Pragmatic study of agreement and refusal messages in young French children

The purpose of this study was to analyze how the gestural and/or verbal for ms of agreement and refusal messages in young French children aged 21 to 27 months vary according to the social function they fulfill. Two types of me ssages were considered: assertives and directives. Children interacting wit h an adult were observed individually. The adult prompted the child to prod uce agreement and refusal messages of the assertive or directive type by pr oposing objects (puzzle pieces) that either fit or did not fit into the int eraction situation (e,g.: 'Is this an X?', where X was/was not the piece be ing presented, or 'Should I give you the X?' for pieces that did/did not go with the puzzle the child was doing). The results showed that the children's message forms varied with age (21 or 27 months), type of message (agreement or refusal), and type of speech act (assertive or directive). The different variations are discussed and show that by the age of two, children indeed have different forms at their dispo sal (gestural and/or verbal) for expressing agreement and refusal in accord ance with the two types of speech acts achieved in these messages. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.