Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T10:51:13.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Talking to children in Western Samoa*†

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Elinor Ochs
Elinor Ochs
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines the relation between cultural beliefs and values on the one hand and the organization of communication between caregivers and young children on the other. The study compares caregiver-child verbal interaction in two different communities, rural Western Samoa and Anglo middle class, with an emphasis on the former. It illustrates ways in which organization of turn-taking and procedures for clarification and interpretation are linked to beliefs and expectations concerning the nature of children and the social organization of caregiving. (Language acquisition, socialization, input, communicative competence, Oceania.)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , April 1982 , pp. 77 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atkinson, M. (1979). Prerequisites forreference. In Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. (eds.), Developmental pragmatics. New York: Academic Press. 229–51.Google Scholar
Bates, E. (1976). Language and context: The acquisition ofpragmatics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bates, E., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1979). The acquisition of performatives prior to speech. In Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. (eds.), Developmental pragmatics. New York: Academic Press. 111–13.Google Scholar
Bernstein, B. (ed.) (1971). Class, codes, and control: Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Bever, T. (1970). The cognitive basis for linguistic structures. In Hayes, J. R. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 279–352.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1970). Language development: Form and function in emerging grammars. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1973). One word at a time. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1973). Early syntactic development: A cross-linguistic study with special reference to Finnish. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Braine, M. (1963). The ontogeny of English phrase structure: The first phase. Language 39: 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braunwald, S. (1977). The role of child-to-parent effects in parent-child interaction. Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Brauwald, S. & Brislin, R. (in press). On being understood: The listener's contribution to the toddler's ability to communicate. In French, P. (ed), The development of meaning: Pedo-Linguistic Series, Japan: Bunka Hyoron Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). Introduction. In Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds.), Talking to children. Cambridge University Press. 1–31.Google Scholar
Brown, R.Cazden, C., & Bellugi, U. (1973). The child's grammar from I to III. In Ferguson, C. & Slobin, D. (eds.), Studies of language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 295–333.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. (1977). Early social interaction and language acquisition. In Schaffer, H. R. (ed.), Studies in mother-infant interaction. New York: Academic Press. 271–89.Google Scholar
Cazden, C. (1965). Environmental assistance to the child's acquisition of grammar. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Cazden, C. (1972). Child language and education. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Cross, T. (1975). Some relationships between motherese and linguistic level in accelerated children. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development so. Stanford University, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Cross, T. (1976). Motherese: Its association with rate of syntactic acquisition in young children. In Waterson, N. & Snow, C. (eds.), The development of communication: Social and pragmatic factors in language acquisition. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Cross, T.. Mothers' speech adjustments: The contribution of selected child listener variables. In Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds.), Talking to children. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Duranti, A. (1981). The Samoan fono: A sociolinguistic study. Pacific Linguistics, Series B, vol. 80. Canberra, Australia.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S., & Mitchell-Keman, C. (1977). Child discourse. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. (1964). Baby talk in six languages. American Anthropologist 66 (part 2): 103–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, C. (1977). Baby talk as a simplified register. In Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds.), Talking to children. Cambridge University Press. 219–37.Google Scholar
