Paper 3 Question B

         Raina is five years old and is in the post-telegraphic stage of development. In this stage, children tend to learn various new words from the people around them and use them in more complex ways. According to Michael Halliday’s functions of language, Raina is using heuristic language since her mother is helping her experience the world via the countryside. Her mother is teaching her words that associate with their surrounding environment such as “butterfly,” “spider,” and “blackbird.” 

Her mother also tends to simplify these words to make it easier for Raina to understand. She refers to birds as “birdies,” calls insects “creepy crawlies,” and shortens a sentence to “too long grass.” By using the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS), these words become much easier for Raina to learn. Since her mother is pointing out the objects or animals being referenced, Raina will be able to associate them with the word being used.

Also, her mother heavily uses caretaker language throughout their conversation. For example, she promotes turn-taking by asking questions like “see the butterfly” and eliciting the response “where” from her daughter. Turn-taking is significant when it comes to conversations as it helps propel them. This prevents them from being one-sided or monologue-like. In addition, this ties to the adjacency pair format of a question followed by a response. After one subject speaks, the other responds and this process is continued. Raina also back-channels when she replies with “mm hmm.” She uses this as a way to show her mother she is engaged in their conversation without having to speak a verbal response.

Raina’s mother continuously uses upward intonation. She ends her questions, “see the butterfly” and “see it in the long grass,” with a higher pitch as it draws and directs Raina’s attention. Although this is commonly referred to as baby talk, she uses it as a way to keep Raina interested. 

Furthermore, Raina’s mother repeats phrases such as “if you if you be quiet, you’ll hear them (1) LOOK (1) do you hear them” which adds emphasis to the word “hear.” Repetition is commonly used to help another grasp the concept. 

Throughout the transcription, both Raina and her mother use words like ‘this,” “there,” and “that,” which to the reader, gives no reference. However, this deixis is clearly understood by both characters. 

Also, since this conversation is an unscripted discourse, the discussion is thought up on the spot and may not flow as smoothly. This increases the risk for mistakes when speaking to be made. For instance, Raina’s mother precedes by saying, “I think theres nests in that in those trees.” She quickly corrected herself since she realized there were multiple nests in multiple trees. Later on, Raina uses a false start when stumbling over her words and questioned, “YES (.) a I (1) he can’t fly can he.” As seen here both subjects try to fix their mistakes by rewording what they were saying. 

Next, both Raina and her mother continue to use contractions throughout their conversations like ““youve,” “theres,” “i’m.” Contractions tend to be used in informal dialogue between people who are comfortable with each other as seen here.  

Since Raina is so comfortable with her mother, she uses demanding phrases to tell her what to do. She says, “let’s go this way” and “i want to go this way” which falls under Michael Halliday’s regulatory function of language. Raina uses declarative words in hopes of  influencing her mother’s actions. After doing so, Raina’s mother uses the discourse marker “well” to mean “in that case.” Typically discourse markers are used to change topics or connect topics. Here, the use of “well” acts as a way to bound both Raina’s and her mother’s comments.