Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T06:19:35.163Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Argument as status assertion: Contextual variations in children's disputes*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Catherine Emihovich
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, University of South Carolina

Abstract

Previous analyses of children's disputes have concentrated on the use of various strategies within discrete activity contexts. Using data from an ethnographic study of an integrated kindergarten, it is suggested that children's disputes are strongly influenced by the activity and role structure of a given event, and that variations in how an event is contextualized are linked to the social structure of the classroom. Analytical problems in studying disputes from this perspective are also discussed. They include determining the speaker's focus, coping with multiple contexts, and selecting the level of analysis. (Developmental sociolinguistics, children's social behavior, peer interaction, analytic problems, American English)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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

Bernstein, B. (1975). Class, codes, and control. Vol. 3. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Boggs, S. (1978). The development of verbal disputing in part-Hawaiian children. Language in Society 7:325–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenneis, D., & Lein, L. (1977). “You fruithead”: A sociolinguistic approach to children's dispute settlement. In Ervin-Tripp, S. & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic. 4968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook-Gumperz, J., & Corsaro, W. A. (1977). Social-ecological constraints on children's communicative strategies. Sociology 11:411–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook-Gumperz, J., & Gumperz, J. J. (1976). Context in children's speech. In Cook-Gumperz, J. & Gumperz, J. J. (eds.), Papers on language and context, working paper 46. Language behavior Research Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Corsaro, W. A. (1979a). Young children's conception of status and role. Sociology of Education 52:4659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corsaro, W. A. (1979b). “We're friends right?”: Children's use of access rituals in a nursery school. Language in Society 8:315–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenberg, A. R., & Garvey, C. (1981). Children's use of verbal strategies in resolving conflicts. Discourse Processes 4:149–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emihovich, C. (1983). Classroom social structure and racial interaction: An ethnography of integration in kindergarten. Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo. Abstracted in Dissertation Abstracts International 44:113–A.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1982). Structures of control. In Wilkinson, L. C. (ed.), Communicating in the classroom. New York: Academic. 2748.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S., & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (1977). Child discourse. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Frake, C. O. (1977). Plying frames can be dangerous: Some reflections on methodology in cognitive anthropology. The Quarterly Newsletter of the Institute for Comparative Human Development 1:17.Google Scholar
Garvey, C., & Hogan, R. (1973). Social speech and social interaction: Egocentrism revisited. Child Development 44:562–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gearing, F. (1979). A reference model for a cultural theory of education and schooling. In Gearing, F. & Sangree, L. (eds.), Toward a general theory of education. The Hague and Chicago: Mouton/Aldine.Google Scholar
Genishi, C., & DiPaulo, M. (1982). Learning through argument in a preschool. In Wilkinson, L. C. (ed.). Communicating in the classroom. New York: Academic. 4968.Google Scholar
Goodwin, M. H. (1982). Processes of dispute management among urban black children. American Ethnologist 9:7696.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, M. H. (1983). Aggravated correction and disagreement in children's conversations. Journal of Pragmatics 7:657677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations of sociolinguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Kochman, T. (1974). Rappin' in the black ghetto. In Spradley, J. P. & McCurdy, D. W. (eds.), Conformity & conflict: Readings in cultural anthropology. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.Google Scholar
Lein, L., & Brenneis, D. (1978). Children's disputes in three speech communities. Language in Society 7:299323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maynard, D. (1985). How children start arguments. Language in Society 14:129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell-Kernan, C., & Kernan, K. T. (1977). Pragmatics of directive choice among children. In Ervin-Tripp, S. & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic. 189210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, D. (1978). Ownership and permission among nursery school children. In Glick, J. & Clarke-Stewart, K. A. (eds.), The development of social understanding. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 213250.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, G. (1979). Commentary on working paper #6. In Gearing, F. & Sangree, L. (eds.), Toward a cultural theory of education and schooling. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Shatz, M., & Gelman, R. (1973). The development of communication skills: Modifications in the speech of young children as a function of the listener. Society for Research in Child Development Monographs 5:138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, P. K., & Connolly, K. (1972). Patterns of play and social interaction in preschool children. In Blurton-Jones, N. (ed.), Ethological studies of child behavior. Cambridge University Press. 6595.Google Scholar
Sutton-Smith, B. (1971). Boundaries. In Herron, R. E. & Sutton-Smith, B. (eds.), Child's play. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 103106.Google Scholar
Voyat, G. (1978). Cognitive and social development: A new perspective. In Click, J. & Clarke-Stewart, K. A. (eds.), The development of social understanding. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1124.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar