ACTA LINGUISTICA VOL. 38 (AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTIC, 1988)
1988 / 1-4. sz. - CASSEL, J.: Metapragmatics in language development: Evidence from speech and gesture
Acta Linguistica Hungarica, Vol. 38 (l~4), pp. 3-18 (1988) METAPRAGMATICS IN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM SPEECH AND GESTURE* JUSTINE CASSEL I. Introduction In this paper, language acquisition data will be brought to bear on the question of what constitutes a metapragmatic term, and what relationship exists between metapragmatic terms and metanarrative discourse (a concept that I'll explain further below). In using the study of development to answer questions asked by linguists working on adult language I am assuming that data from acquisition is not just an earlier stage in or detour from studying adult speakers. One might ask: "Why kids? Aren't they just the ones who do it wrong?" But as Ochs-Schieffelin (1979) point out "Nowhere is the importance of an item more noticeable than in its absence. Child language is valuable to a study of pragmatics in part because it demonstrates gaps in competence". The nature of metapragmatics can here be elucidated by an examination of its absence. First, however, a number of primary distinctions need to be drawn. Following Morris (1938) we distinguish between "relations which a given sign sustains and the signs used in talking about such relations" (1938, 7). The sign participates in three dyadic relations, broadly speaking, and these are syntax:, semantics, and pragmatics, and each of these relations is subject to talk at a 'higher level of semiosis', that is to metalinguistic discourse. It is the last relation, pragmatics, defined by Morris as the relationship between a sign and its "interpreter" (here we may gloss that as 'user'), and its corresponding metalanguage that concerns us here. Current discussions of pragmatics tend to fall into one of two camps: a) descriptions of pragmatic meanings in terms of propositional-like rules with structures that should parallel those of syntactic or semantic descriptions— pragmatics as a part of 'reference-and-predication' (Silverstein, 1987); or * Preparation of this manuscript was supported by a 1989-90 dissertation research grant from the National Science Foundation, by a 1989-90 dissertation grant from the Spencer Foundation, and by a 1990 dissertation grant from NIMH. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest