Nominal and pronominal reference in maternal speech during the later stages of language acquisition: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Ten English-speaking mother-child pairs were videotaped at 21, 24, 30 and 36 months of age in 25-minute free-play interactions to investigate mothers' use of proper names and their use of personal pronouns during the child's second and third years. The results revealed that mothers' unconventional nominal reference to speaker and addressee decreased, as their consistent pronominal reference increased with the age of their children. In addition, the results indicated that mothers used third person pronouns more frequently in reference to toys than in reference to humans, when their children were 21 months of age. However, mothers' use of third person pronouns in reference to toys decreased with the age of their children, whereas their use of third person pronouns in reference to humans increased. These findings are discussed with regard to how such maternal input may help the child to learn correct nominal and pronominal references in English.