engleski

Adults questions and child's answers: What does 'I don't know' mean?

Child directed speech ? CDS (similar terms: caretaker speech, baby talk, motherese) is a specific type of linguistic behavior, used by adults when addressing to children in home environment. Its main characteristics are simplification and adjustment to child linguistic abilities in order to provide help in child?s language acquisition. One of the main features that differentiate CDS from adult speech is a large number of questions, but also the difference in their function. When discussing informative and pragmatic functions of questions, the pragmatic ones are more important and diverse in CDS due to the specific role of CDS. Being a child-oriented type of behavior, CDS depends on child?s response in order to gain sufficient support to language acquisition. Just as questions have both informative and pragmatic functions, so does child?s answers, no matter if they are right or wrong. With the child?s language development, adult?s questions become more complex. Following that, the child?s answers also gain complexity, not just in linguistic terms, but expressing more then just the information directly asked for. Children learn not just how to answer appropriately, but also what is the role of the question in communication and what response is expected from them. In the process of language acquisition of three Croatian children (Antonija, Vjeran and Marina were followed longitudinally from the appearance of first words to approximately three years), similar types of appropriate, but also of inappropriate answers appeared at similar point in language development, illustrating children?s increasing language competence.

first language acquisition; child directed speech; questions; answers

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