The Development of Questions in Child and Child-directed Speech in Turkish

Vildan İnci Kavak

doi:10.18492/dad.1189101

EN TR

The Development of Questions in Child and Child-directed Speech in Turkish

Abstract

Child-directed questions are significant in high-quality mother-child interactions (Ninio, 1980; Rowe et al., 2017). This paper examines the probable effects of Turkish child-directed speech (CDS) on the acquisition of wh-words of a Turkish child. In this study, the spontaneous speech of a Turkish boy and his mother was video recorded weekly between the ages of 20 and 22 months by his mother during day-time activities such as play, meals and leisure time. Then, it was studied to identify the frequency and the form as directed to the child. The results were compared to understand how the frequency and form of questions changed over three months. While yes/no questions and wh-pronominals with the copula and with semantically general verbs were the question forms found substantially in child-directed speech, the child only produced intonation questions. It was revealed that there is a close relationship between input and acquisition at the sentence and verb level in the present data. This study contributes to language acquisition studies by enhancing our knowledge of how Turkish children acquire questions.

Keywords

Çocuk Dili ve Çocuğa Yönelik Dilde Türkçe Soruların Gelişimi

Öz

Çocuğa yöneltilen sorular, anne-çocuk etkileşiminde önemli bir role sahiptir (Ninio, 1980; Rowe, Leech & Cabrera, 2017). Bu makale, çocuklara yönelik konuşmanın, bir Türk çocuğunun soru edinimi üzerindeki olası etkilerini ve gidişatını incelemektedir. Bu çalışmada, 20-22 ay yaşları arasındaki bir Türk erkek çocuğu ile annesinin spontan konuşmaları, oyun, yemek ve boş zaman gibi günlük aktiviteler sırasında annesi tarafından haftalık olarak videoya kaydedilmiştir. Daha sonra çocuğa yönelik soruların hem sıklığı hem de tarzı tespit edilmeye çalışılmış ve sonuçlar, üç aylık süre zarfında soru sıklığı ve tarzının nasıl değiştiğini kayıt altına almıştır. Çalışmadaki çocuğa yönelik iletişimde evet/hayır soruları ve isim ve semantik olarak genel fiillerle birlikte soru zamirleri en sık kullanılırken, çocuk yalnızca tonlama yaparak soru üretti. Mevcut verilerde cümle ve fiil düzeyinde girdi ve edinim arasında yakın bir ilişki olduğu saptandı. Bu çalışma, Türk çocuklarının soruları nasıl edindiklerine dair bilgimizi artırarak dil edinimi çalışmalarına katkı sağlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Etik Beyan

Author Contributions: This research and all stages related to the research were conducted by a single author. Submission statement and verification: This study has not been previously published elsewhere. It is not under review in another journal. Publication of the study has been approved, either implicitly or explicitly, by all authors and the responsible authorities at the university/research center where the study was conducted. If the study is accepted for publication, it will not be published in the same form in another printed or electronic medium in Turkish or any other language without the written permission of the Journal of Linguistic Research. Conflict of Interest Statement: In line with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) statement, I hereby declare that I had no conflicting interests regarding any parties to this study. Data Use: Data were collected after the participant’s legal guardian gave consent. Ethical Approval/Participant Consent: Ethical approval and written permissions were obtained from Islam Science and Technology University Social and Human Sciences Ethics Committee with the decision dated 03.04.2024. Every step of the research was conducted in accordance with ethical norms. The candidates gave their consent to participate voluntarily in the study. Financial Support: No financial support was received for the study. (If financial support was received, it should be stated.)

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Ayrıntılar

Birincil Dil

İngilizce

Konular

Dilbilim

Bölüm

Araştırma Makalesi

Yazarlar

Vildan İnci Kavak ^*
0000-0001-7249-9048
Türkiye

Yayımlanma Tarihi

29 Haziran 2025

Gönderilme Tarihi

14 Ekim 2022

Kabul Tarihi

31 Aralık 2024

Yayımlandığı Sayı

Yıl 2025 Cilt: 36 Sayı: 1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.18492/dad.1189101

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA54FB58FW

Kaynak Göster

RIS / Bibtex

APA

İnci Kavak, V. (2025). The Development of Questions in Child and Child-directed Speech in Turkish. Dilbilim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 36(1), 49-81. https://doi.org/10.18492/dad.1189101