Manusya, Journal of Humanities
Publication Date
2010-01-01
Abstract
This paper examines how 4-year-old Thai-speaking children made referential choices when referring to animate entities in a story. The aim is to answer two questions. First, do young Thai children's narratives exhibit Preferred Argument Structure (PAS) patterns (Du Bois 1987)? And, second, do young Thai children differentiate their choice of referential forms based on discourse contexts? It was found that children's selection of referential forms generally followed the PAS constraints. The only constraint that was not strictly observed was the Non-lexical A constraint. Furthermore, children were found to be influenced by discourse contexts when they expressed arguments in subject positions. The evidence also showed that, at 4 years of age, children showed a preference for lexical forms and were not yet fully capable of using referential forms to create coherence in narratives.
First Page
44
Last Page
59
Recommended Citation
Ratitamkul, Theeraporn
(2010)
"Referential Choices in Narratives of 4-year-old Thai-speaking Children,"
Manusya, Journal of Humanities: Vol. 13:
No.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/manusya/vol13/iss1/4