Cover not available

In:The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A dialogical approach
Edited by Anne Salazar-Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan and Annie Rialland
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 28] 2021
► pp. 203–232

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

Chapter 7
The influence of dialogue in young children’s uses of referring expressions

ORCiD logo with link | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
ORCiD logo with link | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
ORCiD logo with link | Université de Lorraine
 | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
Published online: 16 June 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.28.07mar
Abstract
Twenty-four dialogues between French-speaking children aged 1;10 to 2;6 and their more competent interlocutors were analyzed from the point of view of (1) the uses of referring expressions by both children and their interlocutors, according to the attentional and discursive status of the referent, (2) the immediate effect of the interlocutor’s discourse on the choice of a referring expression; and (3) the dialogical relations of referring expressions. The main results confirmed the similarity of adults’ and children’s uses of third-person pronouns and showed that maintaining continuity in dialogue overrode the influence of forms in the interlocutor’s discourse. Finally, a qualitative analysis highlighted the role of formats and more generally, patterns of dialogue in the language developmental process.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Distribution and uses of referring expressions
    • 2.1The distribution of third-person pronouns, nouns, and demonstrative pronouns
    • 2.2Uses of referring expressions
  • 3.Towards a dialogical account
    • 3.1The immediate impact of the interlocutor’s discourse
      • 3.1.1Data analysis
        • Form and category of antecedents
        • Dialogical relations: Coding
        • Statistics
      • 3.1.2Results
        • Form and category of the interlocutor’s antecedents: Results
        • Dialogical relations: Results
      • 3.1.3Interaction between interlocutor’s antecedents, and dialogical relations
    • 3.2Patterns in dialogue
      • Immediate or distant uptake
      • Answering questions
      • Autonomous uses are anchored in previous sequences
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (54)
References
Allen, S. E. M. (2000). A discourse-pragmatic explanation for argument representation in child Inuktitut. Linguistics, 38(3), 483–521. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allen, S. E. M., Hughes, M. E., & Skarabela, B. (2015). The role of cognitive accessibility in children’s referential choice. In L. Serratrice & S. E. M. Allen (Eds.), The acquisition of reference (pp. 123–153). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ariel, M. (1990). Accessing noun-phrase antecedents. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M. (1979/1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, P. (1998). Conversational structure and language acquisition: The role of repetition in Tzeltal. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 8(2), 197–221. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruner, J. S. (1975). From communication to language: A psychological perspective. Cognition, 3(3), 255–287. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1983a). Child’s talk: Learning to use language. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1983b). The acquisition of pragmatic commitments. In R. Michnick Golinkoff (Ed.), The transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication (pp. 27–43). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caët, S. (2012). Développement de la référence à soi chez une enfant de 1;05 à 3;00: De l’influence de l’input à la reconstruction du système. Journal of French Language Studies, 22(1), 77–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campbell, A. L., Brooks, P., & Tomasello, M. (2000). Factors affecting young children’s use of pronouns as referring expressions. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 43, 1337–1349. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clancy, P. M. (1993). Preferred argument structure in Korean acquisition. In E. V. Clark (Ed.), Proceedings of the 25th annual child language research forum (pp. 307–314). Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1996). Referential strategies and the co-construction of argument structure in Korean acquisition. In Barbara A. Fox (Ed.), Studies in Anaphora (pp. 33–68). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). Dialogic priming and the acquisition of argument marking in Korean. In J. Guo, E. Lieven, N. Budwig, S. Ervin-Tripp, K. Nakamura, & S. Ozcaliskan (Eds.), Crosslinguistic approaches to the psychology of language: Research in the tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin (pp. 105–117). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, E. V., & Bernicot, J. (2008). Repetition as ratification: How parents and children place information in common ground. Journal of Child Language, 35(02), 349–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. (2014). How to talk with children. In I. Arnon, M. Casillas, C. Kurumada, & B. Estigarribia (Eds.), Language in interaction. Studies in honor of Eve V. Clark (pp. 333–352). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culbertson, J., & Legendre, G. (2008). Qu’en est-il des clitiques sujet en français oral contemporain? Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française – CMLF’08. [URL].
