The development of discourse markers in Spanish: Interjections

ELSEVIER

Journal of Pragmatics 31 (1999) 1289-1319 www.elsevier.nl/locate/pragma

The development of discourse markers in Spanish" Interjections Rosa Graciela Montes Av. Don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza 208 (Altos), 72000 Puebla, PUE, Mexico

Abstract The present study examines the emergence of seven Spanish interjections (ah, oh, uh, ay, oy, uy, and eh) in the speech of a young child acquiring Spanish as a native language. These are analyzed as 'information management markers' (Schiffrin, 1987), and, following Wilkins (1995), we will consider them as deictics or indexicals that point to a referent which may be contextual or textual, and thus function to bring that element into the focus of attention. Ah, oh, and uh are called 'projective' because they seem to point the interlocutor's attention to an external referent (an object or event in the context, an utterance in discourse). Ay, oy, and uy are called 'subjective' since they focus on the internal reaction of affectedness of the speaker with respect to the referent. Eh functions as both a hesitation marker and an intensifier. The study traces the development of these interjections longitudinally in the speech of one child (from age 1;7 to 3;0). Although most of the interjections are already being used by the child at the first period of observation, we see in the child a development from the more literal, contextual uses to the more elaborated discursive functions which emerge later. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

I. Interjections as discourse markers Interjections form a part of speech whose existence has been noted since the earliest grammars, and yet they have been largely ignored in most grammatical descriptions, disregarded because they have been considered peripheral to the grammatical system and not properly a part of 'langue' although frequent in 'parole'. It has been remarked, for example, that interjections often contain sounds which are not found in other words in the language (Quirk et al., 1972; Bonfante, 1968; Fideholtz, 1979). Examples for English are phew [dpju] or yech [y^x], where /d~/ or /x/ are not phonemes. Examples for Spanish would be shh [f:], used to call for silence, or the middle sound in aj6 [aha]. The palatal fricative If] is not phonemic in most varieties 0378-2166D9/$ - see front matter © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0378-2166(98)00106-4

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of Spanish and is not found aside from this interjection.l Neither does the pharyngeal fricative [h] occur in other words. 2 Facts like these have led Quirk et al. (1972) to state: "This observation is not without significance in considering the general status of interjections which though meaningful are integrated within neither the grammatical structure nor the lexicon of the language" (1972: 46). There have been other studies, however, that argue that interjections display quite a bit of organization within the sentence; thus, for example, what James (1973: 248, 1974: ch. 4) calls 'sentence internal interjections' can only refer to constituents and block acceptability of a referent if there is an internal sentence boundary.3 The study of interjections has gained new impetus within the framework of discourse analysis since many interjections function as discourse markers. Schiffrin (1987: 31) defines markers in general as 'sequentially dependent elements which bracket units of talk' and mark or index the discourse with respect to various discursive or contextual factors such as participant organization or to indicate the relevance of an utterance to previous text. Markers have been said to function on several planes at the same time: semantic, syntactic, exchange structure, topic, and so on. Their occurrence very often has an integrative function (Schiffrin, 1987). A marker such as ah may simultaneously mark, for example, the acceptance by the speaker of a respondent role in the interaction, the speaker's orientation towards the previous utterance and the recognition of the content of this utterance as new information. As is to be expected, studies of the development of interjections are still very few. Barriga (1992) presents the only study of Spanish child language I've found with reference to interjections, showing their use in narratives along with that of other expressive markers. Some questions which arise with respect to development would be: What interjections are found in particular languages? How early are they learned? What is the emergent order? What factors influence this order? Are there cross-language similarities in emergence? Finally, given that specific interjections, and discourse markers in general, can serve more than one function, which are the earlier functions the child develops? The papers in this volume address some of these questions and provide data which will permit cross-language comparisons. The present study contributes to this area by examining the emergence and development in the speech of one child of the following Spanish interjections: ah, oh, uh, ay, oy, uy, and eh. These seven, together with aha and mhm, are the only interjections used by the child during the period of observation. I will attempt to trace the order of acquisition of these markers and the functions which first appear. In the following discussion I will compare the child's use of the different interjections to those of the mother who, during the period of this study, is the principal adult model for the child. i A marginal exception is Mexican Spanish where [J] occurs frequently in words borrowed from Nauati, especially in proper names, e.g. Xoxtla [J'oJ'tla]. 2 In Caribbean Spanish there is a pharyngeal fricative, but not in the varieties (Argentine, Mexican) with which the child was in contact, in which words like Jorge [xorxe] are pronounced with a velar fricative. Wilkins (1995) argues that interjections should not be considered within sentential grammar but rather at the level of the utterance. Nevertheless, the examples given by James indicate that interjection placement is sensitive to sentential structure.

