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In:Sources of Variation in First Language Acquisition: Languages, contexts, and learners
Edited by Maya Hickmann †, Edy Veneziano and Harriet Jisa
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 22] 2018
► pp. 163–182

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Chapter 8
Conversational partners and common ground

Variation contributes to language acquisition

 | Department of Linguistics, Stanford University
Published online: 22 February 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.22.09cla
Abstract
Children’s early exposure to and experience with language varies. They differ in how much conversational interaction they have with more expert adult speakers, which affects both speed of processing and early vocabulary acquisition. Another source of variation is how many interlocutors children interact with. Interlocutors are male or female, use different dialects, and know differing amounts about the child’s daily routines. Here, how much practice children have with interlocutors inside and outside the family affects how well children can establish and make use of common ground. Children also differ in how much practice they have, early on, in making themselves understood to others, and this affects how readily they can establish and then add to common ground with each new interlocutor.
Article outline
  • How much interactive language are children exposed to early on?
  • Consequences of differences in amount of interaction
  • Common ground
  • Conversational partners
  • Common ground for adult and child
  • Adding conversational partners
  • How do speakers establish a starting point?
  • How do speakers add new information to existing common ground?
  • Assessing what the other knows
  • Linguistic devices for signaling given and new
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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