A Crosslinguistic Study of Cohesion in Children's Narratives: The Introduction of Referents.

Autor/inn/en	Hickmann, Maya; und weitere
Titel	A Crosslinguistic Study of Cohesion in Children's Narratives: The Introduction of Referents.
Quelle	(1989), (23 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Age Differences; Child Language; Cognitive Processes; Coherence; Contrastive Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; English; Form Classes (Languages); French; German; Language Acquisition; Language Universals; Mandarin Chinese; Narration; Pragmatics; Speech Skills; Uncommonly Taught Languages; Young Children + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Linguistics; Kontrastive Linguistik; Diskursanalyse; English language; Englisch; Analytischer Sprachbau; Französisch; Deutscher; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Pragmalinguistik; Mündliche Leistung; Sprachfertigkeit; Minderheitensprache; Frühe Kindheit
Abstract	A study examined the development of discourse cohesion in first language acquisition within a functional and cross-linguistic perspective. The analyses focused on how children introduce new referents in discourse across four languages: English, French, German, and Mandarin Chinese. The data base consists of narratives produced by children between the ages of 4 and 10 based on two picture sequences. The study presented the narrative task to the children as a game in which they had to help a blindfolded interlocutor find out what happened in the stories. General tendencies and differences were observed across ages and languages. It was not until the children were 6 to 7 years of age that they used appropriate devices for introducing referents within the linguistic context. The children marked their referent introductions with both NP types and NP position, although their reliance on these two types of linguistic devices varied as a function of the language being acquired. These results show the interplay of general cognitive factors, universal discourse pragmatic principles, and language-specific processes for determining the acquisition of linguistic devices during the development of discourse cohesion. (Author/MSE)
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC