The contextual parameters of linguistic choice: Greek children's preferences for the formation of directive speech acts

This article examines the forms and functions of directive speech acts uttered by Greek-speaking children, drawing from the frameworks of Speech Act Theory, Conversation Analysis, and Interactional Sociolinguistics (Searle, 1975a,b; Schegloff, 1988; Brown and Levinson, 1987). My goal is to exhibit the distinct strategies applied by speakers of nursery school age concerning three parameters: the choice of form, the negotiation of communicative goals within conversation, and the protection of face. Also, children's strategies are contrasted to the preferences exhibited by adult speakers of Greek (Sifianou, 1992). The analysis is based on actual conversational exchanges that were audio-recorded in six nursery school classes during classroom work and play time activities. The children involved are of both sexes and various social backgrounds. I will show that (1) Greek children's preferences confirm the fact that nursery school children exhibit awareness of the social parameters of talk (Andersen-Slosberg, 1990; Ervin-Tripp et al., 1990); (2) they make distinct linguistic choices that differ considerably from the conventional politeness markers applied by adult speakers of Greek, such as modals, polite 2nd plural subject-agreement on the verb, “please” and “thank you” words; (3) they mark relative distance by using declaratives with directive illocutionary force (Georgalidou, 2001).