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2. The corpus The data for this paper were taken from a corpus of thirteen transcripts of spontaneous conversations between a child and her mother. The child in this study, Koki, was first taped when she was approximately 20 months old and then at intervals of two to six weeks until her third birthday. The corpus consists of thirty-six 30-45 minute recordings from which a subset of thirteen (labeled K01-K13) are being used in this study. Table 1 gives the age (yy;mm.dd) and Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) of the child at each of the thirteen data sessions. 4 Table 1 Summary of data sessions being used in this study Tape I.D

Age of child

MLU

K01 K02 K03 K04 K05 K06 K07 K08 K09 K10 KI 1 K12 KI3

1;7.20 1;9.18 1;11.15 2; 1.29 2;2.27 2;3.22 2;4.18 2;5.24 2;6.10 2;7.10 2;8.9 2;9.14 2;11.7

1.9 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.7 3.0 2.7 3.5 2.8 2.9 3.3

The following interjections were examined: ah, oh, uh, ay, oy, uy, and eh. These were chosen because they occurred with some frequency in both the child's and the mother's speech and because they serve a number of different discourse functions, making it interesting to see the emergence of these in the child's speech. Table 2 shows the total number of interjections used by both mother and child. The use of each interjection will be discussed in the respective sections below. My interest lies primarily in the child's use of interjections but will include references to the mother's data for purposes of comparison.

3. Proposed analysis for the interjections under study Beinhauer (1963) discusses Spanish interjections in his review of colloquial Spanish. Among the ones he examines are those with no separate lexical meaning, such a The thirteen tapes of the Koki corpus are included in the CHILDES database (MacWhinney and Snow, 1990; MacWhinney, 1995). The tapes are labeled K01 through K13 and the transcripts follow the CHILDES-CHAT transcription conventions.

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Table 2 Inventory of interjections found in the corpus

ah oh uh ay oy uy ehl eh2

Mother N=196

Child N=189

54 49 8 59 2 1 3 20

31 29 1 52 10 4 43 19

as the ones we are discussing in this paper: ah, ay, oh, eh, aha, and so on; but also interjections with lexical meaning: anda! 'go o n ! ' , caracoles! 'cripes!' (lit. 'snails'), aguas! 'watch out!' (lit. 'waters'), ojo! 'look out!' (lit. 'eye') and others. For Beinhauer, interjections are involuntary expressions, usually exclamations, which reflect the impression produced on a speaker by a previous utterance or, in more general terms, by some external event. He fails to find systematicity in their use, first because each interjection may fulfill various functions and secondly, because sometimes one finds the same form being used in totally opposite situations, e.g. ay being used to express pain, Ay qu~ dolor! 'Ay what pain ! ', or happiness/pleasure, Ay qu~ bien! Me alegro tanto! 'Ay how nice! I'm so happy!' I have not found an independent study of the interjections that are the subject of this study, but an analysis of the ones found in the corpus show them to be far from asystematic. A complete analysis of Spanish interjections should include a wider range of interjections and contexts than the ones examined here. This paper cannot address issues of broader language use because of the restricted scope of the data: spontaneous oral conversations between a child and her mother in informal play situations in the home. Basing this analysis exclusively on these data, I propose that these seven interjections share a common basic function as 'information management' markers (Schiffrin, 1987; see also Heritage, 1984) and also serve as indexicals pointing to or highlighting a referent which may be contextual or textual (Wilkins, 1995). Ah, oh, uh, ay, oy, uy are speaker-based and indicate that the speaker has undergone a change in his or her state of knowledge. This change may have come about after becoming aware of something 'new' in the environment, by acquiring additional information, by coming to understand something previously not understood, by remembering something forgotten or overlooked until that point and so on. Eh, on the other hand, seems to be hearer-based. It serves to check on whether the hearer notices, minds, knows, or understands some contextual, but more usually some textual referent. These interjections were intriguing in that they were very similar in some respects to one another, appearing in almost the same conversational contexts to accomplish similar functions, yet conveying different nuances of meaning. At the same time, it was found that the same interjection could be used to

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express two 'opposite' emotions or reactions (for example, ay used for 'happiness' or 'sadness'). It is proposed in this analysis that although the seven share one common metafunction (CHANGEIN KNOWLEDGESTATE), the various interjections can be organized systematically along several dimensions of meaning. These are discussed in the following subsections.

