link, transcript, analysis cla

Judah 3 years 1.5 months and Mahri 3 years 1 month. -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL3vqlHabck

Judah: hello (.1) mahri

Mahri: yeah (.) I uh uh  I was wondering if if if me and da and dad could come pick you up and take us to pa park

Judah: where (.) wheres that (.) whats that mean (.) whats that mean

Mahri: uh to the park

Judah: (inaudiable) im gunna come to your house

Mahri: ok and an an and an and then (.) and then well start get going to the park ok Judah

Judah: park (.) ok (2) im gunno (.) ill see you there

Mahri: oh well (.) ok

Judah:  (inaudiable) then well go to to big park

Mahri: ok

Judah: which park shell we go

Mahri: the (inaudiable) Charlie one

Judah: which ones that

Mahri: its its it’s the one that that far far away (.) we we have to walk an and get to to (inaudiable)

Judah: should should we bring car

Mahri: yeah

Judah: should we walk

Mahri: yeah

Judah: should we walk

Mahri: yeah walk Judah

Judah: ok ill see you there

Mahri: ok

Judah: wheres charleys park

Mahri: its its its its over the park the entrance of of of (inaudiable) house

Judah: its right there (.) we have to walk we have to walk we have to cross the road

Mahri: yeah

Judah: ok

Mahri: yeah

Judah: bye

Mahri: bye

Judah: go and talk to your daddy (.) talk to daddy (.) talk to your daddy

Mahri: Judah

Judah: yeah

Mahri: bye

Judah: bye

Analysis:

From the start of the transcript and throughout Mahri uses fillers and hedging. For example she says ‘uh uh’ whilst thinking about what she was going to ask Judah. She does this so she has time to catch up on what she actually wants to say. She does this instead of staying silent so the gap is filled. Mahri also uses hedging with repetition when saying ‘of of of’ this again is to allow herself to catch up, but this also may have been to put emphasis on what she was about to say.

Judah also uses repetition when saying ‘what’s that mean (.) what’s that mean’. However I think he does this for a different reason. This is to provoke an answer from Mahri.

Both Mahri and Judah use determiners them being; definite, indefinite and numeral. However Mahri uses the definite article ‘the’, whereas Judah doesn’t use any article where actually he should have included the definite one when saying ‘should we bring car’. This would support the telegraphic and post telegraphic stages. At the telegraphic stage the child can say three or more words combined which is what Judah can do. However Mahri is at the post telegraphic stage because she can form more grammatically complex combinations.

Another theory that supports Mahri and Judah’s conversation is the behaviourist theory. For example, B.F Skinner says that language is learnt through reinforcement and copying parents. An example of this would be ‘Charley’s park’. This must show that this has been copied from parents because the child wouldn’t be able to read this yet.

Judah uses ‘should’ repeatedly throughout the conversation. This is an auxiliary verb which adds meaning to the clause in this case to express modality. Judah also includes a conjugate verb for to be, ‘its’. This could be another example of behaviourism as it could have been copied from parents.