FAMILY TALK ABOUT TALK - MOTHERS LEAD THE WAY

Reporting past speech is an important but little studied discourse ski ll. The speech mothers, fathers, and children spontaneously quote at d innertime was analyzed in this study. Subjects were 22 middle-class fa milies, each with a child between 2 years, 3 months and 5 years, 2 mon ths of age. Reported speech was found in the dinnertime conversations of most families. Mothers used reported speech far more frequently tha n did fathers or children. When reported speech was used, mothers used more indirect speech and less narratized speech, fathers used more na rratized speech, and children used more direct speech. Finally, there was a positive correlation between mothers' (but not fathers') use of reported speech and children's use of reported speech.