3.1. 'Seeing' versus 'hearing' These interjections share the function of marking the speaker's becoming aware of something new in the context. From the data, we find evidence to associate this change in knowledge state with an act of physical perception, especially SEEING (ah, oh, uh, ay, oy, uy) or HEARING(eh).

3.1.1. Seeing Ah, oh, uh, ay, oy, uy seem to be associated with seeing. We find that a large number of the interjections used in the conversations examined co-occur with directives to 'see' or 'look at' or as a response to these directives: A: Oh, mira! 'Oh, look!' B: Ah! 'Ah!'. They can be used to initiate a sequence and call comeone's attention to some object of perception ('Look') but they can also be used as a response to indicate having noticed the object ('I see!'). In addition, these interjections can also function to acknowledge or accept what someone has said. This last function seems to be a metaphorical extension of meaning, from acknowledging physical perception to acknowledging reaching understanding, as when 'I see' is used to mean 'I understand' (this will be discussed in section 3.4 below). The examples which follow show the use of these interjections both to draw attention to some object and to display having noticed the object in question. (1) *KOK: oh mira el pelito! 'oh, look at the little hair!' *KOK: oh! 'oh/' *MOT: oh mira el pelito! 'oh, look at the little hair!' [K01] (2) *KOK: #12_0 mira pelitos. 'look little hairs.' *KOK: uy! 'uy!' *KOK: uyi 'uy!' [Child continues with different topic] [K01] (3) *KOK: #5_4 mira! 'look!' *KOK: mira! 'look!'

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R.G. Montes / Journal of Pragmatics 31 (1999) 1289-1319 *KOK: mira! 'look' *KOK: ay, ves/ 'ay, you see!' *KOK: mira ves? 'look, you see!' *KOK: mira ves! 'look, you see!' *KOK: mira mira ves! 'look, look, you see!' *KOK: #2_0 mira mira ves! 'look, look, you see!' *KOK: mira yes! 'look, you see!' *KOK: mira ves! 'look, you see!' *KOK: ves [>]! 'you see ! ' *MOT: yes [<]? 'you see ?' *MOT: qu#? 'what?' [K01]

(4) M. finds some thread she has been looking for. *MOT: ah, ac6 est6. 'ah here it is.' [K03]

(5) *KOK: ah mira? 'ah look! ' *MOT: oh pobrecita? 'oh, poor baby!' [K04] (6) *KOK: uy mire/ 'uy look! ' *KOK: pap! mire/ 'daddy looM' *KOK: mire/ 'look!' *KOK: mire/ 'look!' *KOK: mire el bebito! 'look at the baby!' *MOT: qud hace el bebito? 'what is the baby doing?' [K05] (7) *KOK: mire! 'look!' [pointing to a picture in a book]

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*MOT: ah, ahf est6 con muchos palos! 'ah, there he is with lots of sticks!' [K10] Note in the examples given that the interjection may occur either in the initiating utterance or in a response to a directive to ' L o o k ! ' given by the interlocutor (see section 4 below).

3.1.2. Hearing If the previous interjections seem to mark or acknowledge seeing or noticing something, eh seems to be related primarily to HEARING. When used by itself as a response to something said by the other it acts as a request for repetition, indicating not having heard. 5

(8) A: ya terminaste ? B: A:

'have you finished?' eh? 'eh?' que si ya terminaste? '(I asked) if you had finished?'

When tagged to an utterance, it seems to carry the meaning 'do you hear?' and thus seems to function as an intensifier for the accompanying utterance. (9) Mother: y no quiero que vuelva a tocarlo, eh! 'and I don't want you to touch it again, eh!' Mother: me oye ? 'do you hear m e ? ' It can also occur preceding an utterance as an attention marker ('listen'): 6 (10)

A: eh, qu( le parece si Io ponemos aquf? 7 'eh, what do you say if we put it here?'

Finally, eh is used as a hesitation or repair marker as in word searches, for example. I will return to a discussion of eh in section 5.3 below.

Examples (8)-(10) are observed examples but not from the corpus. 6 There is in Mexican Spanish a diphthongized counterpart to eh: ey. This can be used as an attention marker when calling out to somebody (Ey, esperame! 'Ey, wait up! ', or as an agreement marker with respect to what the other has said (A: Estti haciendo muchofrfo. 'It's really cold'. B: Ey. 'I agree/I hear you'. Ey, however, was not part of the mother's speech and the child didn't start using it until a number of years later than the period examined here, so it is not included in this study. 7 I have noticed a prefacing eh in adult conversations, in situations where a speaker wants to get an addressee's attention but is unsure of the other's name, for example, or what address term to use.

