TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - The pragmatics of managing children's distress in Murrinhpatha, a traditional Australian language
JO  - Journal of pragmatics
A1  - Davidson, Lucinda
A1  - Kelly, Barbara F.
SP  - 167
EP  - 184
VL  - 184
IS  - 
N2  - This paper examines the strategies that speakers employ in response to children's crying in the remote Aboriginal community of Wadeye, in northern Australia. Drawing on spontaneous interactions amongst Murrinhpatha speaking families, we analyse instances of crying by children aged 0;6 to 8;11 years, and the ways in which they are responded to. <br><br>RESULTS indicate that adult Murrinhpatha speakers manage children's distress through a variety of verbal and non-verbal strategies, and multimodal combinations thereof. The selection of strategies directly relates to the developmental stage of the crier. Adult caregivers respond differently to the crying of infants, of children who can walk unaided but are producing little if any language, of children who can talk intelligibly, and children more advanced again who have a degree of social independence. In the particular strategies that caregivers apply, they guide children towards a developmentally appropriate self-sufficiency. Caregivers encourage autonomy in ways that reflect a child's current abilities, be it physical, linguistic, emotional, or social. By exploring responses to crying in an under-researched cultural and linguistic context, this paper offers a unique perspective on the pragmatics of managing distress and what this reveals about local constructions of personhood within the context of carer-child interaction.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0378-2166
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.08.008
ID  - ref1
ER  -