The problem of articulate animals in Korean child conversation: A Hallidayan analysis, a Vygotskyan interpretation, and a Hasanian critique

Abstract

Some children believe that animals can talk. To discover whether and in what sense the two Korean-speaking children in our study believe this is not the least of our reasons for analysing their use of projection (direct and indirect speech reporting). But this belief in talking animals, where it exists, needs to be explained. Halliday has speculated that it may come about because children begin with the same understanding of human speech that animals have – a bistratal one, where a given semantic content is matched with a phonetic expression unmediated by lexicogrammar. Here too we have ample motive for analysing the language of our subjects with an eye to the extent to which that bistratal model persists in their consciousness. Finally, this belief in talking animals may also arise through exposure to articulate animal characters in fables, cartoons, and (recently) photorealistic films. Therefore, a third purpose of our study is to consider this possibility and suggest that our current emphasis on talking animals for young children but not adolescents might just be diametrically opposed to their own development. We strive, in this way, to render the present study not merely descriptive but explanatory, and not merely explanatory but appliable.