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3.2. Projective versus subjective (reactive) markers I agree with Wilkins (1995) who proposes that interjections are DEICTICSor INDEXICALS signaling out some referent in the context of interaction. Within this category, I will be calling ah, oh, and uh PROJECTIVEin that they signal or point to an object or event in the context, or to an utterance in the immediate discourse. Their function seems to be to focus attention ('Look! ') on whatever is being marked by the interjection, or to indicate having noticed that which is being pointed out ('I see! '). On the other hand, I will call ay, oy, and uy SUBJECTIVEsince, although marking a 'noticing', in addition they call attention to or display the speaker's reaction to that noticing, signaling that the speaker has been 'affected' either physically or emotionally. 8 Projective markers point outward, while subjective markers, in addition, point 'inward', so to speak. Examples (1) to (6) given above show the interjections being used as projective markers while the following examples show a more subjective response for both mother and child. What I am calling 'subjective' markers point outward to focus on some object or event but add information as to the speaker being in some way affected by this. (11) *MOT: ay, pobrecita! 'ay, poor little baby!' [K01] (12) *MOT: ay, la mam6 le duele todo, todo, todo/ 'ay, mommy hurts all over!' [K01] (13) *KOK: ay, mi mam6, ay! 'ay, mommy, ay/' [after falling] [K05] (14) *KOK: ay, me voy a machucar! 'ay, I'm going to hurt myself!' [K07] (15) *MOT: ay, me da miedo! 'ay, it scares m e ! ' [K07] 3.3. Noteworthiness of 'notable' A third dimension of meaning is related to the INCREASING NOTEWORTHINESSof what is being pointed out. Ah seems to be the more neutral term used to indicate having noticed the existence or the occurrence of something. Oh, oy, uh, and uy seem to convey increasing noteworthiness based on something being unexpected (surprising, urgent), or different from what was expected (bigger, smaller, nicer, uglier etc.). Ay also seems to fall into the 'more newsworthy' category since one does not 'react' or become 'affected' by something neutral.

8 In one instance noted recently one person knocks into the other pushing the second off balance and says: Ay, perd6n, 'Ay, I'm sorry'. The use of ay both marks the push as having occurred inadvertently and just being noticed and the speaker's being affected by it emotionally(regret).

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Uh and uy add an indication of great extent or quantity of whatever is being talked about and is usually accompanied by adverbs or adjectives which would denote this (curnto ! 'how much ! ', tanto ! ' so much ! ', quE grande ! ' how big ! ', etc.).9 3.4. Primary versus extended uses: Contextual versus textual

For all these interjections, there seems to be a primary meaning derived from direct contact with the context, and an extended derived meaning which refers to the discourse itself. For example, the basic uses of ah, oh, and uh, can be paraphrased as: ' L o o k at X ' or 'I see X'. That is, they 'literally' mark seeing or noticing an object in the context. The extensions from the more basic uses extend the 'looking' to the discourse itself. These seem to be derived from the former and can be thought of as 'metaphorically' asking the interlocutor to look at or notice something overlooked in the discourse (as in Ah, pero ... 'But look . . . ' used in an argument to preface a warning or rebuttal) or to mark one's own coming to a change of mind through being given new evidence or information (as in Ah, ya veo/entiendo, 'I see/I understand', to mark acknowledgement and acceptance or understanding). In the same way, ay in its literal, contextual use refers to being physically affected (Ay, m e duelei 'Ay, it hurts! '), while the more indirect, extended use refers to being emotionally affected, usually by what one has been told (Ay, to siento! 'Ay, I ' m sorry!', lit. 'I feel it'). Examples (1)-(7) in section 3.1 above show the literal contextual uses of these interjections. In the examples below, we can see what I am calling the textual functions, where the interjection is used to mark a textual referent. (16) *KOK: esos son para ti. 'those are for you.' *MOT: no, son para tL 'no, they're for you.' *MOT: esos los ganaste t~. 'you won those.' *KOK: ah. 'ah.' [KI 1] (17) *MOT: y ~ste es azul. 'and this one's blue.' *KOK: no: Este es verde. 'no, this one's green.' *MOT: ah, ~se es verde! 'ah, that one's g r e e n ! ' [KI3]

9 An ad in a recent voter registration campaign showed a voter being asked how long it had been since he had last voted, to which his sole reply was to say Uuh.t accompanied by characteristic hand gestures. This was unambiguously interpreted as meaning 'It's been a very long time!'.

