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Remembered voices*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Richard Ely  and
Allyssa McCabe
Richard Ely*
Affiliation:
Tufts University
Allyssa McCabe
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Harvard University
*
Address for correspondence: Department of Child Study, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
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Abstract

The speech children spontaneously quote was examined in two studies. In Study 1, a corpus of personal narratives from 96 children aged 4;0 to 9;0 was analysed; Study 2 investigated reported speech in 25 younger children aged 1;2 to 5;2 interacting with their parents. In both studies, the frequency of reported speech increased with age. Direct quotation was more common than indirect or summarized quotation at all ages. In Study 1, children quoted themselves more frequently than any other speaker, and their mothers more frequently than their fathers. Directives were the most commonly reported speech act from the distant past in both older (Study 1) and younger (Study 2) children. In Study 1, girls used reported speech more frequently than did boys, and their quotations were more direct in form than were those of boys.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , October 1993 , pp. 671 - 696
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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Footnotes

[*]

The support and technical assistance from Jean Berko Gleason and the Child Language Laboratory at Boston University, the assistance of Jim Cacos, and the valuable commentary of two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged.

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