Politeness in Young (Between 4.3 - 5.7) Children's Speech in Turkish

Öz

Having the knowledge of a language is not limited to acquire the phonology, morphology and syntax of that language. Being a competent language user, children must acquire how to use the grammars of a language to communicate appropriately in a great variety of communicative situations. It means that language acquisition does not only include linguistic competence, at the same time, it includes pragmatic competence (Ya-ting, 2008). Thus pragmatic competence has an important place in the children’s language acquisition process. This paper is related to children’s pragmatic development which brings together linguistic pragmatics and child development. Turkish children’s language in play was analysed and the results were presented, focusing on the use of politeness phenomena. The results of the study are compared with the previous ones made in different languages. By contrast with the results of these studies, the present study found no significant differences in boys’ and girls’ use of mitigation. The girls and the boys often used an assertive, unmitigated style at the same level in their play, however, in other studies; girls appear to be politer than boys when they play. This article re-emphasized the need for language and gender research on children to be thoroughly contextualized and the importance of considering the socio-cultural context in research on children’s language. Indeed, the results are used to express the link between children's acquisition of pragmatic competence and crucial social, cultural and educational implications.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• pragmatics
• Children’s language
• Linguistic politeness
• Mitigation
• Language and gender

Türk Çocukların (4.3 – 5.7) Konuşmalarındaki Nezaket İfadeleri

Öz

Bir dilin bilgisine sahip olmak, o dilin ses-bilgisi, biçim-bilgisi ve sözdizimini edinmekle sınırlı değildir. Yetkin bir dil kullanıcısı olan çocuklar, bir dilin gramerini, çok çeşitli iletişimsel durumlarda, uygun şekilde iletişim kurmak için nasıl kullanacaklarını öğrenmelidirler. Bu, dil ediniminin yalnızca dilsel yeterliliği içermemesi, aynı zamanda pragmatik yeterliliği de içermesi anlamına gelir (Ya-ting, 2008). Dolayısıyla pragmatik yetkinlik, çocukların dil edinim sürecinde önemli bir yere sahiptir. Bu makale, “dilbilimsel pragmatik” ile “çocuk gelişimi”ni birlikte içeren “çocukların dil bilgisel pragmatik gelişimi” ile ilgilidir. Mevcut çalışmada, sonuçlar, Türk çocukların oyun esnasında kullandıkları dil analiz edilerek ve nezaket olgularının kullanımı göz önünde bulundurularak sunuldu. Çalışmanın sonuçları, daha önce farklı dillerde yapılmış olan çalışmalarla da karşılaştırıldı. Bu çalışmaların sonuçlarının aksine, mevcut çalışmada, erkek ve kız çocuklarının yumuşatma (mitigation) kullanımlarında anlamlı bir farklılık bulunamadı. Diğer çalışmalarda, genellikle,  oyun esnasında kızlar erkeklerden daha kibarken bu çalışmada, kızlar ve erkekler aynı seviyelerde iddialı ve sert bir stil kullandılar. Bu makale, çocuklar üzerine yapılan dil ve cinsiyet araştırmalarının kapsamlı bir şekilde bağlamsallaştırılmasının gerekliliğini ve çocuk-dili araştırmalarında sosyo-kültürel yapıyı göz önüne almanın önemini yeniden vurgulamaktadır. Nitekim, sonuçlar, çocukların pragmatik yeterlilik kazanımı ile önemli sosyal, kültürel ve eğitimsel etkiler arasındaki bağı ifade etmek için kullanılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• edimbilim
• çocukdili
• dilbilimselkibarlık
• dilvecinsiyet

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