Personal Deixis ja [I] and ty [you] in the Mother’s Speech Directed to a Child under Three Years

Abstract

Abstract The longitudinal case study of the usage of personal deixis I and you in the mother’s speech directed to her first born child from the age of 6 months to 3 years is based on the analysis of 30 one-hour recordings of their interaction transcribed via CHAT in Childes. The focus is on one aspect of the child directed speech register, which is its variability in time. In the longitude of 30 months the number of occurrences of personal pronoun you is constantly decreasing while the number of personal pronoun I is constantly increasing in mother’s speech directed to the child. The communicative functions which are being fulfilled by usage of personal pronouns I and you are also changing in time due to the development of the child’s cognitive and speaking abilities. New communicative function while using personal pronoun I such as explanation to the child occurs in her 33rd month. New communicative function while using personal pronoun you such as role play starts at her age of 20th month and mother’s repetitions of the child’s statements as the display of mother’s understanding occur from the 31st month. Other functions are fading in time such as commenting on the child’s physical abilities, which is dominant to her 17th month and commenting on the child’s state, which occurs up to one year of her age.