Gallimore, R., Boggs, J. W., & Jordan, C. (1974). Culture, behavior and education: A study of Hawaiian-Americans. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P., & Smith, J. (1976). The structure of communication in early language development. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J., & Hymes, D. H. (1964). The ethnography of communication. Washington, D.C.:American Anthropological Association.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J.(eds.) (1972). Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. New York: Roll, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Hogbin, H. I. (1943). A New Guinea infancy: From conception to meaning in Wogeo. Oceania XIII (4): 285–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hymes, D. H. (1961). Linguistic aspects of cross-cultural personality study. In Kaplan, B. (ed.), Studying personality cross-culturally. Evanston, III.: Row, Peterson. 313–59.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1973). Toward linguistic competence. (Working Papers in Sociolinguistics, 16.) Austin: Department of Anthropology, University of Texas.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Jaffe, J., & Feldstein, S. (1970). Rhythms of dialogue. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Keenan, E. O., & Schieffelin, B. (1976). Topic as a discourse notion: A study of topic in the conversations of children and adults. In Li, C. (ed.), Subject and topic. New York: Academic Press. 335–85.Google Scholar
Kernan, K. (1969). The acquisition of language by Samoan children. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kluckhohn, C. (1947). Some aspects of Navaho infancy and early childhood. In Roheimc, G. (ed.), Psychoanalysis and the social sciences. Vol. 1. New York: Intemational University Press.Google Scholar
Mead, M. (1928). Coming of age in Samoa. New York: William Morrow & Sons.Google Scholar
Mead, M. (1930). Growing up in New Guinea. New York: William Morrow & Sons.Google Scholar
Milner, G. (1966). Samoan dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.Google Scholar
Newport, E. (1976). Motherese: The speech of mothers to young children. In Castellan, N., Pisoni, D., & Potts, G. (eds.), Cognitive theory. Vol. II. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Newport, E.Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. (1972). Mother, I'd rather do it myself: Some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. In Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds.), Talking to children. Cambridge University0 Press. 109–51.Google Scholar
Ochs, E. (1980). Social environment and the acquisition of ergative case-marking by Samoan children. Paper presented at the Stanford Child Language Forum, Stanford University, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Opler, M. E. (1946). Childhood and youth in Jicarilla Apache society. Los Angeles: The Southwest Museum.Google Scholar
Philips, S. (197). Acquisition of rules for appropriate speech usage. In Alatis, G. (ed), Report on Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Studies. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Radulovic, L. (1974). Acquisition of language: Studies of Dubrovnik children. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Raum, O. (1940). Chaga childhood: A description of indigenous education in an East African tribe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sachs, J. (1977). The adaptive significance of linguistic input to prelinguistic infants. In Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds.), Talking to children. Cambridge University Press. 51–63.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, B. (1979). How Kaluli children learn what to say, what to do, and how to feel: An ethnographic study of the development of communicative competence. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, New York.Google Scholar
Scollon, R. (1976). Conversations with a one-year-old. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. (1979). The literate two-year-old: The fictionalization of self. Unpublished manuscript, Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska.Google Scholar
Sherzer, J., & Darnell, R. (1972). Outline guide for the ethnographic study of speech use. In Gumperz, J. J. & Hymes, D. H. (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Shore, B. (1977). A Samoan theory of action: Social control and social order in a Polynesian paradox. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.Google Scholar
Shotter, J. (1978). The cultural context of communication studies: Theoretical and methodological issues. In Lock, A. (ed), Action, gesture and symbol: The emergence of language. London: Academic Press. 43–79.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1967). A field manual for cross-cultural study of the acquisition of communicative competence. Language Behavior Research Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1973). Cognitive prerequisites for the acquisition of grammar. In Ferguson, C. A. & Slobin, D. I. (eds.), Studies of child language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 125–208.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1972). Mothers' speech to children learning language. Child Development 43: 549–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1977). Mothers' speech research: From input to interaction. In Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds.), Talking to children. Cambridge University Press. 31–51.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1979). Conversations with children. In Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (eds.), Language acquisition. Cambridge University Press. 363–77.Google Scholar
Stern, D. (1974). Mother and infant at play: The dyadic interaction involving facial, vocal and gaze behaviors. In Lewis, M. & Rosenblum, C. (eds.), The effect of the infant on its caregiver. New York: Wiley. 187–213.Google Scholar
Stern, D. (1977). The first relationship: Infant and mother. London: Fontanal/Open Books, 33.Google Scholar
Trevarthen, C. (1979). Communication and cooperation in early infancy: A description of primary intersubjectivity. In Bullowa, M. (ed), Before speech. Cambridge University Press. 321–49.Google Scholar