Ways of Examining Speech Acts in Young African American Children Considering Inside-out and Outside-in Approaches

    Authors

    G. DeJarnette; K. O. Rivers;Y. D. Hyter

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Top. Lang. Disord.

    Keywords

    communicative functions; English speakers; language behavior; pragmatic; behavior; speech acts; young African American; INTELLIGENCE HYPOTHESIS; LANGUAGE RESEARCH; ENGLISH; PRESCHOOLERS; DIALECT; DISCOURSE; COGNITION; SYNTAX; AGE; Linguistics; Rehabilitation

    Abstract

    To develop a framework for further study of pragmatic behavior in young children from African American English (AAE) speaking backgrounds, one aspect of pragmatic behavior is explored in this article, specifically, speech acts. The aims of this article are to (1) examine examples of how external taxonomies (i.e., an "etic" or "outside-in" approach) have been applied to the speech act behavior of AAE child speakers and to note that etic approaches alone do not identify cultural characteristics that influence the presentation of speech acts in this population; (2) conceptualize a culture-sensitive framework where components of AAE speech act behaviors can be identified as gleaned from existing linguistic research; and (3) explain the utility of analyses of speech act behavior using taxonomies that have emerged from the cultural language style of AAE speakers, that is, an "emic" or "inside-out" approach.

    Journal Title

    Topics in Language Disorders

    Volume

    35

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2015

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    61

    Last Page

    75

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000348999300006

    ISSN

    0271-8294

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