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Year 2015, Volume: 26 Issue: 2, 25 - 43, 30.12.2015

Abstract

References

  • Aksu-Koç, A. and Slobin, D. I. (1985). Acqusition of Turkish. In D. I. Slobin (Ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition, Vol. 1: The data. (pp.839-878) Hillsdale, NJ:Lawrance Erlbaum Associates.
  • Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. University Press, Oxford.
  • Bahtiyar, S. and Küntay, A. C. (2009). Integration of communicative partner’s
  • visual perspective in patterns of referential requests. Journal of Child Language, 36(3), 529–555.
  • Bayraktaroğlu, A. (2000). “Topic and sequence in a Turkish natural conversation”. In Ç. Balım and C. Imber (Eds.), Essays in Honor of Professor Geoffrey Lewis (pp.57-76). Istanbul: ISIS.
  • Blum-Kulka, S. and Olshtain, E. (1984). Requests and apologies: a cross-cultural study of speech act realization patterns (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics 5 (3), 196–213.
  • Brown, P. and Levinson, C. L. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Camras, L. A., Pristo, T. M. and Brown, M. J. K. (1985). Directive Choice by
  • Children and Adults: Affect, Situation and Linguistic Politeness. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 31, 19-31.
  • Clark, E. V. (2003). First Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Dogancay-Aktuna, S., & Kamisli, S. (1996). Discourse of Power and Politeness: Through the Act of Disagreement. Paper presented at the Annual International Linguistics Conference, (August 5-8, Ankara, Turkey).
  • Ervin-Tripp, S. (1977). Wait for me roller skate! In S. Ervin-Tripp and C. Mitchell-Kernan (Eds.), Child discourse (pp. 165-188). New York: Academic Press.
  • Fukushima, S. (1996). Request strategies in British English and Japanese. Language Sciences, 18 (3-4), 671–688.
  • Gleason, J. B., Perlman, R. speaker. and Blank, E. (1984). What’s the magic word: Learning language through politeness routines. Discourse Processes, 7, 493-502.
  • Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, N. speaker. Anchor Books.
  • House, J. and Kasper, G. (1981). Politeness markers in English and German. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Conversational routine (pp. 157–186). Mouton, The Hague,
  • Huls, E. (1989). Directness, explicitness and orientation in Turkish family interaction. In K. Deprez (Ed.), Language and intergroup relations in Flanders and in the Netherlands. (pp. 145-164) Foris, Dordrecht.
  • Marti, L. (2006). Indirectness and politeness in Turkish-German bilingual and Turkish monolingual requests. Journal of Pragmatics 38, 1836-1869.
  • McTear, M. (1985). Children’s Conversations. New York: Basil Blackwell.
  • Newcombe, N. and M. Zaslow (1981). “Do 21/2-Year-Olds Hint? A Study of Directive Forms in the Speech Of 21/2-Year-Old Children to Adults”, Discourse Processes 4, 239-252.
  • Pedlow, R., Wales, R. and Sanson, A. (2001). Children’s production and comprehension of politeness in requests: Relationships to behavioural adjustment in middle childhood. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 20, 23–60.
  • Ruhi, S. and Isik-Guler, speaker. (2007). Conceptualizing face and relational work in (im)politeness: Revelations from politeness lexemes and idioms in Turkish . Journal of Pragmatics, 39 (4), 681-711.
  • Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Mass.
  • Shatz, M. and Gelman, R. (1973). The development of communication skills: Modifications in speech of young children as a function of listener. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38, 1-37.
  • Watts, R. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Zıngır-Gülten, A. G. (2008). Requesting in English: Interlanguage pragmatics of Turkish children. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Anadolu Universtiy at Eskişehir, Turkey. No: 220916.

Preschoolers’ Use of Requests

Year 2015, Volume: 26 Issue: 2, 25 - 43, 30.12.2015

Abstract

Request situations are of great value to observe multiple variables such as power, distance and imposition of the request on the hearer to get the desired object or action. This study investigated requests of Turkish monolingual preschoolers in terms of Blum-Kulka and Olshtain’s (1984) categories. The aim was to find out the structures of head act and adjunct(s), the directness level of the strategy types and perspectives of the speakers (hearer oriented, speaker oriented, hearer and speaker oriented, and impersonal) used in requests. Data was gathered from 24 Turkish speaking children aged between 4;5 and 5;6, 13 of whom were girls and 11 were boys. To collect data, four situations were created considering power and level of imposition of the requests, namely Low Power-Low Imposition, Low Power-High Imposition, High Power-Low Imposition, and High Power-High Imposition. The results showed that 1) children used head act most frequently in their requests, 2) children mainly used direct requests, 3) children preferred to use speaker oriented perspective more than the other request perspectives. In addition to the categories provided by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984), a ‘nonverbal’ category was added which was observed to be peculiar to children. However, results were interpreted cautiously since they displayed varieties for each case due to the nature of the activities.

