LINGUIST List - Paper Details

Academic Paper

Title:	Getting and maintaining attention in talk to young children
Author:	Bruno Estigarribia
Email:	click here to access email
Institution:	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Author:	Eve V. Clark
Institution:	Stanford University
Linguistic Field:	Discourse Analysis
Abstract:	When two people talk about an object, they depend on joint attention, a prerequisite for setting up common ground in a conversational exchange. In this study, we analyze this process for parent and child, with data from 40 dyads, to show how adults initiate joint attention in talking to young children (mean ages 1 ; 6 and 3 ; 0). Adults first get their children's attention with a summons (e.g. Ready?, See this?), but cease using such forms once children give evidence of attending. Children signal their attention by looking at the target object, evidence used by the adults. Only at that point do adults begin to talk about the object. From then on, they use language and gesture to offer information about and maintain attention on the target. The techniques adults rely on are interactive: they establish joint attention and maintain it throughout the exchange.

	This article appears in Journal of Child Language Vol. 34, Issue 4, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST .

Back Add a new paper Return to Academic Papers main page Return to Directory of Linguists main page

New from Cambridge University Press!