da Silva-Genest, C., Salazar Orvig, A., Marcos, H., Caët, S., & Heurdier, J. (2021). Young children’s uses of referring expressions.. In A. Salazar Orvig, G. de Weck, R. Hassan, & A. Rialland (Eds.), The acquisition of referring expressions: A dialogical approach (pp. 81–113). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (This volume). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Cat, C. (2005). French subject clitics are not agreement markers. Lingua, 115, 1195–1219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Egocentric definiteness errors and perspective evaluation in preschool children. Journal of Pragmatics, 56, 58–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). The cognitive underpinnings of referential abilities. In L. Serratrice & S. E. M. Allen (Eds.), The acquisition of reference (pp. 263–283). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guerriero, A. M. S., Oshima-Takane, Y., & Kuriyama, Y. (2006). The development of referential choice in English and Japanese: A discourse-pragmatic perspective. Journal of Child Language, 33(04), 823–857. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gundel, J. K., Hedberg, N., & Zacharski, R. (1993). Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language, 69, 274–307. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gundel, J. K., & Johnson, K. (2013). Children’s use of referring expressions in spontaneous discourse: Implications for theory of mind development. Journal of Pragmatics, 56, 43–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gundel, J. K., Ntelitheos, D., & Kowalsky, M. (2007). Children’s use of referring expressions: Some implications for theory of mind. ZAS Papers in Linguistics, 48, 1–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1979). Development of texture in child language. In T. Myers (Ed.), The development of conversation and discourse (pp. 72–87). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickmann, M., Schimke, S., & Colonna, S. (2015). From early to late mastery of reference. Multifunctionality and linguistic diversity. In L. Serratrice & S. E. M. Allen (Eds.), The acquisition of reference (pp.181–211). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hosmer, D. W., Lemeshow, S. & Sturdivant, R. X. (2013). Assessing the fit of the model. In D. W. Hosmer, S. Lemeshow & R. X. Sturdivant (Eds.), Applied logistic regression (pp. 153–226). New York, NY: Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hothorn, T., & Zeileis, A. (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
Huang, C. (2011). Referential choice and informativeness in mother-child conversation: A focus on the mother. Language Sciences, 34(3), 319–338. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hughes, M. E., & Allen, S. E. M. (2006). A discourse-pragmatic analysis of subject omission in child English. In D. Bamman, D. T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 293–304). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). The effect of individual discourse-pragmatic features on referential choice in child English. Journal of Pragmatics, 56, 15–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levy, E. T. (1989). Monologue as development of the text-forming function of language. In K. Nelson (Ed.), Narratives from the crib (pp. 123–161). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levy, E. T., & Nelson, K. (1994). Words in discourse: A dialectical approach to the acquisition of meaning and use. Journal of Child Language, 21, 367–389. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marcos, H., Salazar Orvig, A., Bernicot, J., Guidetti, M., Hudelot, C., & Préneron, C. (2004). Apprendre à parler: Influence du mode de garde. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthews, D., Lieven, E., Theakston, A. L., & Tomasello, M. (2006). The effect of perceptual availability and prior discourse on young children’s use of referring expressions. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 403–422. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (Ed.). (1989). Narratives from the crib. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). Young minds in social worlds: Experience, meaning, and memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ninio, A., & Snow, C. (1996). Pragmatic development. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. (1995). The impact of language socialization on grammatical development. In P. Fletcher & B. McWhinney (Eds.), The handbook of child language (pp. 73–94). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paradis, J., & Navarro, S. (2003). Subject realization and crosslinguistic interference in the bilingual acquisition of Spanish and English: What is the role of the input? Journal of Child Language, 30(2), 371–393. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pickering, M., & Garrod, S. (2004). Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 27, 169–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rabain-Jamin, J., Maynard, A. E., & Greenfield, P. (2003). Implications of sibling caregiving for sibling relations and teaching interactions in two cultures. Ethos, 31(2), 204–231. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rezzonico, S., Vinel, E., de Weck, G., Hassan, R., & Salagnac, N. (2021). Referring in dialogical narratives: a study on children’s use of nouns and pronouns. In A. Salazar Orvig, G. de Weck, R. Hassan, & A. Rialland (Eds.), The acquisition of referring expressions: A dialogical approach (pp. xxx–xxx). Amsterdam: John Benjamins (This volume). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salazar Orvig, A. (2000). La reprise aux sources de la construction discursive. Langages, 140, 68–91. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salazar Orvig, A., Marcos, H., Morgenstern, A., Hassan, R., Leber-Marin, J., & Parès, J. (2010a). Dialogical beginnings of anaphora: The use of third-person pronouns before the age of 3. Journal of Pragmatics, 42(7), 1842–1865. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010b). Dialogical factors in toddlers’s use of clitic pronouns. First Language, 30(3–4), 374–402. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salomo, D., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Children’s ability to answer different types of questions. Journal of Child Language, 40(2), 469–491. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Skarabela, B. (2007). Signs of early social cognition in children’s syntax: The case of joint attention in argument realization in child Inuktitut . Lingua, 117(11), 1837–1857. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Veneziano, E., & Clark, E. V. (2016). Early verb constructions in French: Adjacency on the left edge. Journal of Child Language, 43(6), 1193–1230. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Veneziano, E., & Sinclair, H. (2000). The changing status of ‘filler syllabes’ on the way to grammatical morphemes. Journal of Child Language, 27, 461–500. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. (1933/1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wittek, A., & Tomasello, M. (2005). Young children’s sensitivity to listener knowledge and perceptual context in choosing referring expressions. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26(4), 541–558. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (11)

