{"title":"Forms and functions of self-repetition in Mandarin child-directed speech","authors":"Chiung-chih Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101644","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The present study aims to investigate how self-repetition is used to serve communicative purposes in Mandarin mother–child interaction, focusing particularly on mothers’ child-directed speech. The participants of this study consisted of 12 Mandarin-speaking children (4 two-year-olds, 4 three-year-olds, and 4 four-year-olds) and their mothers. Natural conversation from each mother–child dyad was collected for a total of 12 h. The occurrences of self-repetition in the data were analyzed in terms of their forms and functions. The results showed that the mothers of younger children tended to use self-repetition more frequently than the mothers of older children. The predominant form of self-repetition was expanded repetition, and the major functions were soliciting responses and emphasis. Detailed analyses showed how the mothers used the different forms of self-repetition to express various functions. It was concluded that self-repetition in child-directed speech plays an important role in facilitating mother–child interaction and that it may also reflect mothers’ sensitivity to the developing linguistic, cognitive, and communicative abilities of their children.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0388000124000330","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The present study aims to investigate how self-repetition is used to serve communicative purposes in Mandarin mother–child interaction, focusing particularly on mothers’ child-directed speech. The participants of this study consisted of 12 Mandarin-speaking children (4 two-year-olds, 4 three-year-olds, and 4 four-year-olds) and their mothers. Natural conversation from each mother–child dyad was collected for a total of 12 h. The occurrences of self-repetition in the data were analyzed in terms of their forms and functions. The results showed that the mothers of younger children tended to use self-repetition more frequently than the mothers of older children. The predominant form of self-repetition was expanded repetition, and the major functions were soliciting responses and emphasis. Detailed analyses showed how the mothers used the different forms of self-repetition to express various functions. It was concluded that self-repetition in child-directed speech plays an important role in facilitating mother–child interaction and that it may also reflect mothers’ sensitivity to the developing linguistic, cognitive, and communicative abilities of their children.
期刊介绍:
Language Sciences is a forum for debate, conducted so as to be of interest to the widest possible audience, on conceptual and theoretical issues in the various branches of general linguistics. The journal is also concerned with bringing to linguists attention current thinking about language within disciplines other than linguistics itself; relevant contributions from anthropologists, philosophers, psychologists and sociologists, among others, will be warmly received. In addition, the Editor is particularly keen to encourage the submission of essays on topics in the history and philosophy of language studies, and review articles discussing the import of significant recent works on language and linguistics.