ABSTRACT
The study analyzes the use of the Japanese quotative – to construction and its colloquial version the tte construction in interactions between caregivers and children at home. By examining 70 hours of naturally occurring conversation data from three Japanese families in Japan and four Japanese heritage families in the United States, this study found that there were differences between the children in the two groups in terms of their use of the most pragmaticalized form of quotative construction. The observed difference is crucial because such quotative constructions carry interactional functions that are relevant to socializing with others. The study points out: 1) the quotative tte constructions are frequently used without the matrix verbs or with the verb ‘to do’, rather than verbs of cogitation or communication; 2) both Japanese mothers and children in Japan use such quotative markers to engage in socialization acts while such uses of quotative constructions were not observed in US Japanese heritage families; and 3) heritage children rarely produced to-marked quotative constructions, which only seem to occur in narrative-mode speech. The quotative clauses were frequently found to be used in light verb constructions with mimetic words such as gyuu tte suru ‘gyuu (mimetic words describing a hugging action) QUO (quotative particle) ‘do’ or used on their own. Such use of quotative constructions intersubjectively conveys the speaker’s desire as well as indicating the addressee’s viewpoint is being taken. Recent research in child language acquisition in Japanese has highlighted the use of quotatives between mothers and children especially from the Language Socialization perspective (Suzuki 1999; Burdelski 2015). However, this research only looks at the caregivers’ use of quotative constructions. By analyzing the children’s use of quotative constructions, this study provides more insight into the developmental aspects of the pragmatics of quotatives as well as asserting that children are also active participants in socialization. Comparing the use of the quotative -to and tte constructions in Japanese families in Japan and Japanese heritage families in the US, this study presents a critical discussion about the extent to which cultural aspects play a role in language acquisition.
