Let's Talk by David Crystal

Author:David Crystal
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780192591104
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2020-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

A thousand days

Here’s the beginning of Suzie’s story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ (p. 97):

One – one day they went out to build their houses. One built it of straw, one built it of sticks, and one built it of bricks. And he – the little busy brother knowed that in the woods there lived a big bad wolf, he need nothing else but to catch little pigs. So you know what, one day they went out – and – the wolf went slip slosh slip slosh went his feet on the ground . . .

The ‘and then’ pattern is there, but there is one feature of this monologue which shows that she is quite advanced for her age: ‘you know what’. Children don’t normally use comment clauses and connecting adverbials (such as you see, actually, fortunately) until much older. They start to appear sporadically around age 7, but their frequency and distribution don’t reflect adult norms until after age 10.

Interactive expressions, especially expressing politeness, are much earlier, because parents drill them. A typical dialogue at around age 3 would go like this:

Child: Can I have another biscuit?

Parent: I haven’t heard that little word yet!

Child: Can I have another biscuit, PLEASE.

Parent: That’s better.

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