Simultaneity in children's narratives: the case of when, while and as.
This study examines the use of the co-temporal connectives when, while and as in the elicited narratives of 71 children between 4;10 and 11;11. A group of 26 adults provided comparison data. Subjects were asked to 'tell a story' about each of three sets of story pictures. Analysis of the adult data confirmed a preference for preposed over postposed when clauses and supported the notion of a continuum of simultaneity for when, while and as. The oldest children (like the adults) were more likely to prepose when clauses than were younger children, a finding which suggests that with increasing awareness of the information needs of the listener, children begin to use preposed adverbial clauses as information 'guideposts'. Surprisingly, however, children in general were far more likely than adults to use durative predicates with when clauses and did not use co-temporal as - substituting when or while in those contexts in which as appeared in the adult protocols. These two findings are shown to be connected, since aspect in the adult data is differentially distributed with respect to the three connectives. It is hypothesized that for narrative purposes children acquire when before while and while before as, in the order of increasing specificity and constraint, with the determining factor being a convergence of syntax, semantics and information flow.
Silva
M N
MN
Department of Human Development, California State University, Hayward 94542.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D012660:Semantics; D014956:Writing