References

  • Aksu-Koç, A. and Slobin, D. I. (1985). Acqusition of Turkish. In D. I. Slobin (Ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition, Vol. 1: The data. (pp.839-878) Hillsdale, NJ:Lawrance Erlbaum Associates.
  • Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. University Press, Oxford.
  • Bahtiyar, S. and Küntay, A. C. (2009). Integration of communicative partner’s
  • visual perspective in patterns of referential requests. Journal of Child Language, 36(3), 529–555.
  • Bayraktaroğlu, A. (2000). “Topic and sequence in a Turkish natural conversation”. In Ç. Balım and C. Imber (Eds.), Essays in Honor of Professor Geoffrey Lewis (pp.57-76). Istanbul: ISIS.
  • Blum-Kulka, S. and Olshtain, E. (1984). Requests and apologies: a cross-cultural study of speech act realization patterns (CCSARP). Applied Linguistics 5 (3), 196–213.
  • Brown, P. and Levinson, C. L. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Camras, L. A., Pristo, T. M. and Brown, M. J. K. (1985). Directive Choice by
  • Children and Adults: Affect, Situation and Linguistic Politeness. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 31, 19-31.
  • Clark, E. V. (2003). First Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Dogancay-Aktuna, S., & Kamisli, S. (1996). Discourse of Power and Politeness: Through the Act of Disagreement. Paper presented at the Annual International Linguistics Conference, (August 5-8, Ankara, Turkey).
  • Ervin-Tripp, S. (1977). Wait for me roller skate! In S. Ervin-Tripp and C. Mitchell-Kernan (Eds.), Child discourse (pp. 165-188). New York: Academic Press.
  • Fukushima, S. (1996). Request strategies in British English and Japanese. Language Sciences, 18 (3-4), 671–688.
  • Gleason, J. B., Perlman, R. speaker. and Blank, E. (1984). What’s the magic word: Learning language through politeness routines. Discourse Processes, 7, 493-502.
  • Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, N. speaker. Anchor Books.
  • House, J. and Kasper, G. (1981). Politeness markers in English and German. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Conversational routine (pp. 157–186). Mouton, The Hague,
  • Huls, E. (1989). Directness, explicitness and orientation in Turkish family interaction. In K. Deprez (Ed.), Language and intergroup relations in Flanders and in the Netherlands. (pp. 145-164) Foris, Dordrecht.
  • Marti, L. (2006). Indirectness and politeness in Turkish-German bilingual and Turkish monolingual requests. Journal of Pragmatics 38, 1836-1869.
  • McTear, M. (1985). Children’s Conversations. New York: Basil Blackwell.
  • Newcombe, N. and M. Zaslow (1981). “Do 21/2-Year-Olds Hint? A Study of Directive Forms in the Speech Of 21/2-Year-Old Children to Adults”, Discourse Processes 4, 239-252.
  • Pedlow, R., Wales, R. and Sanson, A. (2001). Children’s production and comprehension of politeness in requests: Relationships to behavioural adjustment in middle childhood. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 20, 23–60.
  • Ruhi, S. and Isik-Guler, speaker. (2007). Conceptualizing face and relational work in (im)politeness: Revelations from politeness lexemes and idioms in Turkish . Journal of Pragmatics, 39 (4), 681-711.
  • Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Mass.
  • Shatz, M. and Gelman, R. (1973). The development of communication skills: Modifications in speech of young children as a function of listener. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38, 1-37.
  • Watts, R. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Zıngır-Gülten, A. G. (2008). Requesting in English: Interlanguage pragmatics of Turkish children. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Anadolu Universtiy at Eskişehir, Turkey. No: 220916.
There are 26 citations in total.

Details

Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Emel Uçar

Özden Akyol Bal

Publication Date December 30, 2015
Published in Issue Year 2015Volume: 26 Issue: 2

Cite

APA Uçar, E., & Akyol Bal, Ö. (2015). Preschoolers’ Use of Requests. Dilbilim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 26(2), 25-43. https://doi.org/10.18492/dad.21673