silva-Genest & Haydée Marcos
2024. Young children’s experience of referentiality and nonreferentiality in dialogue. In (Non)referentiality in Conversation [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 344], ► pp. 80 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue