Rhetorical Function Analysis of a Child's Directive Speech Acts

Abstract

This study analyzes the characteristics of a child's directive speech acts from the perspective of decontextualization. The analysis targets family conversation data from the "CEJC-Child." A previous study has shown that various rhetorical functions are used in parents' utterances classified under the label "Directive Speech Act" in dialogue act information. This study focused on the utterances of a kindergarten child that has a younger brother and found that the main directive expressions were primarily low-level decontextualization expressions based on the child's own desires at that time and place. On the other hand, it was also found that there were expressions with different degrees of decontextualization that were conscious of being an older sibling.