Identifying referents and linking sentences cohesively in narration

Abstract

To be comprehensible to a listener, narratives must have their referents specified unambiguously and their sentences interrelated. This investigation traces the clarity of noun/pronoun referents and the use of cohesive ties in personal experience narratives told by children aged 2, 4, 6, and 9 years as well as by adults. Overall, noun phrase (NP) errors decreased with age, but the introduction of new referents remained problematic throughout the entire child sample (with one out of four or five confusing). In contrast, most reiterated referents were clear. Turning to cohesive linking, even 2‐year‐olds used all nine of the ties described by Halliday and Hasan, although there were developmental changes in the use of some. For the most part school‐aged children interrelated their sentences with similar frequencies and types of cohesive links as did adults. Implications for education are discussed.