Children's use of discourse markers in disputes: Form‐function relations and discourse in child language

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Abstract
Children's verbal disputes were analyzed for the development of discourse markers because, so, and, but, and well. One hundred twenty‐eight verbal disputes were analyzed; participants were 23 children ranging from 2 years;7 months to 9 years;6 months, and 10 adults, all interacting at home in various play activities. It was predicted that the functions of discourse markers would be limited to the local level of discourse for the youngest children, and the markers would primarily index either the exchange or action levels of discourse before the ideational level of discourse. The last function to develop for these forms should be the ideational function of markers which marks global discourse structure. The results showed that the markers were primarily used to mark the exchange structure of discourse when they were first used by children 2;7 to 3;6 years. The global level of discourse was not marked by children until the second half of their 4th year (3;6–4;0), and the first markers to do so were because and but, both of which have particular importance in disputes because they mark reasons and contradictions, the major parts of the structure of disputes.