Children`s formal division of labor in requests

Abstract

This study aims to shed a light on children`s pragmatic development by examining Mandarin-speaking children`s requests in interactions with their parents. It is found that children between 24 and 36 months old appear to use various request forms, primarily with simple imperatives and WANT statements. A closer examination reveals that children prefer to use simple imperatives in activity-based interactions while both primary forms are found in unstructured daily conversations. The findings suggest that children`s preference for simple imperatives may be driven by their awareness of parents` cooperativeness in interactional situations. It is thus speculated that simple imperatives and WANT statements may be children`s two primal request forms, but they may pivot on one request form when the situation is right.