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In these e x a m p l e s , the interjection m a r k s a ' c h a n g e in k n o w l e d g e state' brought about b y the o t h e r ' s utterance (as in 17 w h e n the m o t h e r accepts that a blue b l o c k is to be ' c a l l e d ' green) as o p p o s e d to something in the context. The b o d i l y basis for mental constructs has been pointed out by various researchers (Sweetser, 1990; Johnson, 1987; M c V e i g h , 1996, a m o n g others). Here I a m p r o p o s i n g that a direct, literal, contextual use b e c o m e s e x t e n d e d to an indirect, metaphorical, textual or discursive use. l0

3.5. Organizational schema for information management interjections Putting the various features together we get the f o l l o w i n g s c h e m a : I I

Information management markers Related to ' h e a r i n g ' : eh Related to ' s e e i n g ' : Projective Subjective

Neutral

~

Increasing noteworthiness +extent'

ah

oh ay, oy

uh uy

A n analysis like the one p r o p o s e d here w o u l d explain the difficulty in assigning a precise m e a n i n g to these interjections and why, as has been observed, they are used to a c c o m p a n y apparently contradictory attitudes: NEUTRAL NOTICING

Ah, ac6 est6. 'Ah, here it is.' PROJECTIVE (towards an object, etc.) POSITIVE 'NOTABLE' NEGATIVE 'NOTABLE'

Oh, qu~ bonito? 'Oh, h o w p r e t t y ! '

Oh, qu~ feo! 'Oh, how u g l y ! '

INDICATION OF EXTENT

Uh, qu~ poquito! ' Uh, h o w little !'

Uh, cu6ntos! 'Uh, what a l o t ! '

~0 Note that this happens with other deictic terms when spatial or temporal deictics are used to signal textual referents in what Fillmore (1975) has called 'discourse deixis'. H In an earlier analysis I had organized these interjections along a continuum as follows: +positive attitude neutral +negative attitude +extent +surprise +surprise +extent uy, uh ... oy, oh, ay ah ... ay, oh, oy ... uh, uy The present analysis attempts to get at the distinctions and the parallels between the type of vowel used [a, o. u] and the series with simple vowels (ah, oh, uh) in contrast to the series with diphthongized vowels (ay, oy, uy).

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SUBJECTIVE (speaker's affectedness/reaction) POSITIVE

NEGATIVE

Ay, mira qu~ linda! 'Ay, look how pretty!'

Ay, me asusta! 'Ay, it frightens me!'

LITERAL/CONTEXTUAL

METAPHORICAL/TEXTUAL

Ah, mira el perrito! 'Ah, look at the dog!' Ay, me doli6! 'Ay, that hurt!'

Ah, ya entiendo! 'Ah, I understand!' Ay, lo siento mucho! 'Ay, I'm really sorry!'

However, it should also be noted that although interjections like oh and especially ay can be used both when expressing a positive or negative attitude, they tend to occur more when the speaker expresses something negative (e.g. see Tables 6, 7 and 10 below). In the sections that follow I will discuss each of these seven interjections, giving data to support this analysis, comparing the use of these interjections by the child in our study to adult usage.

4. Discourse placement A final point of observation with respect to these interjections, which has been mentioned in the discussion above, is that they can be used to initiate an interaction, pointing out a referent, but they can also be used to respond to someone else's initiation. Example (5), reproduced below, shows a sequence with an interjection marking both the initiation and the response. (5) *KOK: ah, mira! ' ah, look!' *MOT: oh, pobrecita! 'oh, poor baby!' [K04] An interjection-interjection sequence could form a complete, acceptable adjacency pair in and of itself. In the mother's speech we find that these interjections rarely occur by themselves but are used to preface some other speech act, usually a statement or a directive to look. In the child's speech, however, especially in the earlier tapes, we find the interjections often occurring by themselves. Thus, mother and child seem to differ with respect to awareness of 'quantity' requirements in conversation, since the interjection marks a 'notable' but does not give other information to identify it. In an adjacency pair composed of or marked by these interjections, the interjections that occur in the first pair part and the second pair part may be the same (ah/ah, ay/ay) or different (ah/oh, oh/ay, see also example 5). A first pair part marked by one of these interjections does not require an interjection in reply, but often they co-occur. 12 ~2 It was pointed out by an a n o n y m o u s reviewer that the use of an interjection in reply to an utterance initiated by an interjection m u s t be a resource for displaying conversational alignment. It is interesting to note that the child responds to the mother in this way from the earliest transcript examined (age 1 ;7.20).

