A Pragmatic Analysis of Repetition in Mandarin Child Discourse

hwsy@overseaen.comISSN 1009-5039h://www.vereren.comOverseas Englih潮兜圓醬Tel:+86- 551-5690811 5690812A Pragmatic Analysis of Repetition in Mandarin Child Discourse鄒星(Wuhan Polyechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China)Abstract: Repetition in the child language is very common in the ealy stage of language acquisition. Sometimes they repeat their own utterances, and sometimes they repeat or imitate others' utterances. The latter one is involved and the forms and functions of repettion inMandarin child discourse are discussed through data analysis. It is concluded that not all repetitions are imitations and children may use dif-ferent forms of repetions to achieve diferent communicative functions.Key words: repettion; imitation; Mandarin child discourse中圈分類(lèi)號:H314文獻標識碼:A文章編 號:1009- -5039(2010)07- 0244-021 IntroductionTherefore, this paper aims to investigate the forms and functionsof repetition in Mandarin child discourse. And the study will beIn the previous studies, repetition is often referred to as imi-conducted adopting the broader sense of repetion: exact, re-tation and there are diferent views on it. Stine and Bohannonduced, modifed or expanded. Here two research questions will(1983), Tager-Flusberg and Calkins (1990) concluded that imi-be addressed:tation plays non or limited role in linguistic development, while1)What are dfferent forms/categories of Mandarin child lan-Perez- Pereira (1994) argued that imitation facilitates grammaticaland lexical development. Furthermore, Snow (1981) analyzedguage?2)What are communicative functions that repetition canvarious kinds of initations in the child language, including exactachieve in Mandarin child discourse?imitations, reduced imitations and expanded imitations. Therefore, it has provided a reasonable explanation to the contradictory2 Data and Discussionsviews on imitation- -- studies which analyzed the exact and re-2.1 Data collectionduced imitations based on the narrow sense of imitation conclud-Two Mandarin- -speaking children aged 2.5-3 marked A anded that imitation did not facilitate linguistic development whileB and their parentsill be the participants. And they will con-studies which analyzed the modified and expanded imitationsduct three-hour parent -child conversations which will be tape-based on the broader sense supported the view that imitationsrecorded in the child's home and then the data will be tran-promote grammar development.scribed.However, there are other studies which made a distinctionbetween imitaion and repetitin. They suggested that repetition22 Data analysisserves different communicative purposes with imitation as one ofBoth qualitative and quantitative analyses will be conducted.them (Green?ed and Savage -Rumbaugh, 1993). Therefore weDiferent tables will be presented to analyze diferent foms andcan conclude that not all repetitions are imitations. Actually Cas-functions of repetition. The diferent forms are based on Perez-by (1986) studied the communicative functions of repetition inPereira's (1994) calegorization and the communicative functionsthe child language and found that though imitations account forare based primarily on Green?eld and Savage-Rumbaugh (1993).large part of rettin, other important communicative purposesThe data were coded by using Cohen's Kappa which was used tocan also be achieved through repetition.determine the inter-rater reliability.From above reearches we can see repetition in the childTable 1 shows the numbers and percentages of the tolal udiscourse serves important communicative functions. We cannotterances and repetitions in the two children's data. Table 2 showsdowngrade the child's communicative competence. They are notdifferent types of repetitin in the children's speech and Table 3only leamers but also communicators. However, there are few re-presents the communicative functions of reduced repetitions sincesearches that have done the pragmnatic analysis on the repetitionit is the most frequently used one.in the child language, epecially the Mandarin - -speaking ones.中國煤化工MHCNMHG收稿日期:2010-04-24修回日期:2010-05-02作者簡(jiǎn)介:鄒星(1976-),女湖北武漢人，碩士,武漢工業(yè)學(xué)院外語(yǔ)系講師研究方向為應用語(yǔ)言學(xué)。244欄目責任編舞:謝媛嬡2010年7月Overseas Engish藩外美語(yǔ)Table 1 Frequency of rettion in child's languagechangge. (Sing. /I want to sing.)Since both children use the reduced repetition most fre-quently, I will mainly discuss the communicative functions of itAnd from Table 3, we can observe that both children use reducedRepeibo3287repeition for the function of imitation, which often occurs in theTotal ularances14810001351100context of social routines, where the parents explicitly teach thechildren what to say to be socially appropriate, for example, yaoTable 2 Percentages of diferent types of repetition in theshuo shengni kuile. (You should say Happy Birthday.) /shengrichildren's languagekuaile! (Happy Birthday! ). Therefore, we can see the child se-cts appropriate part to repeat his mother's utterance, whichResbxed(%)Modfed(%)Expanded(陶)demonstrate his communicative competence in understanding and147548361639049taking the instruction. In the context of labeling an object or cor-1780440724581356recting an utrance, imitation will also be used. Another majorfunction is to show agrementconfirmation, for example, wo menTable 3 Communicative functions of reduced repetitionskaishi ba. (Let's begin,) 1 kaishi! (Begin! ). The child shows hisagreement to the prior statement o[ the adult instead of saying“yes" or 'okay". This function can also be found in the child'sfuncios% Functenslanguage after an adult's question, for example, bu xiang xue le,Initbon4 5573 lmiblo3257.14shi bus hi? (You don't want to leam it anymore, righ?)/ bu xitoantcomoetion 13 21 31 AgrapalLconfrmationang xue le. I don't wan to learm it anymore.). Here the child usesDerial rjectioreduced repetition to give a confimnation to his mother's tagquestion.Choosng口aloetre143 ConclusionCountechimn3.2DaunlhyjectioQary16From above, we can confirm that not all repetitions are imi-tations and children may use different forms of repetitions toTotal1 1000 Tad56 1000achieve diferent communicative functions. Children are learningto construct utterances and communicate by repetition, which re-2.3 Results and discussionsflect their competence as communicators.As seen from Table 1, there are individual diferences in theReferences:use of repetition, but the two children are very similar in the fre-quency of the use of repetitin. In the fllowin examples, the[1] Lotr S E,Neil B J.mitions,interactions and language acqui-sition[]Jourmal of Child Language,1983(10):589 - 603parent initiates the conversation to let the child be involved inthe conversation. 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