A study of directive speech acts used by Iranian nursery school children: The impact of context on children’s linguistic choices

Abstract

This paper aims at finding out the forms and functions of directive speech acts uttered by Persian-speaking children. The writer’s goal is to discover the distinct strategies applied by speakers of nursery school age children regarding three parameters: the choice of form, the negotiation of communicative goals within conversation, and the protection of face. The data collected for this purpose are based on actual school conversational situations that were audio recorded in four nursery schools during classroom work and playtime activities. Children, who are the subjects of this study, are of both sexes and various social backgrounds. The results revealed that (1) the investigation of children’s directive speech acts confirm the fact that they are aware of social parameters of talk (Andersen- Slosberg,1990; Ervin, Tripp et al., 1990); (2) they use linguistic forms that are different from what is used by adults as politeness marker, such as, polite 2nd plural subject-agreement on the verb, “please” and “thank you” words; (3) They use declaratives with illocutionary force in order to mark distance (Georgalidou, 2001).