title: Enunciative categories in the description of language functioning of mothers and infants aged 1-4 months.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To present categories which explain the language functioning between infants and their mothers from Benveniste's concept of semiotic system, and verify whether such categories can be described numerically.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four mother-infant dyads were monitored in three stages. The first study consisted of a qualitative analysis of the transcribed video recordings conducted in each stage. We intended to identify the enunciative principles associated with the relationship between the semiotic system of the infant's body and their mother's language, namely, the principles of interpretancy and homology. The other study was conducted by means of a descriptive numerical analysis of the enunciative categories and the infant caregiver scale of behavior, using the ELAN software (EUDICO Linguistic Anotador).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mutuality in mother-infant interactions was observed in most of the scenes analyzed. Productive enunciative categories demonstrated in the infant's demand/mother's interpretation relation was identified in homology and interpretancy. It was also possible to use these categories to describe the mother-infant interactions numerically. In addition, other categories emerged because there are other subtypes of maternal productions not directly related to infant demand. This shows that infants are exposed to language of heterogeneous characteristics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The concept of semiotic system allowed the proposition of language functioning categories identifiable in the mother-infant relationship. Such categories were described numerically.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria - UFSM - Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
authors.forename: Cristina Saling
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Kruel
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria - UFSM - Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
authors.forename: Inaê Costa
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Rechia
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria - UFSM - Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
authors.forename: Luciéle Dias
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria - UFSM - Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
authors.forename: Ana Paula Ramos de
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Souza
mesh_terms: D002663:Child Language; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D014741:Video Recording