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

FLORENCIA ALAM; CELIA RENATA ROSEMBERG; LEANDRO GARBER; ALEJANDRA STEIN; VIVIANA LEWINSKY

Congreso; International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL) Conference; 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. Evidence from a single study on caregiver-child dyads in relatively short play situations found an impact of socio-economic status (SES) on the proportion and the pragmatic function of variation sets (Tal & Arnon, 2018). However, in daily routines children participate in varied activities with multiple people. In a previous analysis of CDS in Argentinian at-home naturalistic situations we replicated SES differences in the proportion of variation sets: middle-SES children heard more variation sets than low-SES ones. Here we delve into the analysis of the effect of SES on the pragmatic function of variation sets to Argentinian toddlers.Participants were 32 Argentinian infants (8-20 months) -16 from middle-SES; 16 from low-SES-. Children were audio-recorded for 4 hours at-home, without the researcher?s presence. Transcriptions followed CHAT format. Variation sets were automatically extracted from the CDS by all the participants. Each variation set was manually coded as: a) Information querying: the child was prompt to answer a question; b) ideational: the interlocutor provided information; c) Control: called for an action on the part of the child; d) Other: repetitions of routines and songs; e) Mixed: involved more than one communicative act. We conducted beta regression analysis to estimate the effects of SES on the pragmatic function of variation sets.Results showed and effect of SES: middle-SES children heard more ideational (B:0.411, SE:0.163, p