Investigates what young children remember and how consistent is their recall. Finds that young children recall more information when conversing with a stranger than with their mother. Shows that, although more consistent in conversations with the same adult across two interviews, children's recall is highly inconsistent. (SR)

Transcripts of 11 young children's speech to adults were found to include hints and question directives. (FL)

Investigates whether preschool children behave differently when making requests to talking and silent adults and what they know about conversation intrusions. Finds that young children take longer to make their requests of silent adults and older children take longer to address talking adults. (SR)

Describes a study of the use of the terms "will" and "gonna" in the speech of two three-year-old girls. The results suggest that one of the functions of "will" and "gonna" is to impart different causal relations to the two practices of "undertaking" and "planning." (HTH)

Describes a study to examine the changes that take place in the form and types of discussions about the past as two young, Spanish-speaking girls moved from elicited routines to spontaneous and novel conversations about their past experiences. (HTH)

Describes several distinctive discourse features of typical information books written for young children by comparing them to book language in typical storybooks. Analyzes four kindergartners' repeated "pretend readings" of three typical information books to reveal the strategies by which these children learn the characteristic…

Assesses three papers in this volume, those by Wellman and Estes, Olson and Torrance, and Hall and Nagy, for their treatment of the following: (1) definition of semantic space, (2) defining children's processes of understanding that space, and (3) describing the contexts in which cognitive language is used. (AEW)

Presents a new methodology for studying children's and adults' metalinguistic knowledge of the cohesive, discourse-level properties of spoken language. Studies the abilities of subjects to detect and then to explain discourse repairs in narratives. Considers why the discourse-level functions of the markers are not open to reflection. (HB)

Suggests that young children use their expectations of a context-specific, normal range of pause duration in timing the onset of a turn at speaking. (FL)

Proposes that dialogue provides children with opportunities to participate with adults in creating linguistic relationships of which they would be incapable alone. Reports the findings of a study of dialogues between mothers and their young children. (FL)

Reports the findings of a study that was designed to explore children's use of language in the adversative episode. (FL)

Explores the kinds of persuasion used by preschool children in two role-playing tasks. Finds that children role played effectively and persistently, with Bargains and Guarantees the most frequently used strategies. Finds that the choice of strategies changed with age (more Positive Sanction, less Assertion) and with sex (boys used more Norm…

Examines longitudinally how mothers structure shared book reading interactions with their children across the preschool period. Addresses consistency of individual maternal styles over time and comparability of storybook reading styles across familiar and unfamiliar stories. Finds three maternal stylistic groups: Describers, Comprehenders, and…

Traces the clarity of noun/pronoun referents and the use of cohesive ties in personal experience narratives told by children aged two, four, six, and nine years as well as by adults. Shows that children interrelated their sentences in similar ways as adults. Discusses implications of the study for educators. (HB)

Critically examines papers by Wellman and Estes, Olson and Torrance, and Hall and Nagy. (AEW)