La evolución de la referencia en catalán en narraciones orales y escritas

Resumen

El principal objetivo de este estudio fue ver cómo evolucionaban las expresiones referenciales para los niños hablantes del catalán y cómo esta evolución se veía afectada por la modalidad oral o escrita. Niños de primero, tercero y quinto de Educación Básica produjeron narraciones orales y ecritas a partir del libro de imágenes “Frog, where are you?” A pesar de que desde el comienzo de la escolaridad los niños ya habían adquirido los principales aspectos del sistema referencial del catalán, creemos que la interacción con el lenguaje escrito y posteriormente el aprendizaje de la escritura de textos tuvieron un efecto sobre el aumento del uso correcto de las expresiones referenciales, particularmente sobre aquellas que implican cambio en el flujo de la información discursive.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate how the development of the discoursal use of referential expressions by young Catalan speakers was affected by the oral and written modes used to tell a story. First, third and fifth graders were asked to produce oral and written narratives from the picture story-book “Frog, where are you?”. We sought to answer the following questions: How do the characteristics of referential expression develop in the specific context of Catalan? and, In what ways the use of reference is affected by the mode of communication (oral as opposed to written)? Although children have acquired the main features of the Catalan referential system from the beginning of their schooling, we believe that getting involved with written language and learning to write leads to an increase in the accurate use of referential expressions, and more specifically in the way the information in the discourse is organized.

Extended Summary

The purpose of this study was to examine the development in the use of referential expressions in Catalan narrative texts in relation to the internal discourse functions (intralinguistic): maintenance and reintroduction. In studying such development we were particularly interested in how children maintain and reintroduce people, objects and situations by employing different linguistic forms in narrative texts. The appropriacy of the use of these forms depends on their referential function. We were also interested in the cohesiveness of forms. This was analysed by looking at the interaction between linguistic forms and functions.

The same narrative text, the story-book “Frog, where are you?” was used to elicit two versions: one oral and the other written produced in identical communicative situations. Three groups of 20 children (N=60) drawn from first, third and fifth grades of primary education participated in thes study. Specifically, we sought to answer the following two questions: How do the characteristics of referential expression develop in the specific context of Catalan? and, In what ways the use of reference is affected by the mode of communication (oral as opposed to written)?

The results show that the maintenance function was carried out primarily using null forms in all grades and in both modes. Differences arose as a result of the role assigned to the characters in the story. The boy was largely maintained using null forms while the frog was primarily maintained with pronouns. The children had to choose between null forms and pronouns—and to a lesser extent also nouns—though at the same time they needed to bear in mind the changing role from subject to object in the syntactic structure as well as the morphological characteristics or neutralization so as to maintain the information regarding the same referential element in the text. The persistence of ambiguous forms in maintenance can be explained by the need to consider the morphosyntactic component. In this regard, what Catalan children need to learn is in which discoursive contexts (as well as syntactical) the gender, number, and person of verbal markers are inadequate for identifying one or more referents.

The reintroduction function was achieved largely with defined nominal forms across all grades and in both modes. However, there was a significant increase in the number of nouns used between first and third grade subjects. In addition, the mode influenced the form used: nouns were more frequent in the written mode while the null forms decreased. As in the maintenance function, topicality had an effect. Null forms were more frequently used to refer to the boy and dog together than for the other characters, while the pronominal forms were more frequently used to refer to the frog. Ambiguous expressions persist in null forms and pronominals. These forms decrease with age in both modes.

Although children have acquired the main features of the Catalan referential system as soon a they start school, we believe that getting involved with written language has led to an increase in the accurate use of the system. Previous studies focussing on age comparison have shown that a change takes place around the age of nine years. However, from the present results we conclude that there is a more accurate transfer of the referential system from previously learnt models of written language to written and oral texts produced by pupils that we study. These results, unexpected in the light of previous studies, suggest an early awareness of the norms underlying written language. Clearly, future research is needed to confirm these findings for other genre types.

Palabras clave:

• Formas y funciones referenciales
• narración oral y escrita
• habilidades discursivas tempranas

Keywords:

• Referential forms and functions
• oral and written narratives
• early discourse skills