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The use of the simple present in the speech of two three-year-olds: Normativity not subjectivity*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Julie (Gee) Gerhardt  and
Iskender Savasir
Julie (Gee) Gerhardt
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychology and Linguistics, State University of New York, Buffalo
Iskender Savasir
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

In our research, we wish to illuminate different types of discursive intentions which are structured into discourse via the verb inflections and auxiliaries, together with their entailed social effects. In the present report, we examine the use of the simple present by two three-year-olds, and argue that analyses in terms of tense or aspect are not adequate to account for its use. One needs to recognize the way in which the form implicitly refers to norms and thereby entails a type of impersonal motivation – especially as it is just this feature of the use of this form that structures the ongoing activity into a nondialogic, normative activity. (Simple present, normativity, subjectivity, activity-types, nondialogic discourse, the constitutive role of language, American English)

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Type
Articles
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Language in Society , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 501 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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