Cited by 11 other publications

Le Mené, Marine, Anne Salazar Orvig, Christine Da Silva-Genest & Haydée Marcos
2023. The choice of referring expressions in adult-child dialogues. In Reference [Studies in Language Companion Series, 228], ► pp. 323 ff. DOI logo
da Silva-Genest, Christine, Haydée Marcos, Anne Salazar Orvig, Stéphanie Caët & Julien Heurdier
2021. Young children’s uses of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 81 ff. DOI logo
Hassan, Rouba, Geneviève de Weck, Stefano Rezzonico, Anne Salazar Orvig & Elise Vinel
2021. Variations in adult use of referring expressions during storytelling in different interactional settings. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 233 ff. DOI logo
Rezzonico, Stefano, Mélanie Bernasconi, Geneviève de Weck, Christine da Silva-Genest & Stéphane Jullien
2021. Referring expressions and developmental language disorders. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 141 ff. DOI logo
Rezzonico, Stefano, Elise Vinel, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan & Nathalie Salagnac
2021. Referring in dialogical narratives. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 115 ff. DOI logo
Salazar Orvig, Anne & Geneviève de Weck
2021. The acquisition of referring expressions: From formal factors to communicative experience. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 319 ff. DOI logo
Salazar-Orvig, Anne & Geneviève de Weck
2021. Chapter 11. The acquisition of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], DOI logo
Salazar Orvig, Anne, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan & Annie Rialland
2021. A dialogical approach to the acquisition and usage of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Salazar-Orvig, Anne, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan & Annie Rialland
2021. Chapter 1. A dialogical approach to the acquisition and usage of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], DOI logo
Vinel, Elise, Anne Salazar Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Salma Nashawati & Somayeh Rahmati
2021. The impact of speech genres on the use of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 287 ff. DOI logo
Yamaguchi, Naomi, Anne Salazar Orvig, Marine Le Mené, Stéphanie Caët & Annie Rialland
2021. Filler syllables as precursors of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 41 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 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