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Learning to use demonstratives in conversation: what do language specific strategies in Turkish reveal?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2006

AYLİN C. KÜNTAY  and
ASLI ÖZYÜREK
AYLİN C. KÜNTAY
Affiliation:
Koç University, Istanbul
ASLI ÖZYÜREK
Affiliation:
Koç University, Istanbul and Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
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Abstract

Pragmatic development requires the ability to use linguistic forms, along with non-verbal cues, to focus an interlocutor's attention on a referent during conversation. We investigate the development of this ability by examining how the use of demonstratives is learned in Turkish, where a three-way demonstrative system (bu, şu, o) obligatorily encodes both distance contrasts (i.e. proximal and distal) and absence or presence of the addressee's visual attention on the referent. A comparison of the demonstrative use by Turkish children (6 four- and 6 six-year-olds) and 6 adults during conversation shows that adultlike use of attention directing demonstrative, şu, is not mastered even at the age of six, while the distance contrasts are learned earlier. This language specific development reveals that designing referential forms in consideration of recipient's attentional status during conversation is a pragmatic feat that takes more than six years to develop.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , May 2006 , pp. 303 - 320
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This work has been supported by the Turkish Academy of Sciences, in the framework of the Young Scientist Award Program to Aylin C. Küntay (EA-TÜBA-GEBİP/2001-2-13) and Aslı Özyürek (HAÖ/TUBA-GEBIP/2001-2-16). We would like to thank David Wilkins for his valuable comments on this paper. Pelin Kesebir, Sanem Günay, Şirin Duruk, İbrahim Şenay, and Engin Arık helped in recording and transcribing the adult data, and coding the entire corpus. Tilbe Göksun, Carmel O'Shannessy, and Leah Roberts helped with final editorial changes. Author names appear in alphabetical order. Both authors contributed equally to the paper.