When the same form does not have the same function: how mothers’ lexical repetitions shape the children’s emerging linguistic and interactional skills By: Carla Cristina Munhoz Xavier A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Department of Human Communication Sciences December 2017 To Carlos (in memoriam) and Rosa, for their unconditional love, support and patience (por seu amor amor incondicional, apoio e paciência) Table of Contents ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... 5 DECLARATION ....................................................................................................................... 7 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 9 2. MOTIVATION AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ..................................................... 17 2.1. PHONETIC FEATURES OF REPETITIONS ................................................................................. 20 2.1.1. Expansions and Repetitions in CDS ................................................................................... 22 2.1.2. Shortcomings of CDS ............................................................................................................... 24 2.1.3. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................. 25 2.2. STUDIES IN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ................................................................................... 25 2.2.1. Past Approaches to Child Language Acquisition .......................................................... 26 2.2.2. Interactional Approach to Action ........................................................................................ 29 2.2.3. Interactional Approach to Language Acquisition ......................................................... 30 2.2.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 34 2.3. GIVING FEEDBACK TO CHILDREN: ERROR CORRECTION ................................................. 34 2.3.1. Lexical Repetition in Interactional Studies ...................................................................... 36 2.3.2. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 42 2.4. GENERAL CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 42 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 45 3.1. PARTICIPANTS: SEARCH AND SELECTION ............................................................................. 45 3.2. DATA COLLECTION ...................................................................................................................... 46 3.3. DATA SET ........................................................................................................................................ 48 3.3.1. What is a lexical repetition? .................................................................................................. 48 3.3.2. Criteria for inclusion in the collection .............................................................................. 50 3.4. DATA PREPARATION ....................................................................................................................... 60 3.5. CONVERSATION ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................... 62 3.5.1. Turn-taking in child-parent interaction ............................................................................ 64 3.5.2. Adjacency pairs .......................................................................................................................... 67 3.5.3. Preference organisation .......................................................................................................... 68 3.5.4. The importance of the next turn and sequential implicature .................................... 69 3.6. PHONETIC ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................... 70 3.6.1. Articulation ................................................................................................................................... 70 3.6.2. Pitch pattern ................................................................................................................................. 72 3.7. GENERAL CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 72 4. REPETITIONS WITH PROBLEMS IN ACCEPTABILITY ................................. 75 4.1. DISTINGUISHING MOTHER’S REPETITIONS TO INITIATE REPAIR ................................... 76 4.2. MOTHER’S REPETITIONS TO REPAIR THE CHILD’S ARTICULATION .............................. 85 4.3. MOTHER’S REPETITIONS TO CORRECT THE CHILD’S LEXICAL CHOICE .................... 102 4.4. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 112 5. UNDERSTANDING AND ACKNOWLEGDING THE CHILD’S CORRECT RESPONSES .......................................................................................................................... 115 5.1. DISTINGUISHING MOTHER’S LEXICAL REPETITIONS ...................................................... 116 5.2. MOTHER’S REPETITIONS TO REQUEST CONFIRMATION ................................................ 121 5.3. AFFIRMATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 133 5.4. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 144 1 6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 147 6.1. MAIN FINDINGS .......................................................................................................................... 148 6.1.2. Other-repetitions to initiate repair on the children’s prior turn ........................... 149 6.1.1. Affirmative repetitions and requests for confirmation in mother-child interactions ............................................................................................................................................. 152 6.2. HOW THE PHONETIC FORM DISTINGUISHES REPETITIONS ............................................ 153 6.3. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH IN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................................................................................................. 156 6.3.1. The nature of mothers’ repetitions .................................................................................... 156 6.3.2. Reparative repetitions ............................................................................................................ 157 6.3.3. Requests for confirmation ..................................................................................................... 158 6.3.4. Affirmations ................................................................................................................................ 158 6.4. IMPROVING AND EXTENDING THIS STUDY ......................................................................... 159 6.5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 160 APPENDIX I: PHONETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE ..................................................................................................................... 161 2.0. ALLOPHONES ............................................................................................................................ 165 3.0. STRESS ........................................................................................................................................... 166 4.0. PROSODIC PHRASING ................................................................................................................ 167 5.0. INTONATION ............................................................................................................................. 168 6.0. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 171 APPENDIX II: INFORMATION SHEET ...................................................................... 172 APPENDIX III: INFORMATION SHEET (PORTUGUESE TRANSLATION) .. 177 APPENDIX IV: CONSENT FORM ................................................................................. 181 APPENDIX V: CONSENT FORM (PORTUGUESE TRANSLATION) ................ 183 APPENDIX VI: TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS ............................................... 185 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 189 2 Table of Figures Figure 1: Pitch