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Communication dans un congrès Année : 2015

Children’s multimodal grammar under construction: The example of negation

Résumé

We consider language as being composed of a vast set of semiotic means on which speakers rely to construct meaning and which are all part of our socially learned, intersubjective communicative system that can be analyzed as an integrative multimodal system, particularly in adult-child interaction. The study of the expression of negation in longitudinal data of adult-child conversations is a privileged locus for a multimodal approach to language acquisition. Indeed, previous research on first language acquisition has highlighted a tight relation between actions, gestures, signs and speech to express negation. As discussed by Spitz (1957) and Clark (1978), children’s first negative constructions seem to take over from early gestures of rejection and avoidance. In parallel to this developmental observation, for Kendon (2002), in many cultures, gestures of negation are a progressive ritualization of spontaneous actions. In both cases, bodily reactions and actions are transformed into communicative gestures. A number of authors have observed the transmodal continuity in the expression of negative speech acts (Bates et al. 1979) and how negation is expressed through head shakes, index waves, palm up epistemic gestures as early as the end of the first year, sometimes before first verbal markers (Guidetti 2005). The aim of our research is the construction of a developmental multi-semiotic overview of children’s expression of negation and the blossoming of their multimodal skills with a focus on similarities between children but also on individual and cross-linguistic differences. In this study, we coded and analyzed all the actions, gestures, vocalizations and verbal productions of a French-speaking (Madeleine) and an English-speaking (Ellie) monolingual child filmed one hour a month between the ages of 10 months and four, along with those of their adult interlocutors. We developed a specific multimodal coding system relying on previous typologies of negation (Bloom, 1970; Antinucci & Volterra, 1979; Pea, 1980; Choi, 1988). We combined the use of EXCEL, CLAN and ELAN with video data aligned with transcriptions to analyze the functions of different forms of negation according to context in dialogue. Results indicate that the two children use several modalities throughout the data with a diversification of negative functions, but with individual differences. Ellie follows a path from actions to symbolic gestures first produced in isolation and then combined with words before using complex verbal productions. After a period when actions are integrated in dialogue and interpreted by the adults as refusals and rejections, Madeleine very quickly uses verbal productions and does not rely on symbolic gestures at first. During their fourth year, both children gradually master multimodal means of expressing the subtleties of negation and the visual-gestural modality makes a striking comeback in the two children’s data with the use of co-verbal gestures. When we analyze the forms used in detail, we can observe that the two children are multimodal from the very beginning of the data but that the use of multimodality differs according to their cognitive, motor and linguistic development. The multimodal resources are first used in an integrative manner in the service of a global communicational intent. The productions become more complex as the children grow older and each modality can then be used with specific functions, which either reinforce or complement each other. This study thus illustrates why we must analyze the interfaces between different linguistic levels and different modalities in order to understand children’s mastery of the multimodal expression of negation.
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halshs-01424049, version 1 (01-01-2017)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-01424049 , version 1

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Aliyah Morgenstern, Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel. Children’s multimodal grammar under construction: The example of negation. ICLC2015, Lancaster University, Jul 2015, Lancaster, United Kingdom. ⟨halshs-01424049⟩
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