mini solo hypothesis

The sentence mood used by the carer will affect the length of answer the child will reply with.  

              Notes 

• Interaction theory 
• Sentence moods – Declarative (used to make a simple statement. Most sentences are declarative), interrogative (used to ask a question), exclamatory (used for emphasis and emotion) and imperative (used for commands, with the pronoun you always implied).  

To get a successful investigation I need data of a few conversations between a parent and child to get an even amount which will support my hypothesis.  

I predict the use of interrogatives used by the carers will limit the length of replies the child gives. The child will reply with a yes or no answer with a limited explanation, however a declarative will push them to reply with more wanting to give a detailed answer to which will feel as if its used to defend them self (to an extent). 

Knowing who the people in the videos are may change the way they speak in front of me if I was to video them myself, also could change the way I use the results and explain it differently due to already knowing how the child replies. So instead I've used two videos of children talking to their parents, two family's I'm unfamiliar with, which will allow my investigation to be unbiased. These two videos carry the same sort of activities taken place by the children, although they seem distracted, its going to help my investigation to see if they react differently with less interest to the conversation or react fine with a normal reply.  

H: what are you doing now? (1)  

Z: I don’t know (0.5) where's my little pad gone?  

H: where is your little pad? (2)  

Z: uh (1) here it is  

H: here it is (12) what are you drawing (.) Zach?  

Z: (.) a banana (0.5) and 3 things in the banana (0.5)  

H: a banana and what? (.) 3 things?  

Z: yes (.) for the banana.  

H: for the banana (.) what can the banana have (.) its three things (.) what are they?  

Z: it's got something on the top (.) so it’s a banana (1) and it's got skins (0.5) you don’t want to eat skins  

H: no (1) that’s right  

Z: you eat just bananas  

H: yeah (.) just the inside of the bananas (.) that's right  

Z: and here’s the bananas (.) here (points to part of the drawing)  

H: oh (.) well (.) very good (1)  

Z: and here's the skins  

H: oh (.) are the are the skins off are they? ready (.) so the banana’s ready to eat?  

Z: yeah (1)  

H: what have you eaten today?  

Z: (emphasises) bananas  

This data is a good example of a child using small lengths of replies in reaction to either a declarative or interrogative used by the parent. At the start, Zach isn't open for discussion about the activity he's doing, however the end of the transcript contrasts to my hypothesis. 

Halla asks Zach 'a banana and what? three things?' and Zach's reply is 'yes, for the banana', this limited reply shows no interest in explaining what the three things are - a reason may be because he's still drawing or miss-understood/heard her asking the question. However, Halla states 'what can the banana have, its three things' this seems more like a declarative which allows Zach to understand more and then he replies with a long explanation. So far my hypothesis is correct because Zach replies to the declaratives more willingly than actual questions. Halla used a declarative to praise Zach which then made him point out more things in his picture as if he was replying to a interrogative - for more appraisal. There are two questions asked at the end, large questions, and Zach replies with a closed answer 'yes' and 'bananas', he emphasises the word banana which adds expression and excitement, however he only used the one word. This data supports my hypothesis because he reacts more to declaratives than interrogatives.