Semantic errors in children’s narratives: the problem of reference

Authors

  • Vanesa Nancy Seno INCIHUSA - CONICET
  • Carolina Gattei IFIBA - CONICET - Laboratorio de Neurociencia, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
  • Luis París INCIHUSA - CONICET - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Keywords:

semantic slips, oral production, children narrative

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to develop a set of categories able to describe semantic slips of the tongue in oral production of narratives by five years old children.

The analysis is framed within Cognitive Linguistics since it studies the relation between language and cognition in the context of a communicative situation, language in a particular context of use: the narration of a dynamic visual stimuli.

In particular, this study is part of a research program called 'Interface Grammar'. We undertook a qualitative and descriptive analysis. Children were presented twice with two visual stimuli and asked to narrate them. The narratives were transcribed and analyzed. We identified thirteen semantic slips, which were described and classified. First, we contrasted the meaning of the verb used by the child with the segment of the stimuli intended to be referred to by the expression. We identified the information in the stimuli that was not covered by the verb meaning. Then, we justify our interpretation of the use of that expression as a 'failed reference' by the relevance of the omitted information. The result consists of six categories that allow us to start to classify reference problems in children's discourse.

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Published

03-09-2021

How to Cite

Seno, V. N. ., Gattei, C. ., & París, L. . (2021). Semantic errors in children’s narratives: the problem of reference. Anales De Lingüística, (6), 105–124. Retrieved from https://revistas.uncu.edu.ar/ojs/index.php/analeslinguistica/article/view/5170