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The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A dialogical approach
Edited by Anne Salazar-Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan and Annie Rialland
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 28] 2021
► pp. 262–286

Chapter 9
Activities and social settings: Their roles in the use of referring expressions

ORCID logo | Université of Neuchâtel
ORCID logo | Université de Lille
ORCID logo | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
ORCID logo | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
ORCID logo | Espe Lille Nord de France

We investigated the influence of activity and social setting on the use of referring expressions in French-speaking children. Three groups were observed: 25 children ages 1;7 to 2;6 in three activities with their mother (picture-based, play, and daily routines), 15 children ages 3;9 to 7;4 in joint picture-book storytelling and symbolic play with their mother, and 10 children ages 3;9 to 7;4 in joint storytelling at home and at school. The type of referring expression and its position in the referential chain were coded. The results demonstrated the impact of the activity on the use of referring expressions in the first two groups, whereas the position in the referential chain affected the use of referring expressions only in the second group. In the home-school comparison, social setting influenced the use of referring expressions in interaction with the position in the referential chain.

Keywords: activity, social setting, referring expression, mother-child interaction, teacher-child interaction
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Role of activity type in language production
    • 1.2Role of social setting in language production
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Data collection
    • 2.3Coding system
      • 2.3.1Selection of referents
      • 2.3.2Categories of referring expressions
      • 2.3.3Position in the referential chain
    • 2.4Inter-coder agreement and statistics
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Differences in referring-expression use, by activity and social setting
      • 3.1.1Daily routines, play, and picture-based activities among the toddlers
      • 3.1.2Joint storytelling and symbolic play in the older group
      • 3.1.3Joint storytelling at home and at school
    • 3.2Position in the referential chain
      • 3.2.1Daily routines, play, and picture-based activities among the toddlers
      • 3.2.2Joint storytelling and symbolic play among the older children
      • 3.2.3Joint storytelling at home and at school
  • 4.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.28.09wec
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