SES and activity differences in the pragmatic function of Variation Sets of child directed speech in at-home natural environment.

ALAM F.; ROSEMBERG, C.R.; GARBER, L.; STEIN,A.; LEWINSKY, V.

Congreso; International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL); 2021

International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL)

● A distinct structural feature of Child Directed Speech (CDS) is the use of "variation sets" (Küntay & Slobin, 1996): successive utterances with partial self repetitions and a constant pragmatic intention.● Küntay and Slobin (2002) found that variation sets played different pragmatic functions in interactions: most of them were used to query information, followed by commands with a regulatory function and to a lesser extent with an ideational function that provides information.● Evidence from a single study on caregiver-child dyads collected in relatively brief play situations found an impact of socio-economic status (SES): middle SES children heard more variation sets with an ideational function, than their low SES peers (Tal & Arnon, 2018b). Although they found more variation sets with a regulatory function in the low SES group the difference did not reach significance.● However, in the ebb and flow of everyday life children interact with multiple participants and participate in diverse activities that may vary greatly between social groups (Psaki et al., 2014; Vernon-Feagans et al., 2012; Sperry et al., 2019).● In a previous analysis of CDS in Argentinian at-home naturalistic situations we found an impact of SES and activity on the proportion of variation sets: middle-SES children heard a greater proportion of words and utterances in variation sets than low-SES ones, and both groups heard more variation sets in child centered social activities (play, book sharing and adult-child conversations) (Alam et al., in press).