Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-06T23:06:58.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Conclusions

from Part II - A CROSS-LINGUISTIC STUDY OF CHILDREN'S NARRATIVES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Maya Hickmann
Affiliation:
Université de Paris V
Get access

Summary

This chapter synthesises the results of the study just presented (Chapters 8 to 10) and compares them with those of previous studies discussed in the developmental literature (Chapters 4 to 6). After a summary of the main findings within each domain (Section 11.1), four general conclusions are drawn across all three domains (Section 11.2). First, the findings show that the development of discourse-internal functions is late and gradual. Second, acquisition is determined by two types of interrelated factors: sentence-internal syntactico-semantic factors and functional determinants governing the regulation of information flow in discourse. Third, although these general aspects of the developmental process can be observed in all languages, others are language-specific, showing the impact of the particular systemic organisation of each language. Finally, a comparison of the findings across domains highlights particular properties of each domain, as well as interrelations among them suggesting that conjoined developments occur in all aspects of discourse cohesion. More general implications are then drawn in the context of available models of language acquisition (Section 11.3). It is argued that language acquisition is a gradual process, which requires that the child relate two levels of linguistic organisation, the sentence and discourse, accounting for invariant as well as variable patterns. This type of multifunctionality is universal and central in explaining how language becomes its own context, despite cross-linguistic variations due to the fact that children must confront the particular ways in which their native language maps sentence and discourse functions onto forms.

Type
Chapter
Information
Children's Discourse
Person, Space and Time across Languages
, pp. 318 - 342
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Conclusions
  • Maya Hickmann, Université de Paris V
  • Book: Children's Discourse
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486784.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Conclusions
  • Maya Hickmann, Université de Paris V
  • Book: Children's Discourse
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486784.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusions
  • Maya Hickmann, Université de Paris V
  • Book: Children's Discourse
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486784.012
Available formats
×