French Children's Conception of Requesting: The Development of Metapragmatic Knowledge

Abstract

To what extent are children able to "think about" or "talk about" variation in linguistic forms of requests in different communicative situations? In other words, do children have metapragmatic knowledge? These issues were tested on a sample of 72 subjects divided into three age groups (5-, 7-, and 10-year-olds). Subjects were read short narratives composed of conversations between two speakers. After each story, subjects were asked to evaluate the appropriateness of a request made by one of the protagonists, explain their judgements, and suggest an alternative formulation. Thus, the experiment tests conscious metapragmatic knowledge. Responses were analysed in terms of age of subjects, linguistic form of requests (direct request, conventional indirect request, non-conventional indirect request, hint or justification), and relationship between the two speakers (good co-operation/poor co-operation). The findings show that: (1) 5-year-olds have metapragmatic knowledge; (2) the repertoire of metapragmatic knowledge increases with age; and (3) this repertoire is affected by the linguistic form of the request and by the degree of co-operation between speakers. The discussion focuses on situations that reveal early metapragmatic knowledge, and on possible mechanisms governing the transition from one type of metapragmatic knowledge to another.