Affiliation:
1. University of Queensland
Abstract
Abstract
This study analyzes the L1-acquisition of discourse like and its pragmatic functions in American
English based on the Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development component of the Child
Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES). The data show that discourse like is already present in the
speech of 3- and 4-year-old children and that even very young children employ like to perform distinct pragmatic
functions with specifying uses being dominant until age 8;5. The analysis also shows a notable increase in discourse
like as children mature, mainly driven by an increase in attention-directing like, the
dominant function of discourse like among children older than 8;5. Conditional inference trees show that the use
of discourse like by children is affected by a child’s age, the situation type and the frequency of discourse
like in caregivers’ input. Children younger than 7;10 use discourse like only rarely in
formal contexts as well as in informal contexts if their caregivers do not use discourse like frequently.
However, children use discourse like substantially more if they are older than 7;10 or, in informal contexts,
when their caregivers use discourse like frequently. The changes in frequency and the functional shifts in the
use of like around the ages of 7 to 9 is interpreted to show that peers become more important as linguistic role
models when children enter school. The results thus substantiate research which suggests that the pragmatic and social meanings of
discourse markers are learned alongside linguistic constraints rather than after the form has been acquired.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics
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