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5. Results

5.1. Projective markers: Ah, oh, uh As mentioned above these three interjections occur to mark having noticed an object, action or event and display a change in knowledge state. Table 3 Distribution of change of knowledge state markers Mother

ah oh uh ay oy uy

Child

N= 173

N= 127

Tapes 1-5

N=70

Tapes 7-13

N=103

Tapes 1-6

N=60

Tapes 7-13

N=67

15 31 0 24 0 0

21% 44% 0% 34% 0% 0%

39 18 8 35 2 1

38% 17% 8% 34% 2% 6%

14 21 0 14 7 4

23% 35% 0 23% 12% 6%

17 8 1 38 3 0

25% 12% 1% 57% 3% 0%

5.1.1. Ah The Diccionario de la lengua espa~ola (RAE, 1970) gives the following definition for ah: "(ah! (del lat. (ah!) interjecci6n con que se denotan muchos y diversos movimientos del finimo y mils ordinariamente pena, admiraci6n o sorpresa" [(ah! (from Latin (ah!) interjection which denotes many diverse feelings, especially sorrow, admiration or surprise] (RAE, 1970: 42). 13 Beinhauer (1963) mentions that ah is used to show understanding of what was said, to indicate a sudden idea, as a cry of anger or an exclamation of well-being, admiration, pain or sorrow. Examination of the mother's data shows the following principal uses for ah: a. as an initiator to mark or indicate seeing or noticing some object or event in the context and call the interlocutor's attention on the same object. b. as a response to a similar call for attention from the interlocutor. Both uses may be accompanied by expressions which name what is being noticed or which indicate the speaker's attitude to the object. These two functions will be called the CONTEXTUALfunctions for ah. In addition we find the following uses: c. to mark acknowledgment of what the interlocutor has said, especially to indicate acceptance. d. to indicate having achieved understanding of the other's utterance.

t3 All translations from Spanish texts have been done by the author.

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e. to m a r k a sudden idea or an afterthought. f. as a rebuttal or rejection of the o t h e r ' s argument. g. as a warning. 14 I propose that (a) and (b) are the basic uses of ah, which can be paraphrased as: ' L o o k at X ' or ' I see X ' . That is, they literally mark seeing or noticing an object in the context. F u n c t i o n s (c)--(g) are extensions of the more basic functions and seem to be derived from the former. As will be seen below, the first uses o f ah by the child are the more literal ones and only later does she acquire the derived uses of ah. The following tables show use of ah by the mother and b y the child. 15 Table 4 Use of ah by the mother

Ah

Tapes K01-K05 Init.

Resp.

Contextual Textual

3 0

2 10

Totals

3 20%

12 80%

Tapes K07-KI3 N = 3 9

Totals

Init.

Resp.

N=54

4 1

2 32

N=15

33% 67%

5

13%

15% 85%

11 43

20% 80%

34 87%

Table 5 Use of ah by the child

Ah

Tapes K0 l-K06 Init.

Contextual Textual Other Totals

9 0 2

Resp. 3 0 0

11 79% 3 21%

Tapes K07-K13 N = 1 7

Totals

Init.

Resp.

N--31

1 0 1

2 12 1

N=14

86% 0% 12%

2

12%

18% 71% 12%

15 12 4

48% 39% 13%

15 88%

The most salient fact about the c h i l d ' s use o f ah is the p r e d o m i n a n c e of the contextual functions in the early tapes and the e m e r g e n c e of the TEXTUAL f u n c t i o n in the second part of the period of observation. The late e m e r g e n c e of this function is part of the evidence used to sustain that the CONTEXTUALf u n c t i o n is more basic. The first instance of ah as an acceptance or a c k n o w l e d g m e n t occurs in K 0 6 and then this

14 Some of these uses, in particular (g), can be accompanied by distinctive intonation, but do not need tobe. 15 An initial examination of the data showed two clear periods in the use of interjections. The early tapes (1-6) seemed to have a qualitatively and quantitatively different use of the interjections, as compared with the later ones (7-13). This was especially true for the child, but the mother also seemed to show different behaviors in some cases.

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function occurs sporadically in the tapes that follow, although following the adult pattern whenever it occurs. Examples from the child's data are the following: a. Contextual functions: 'I see ...[', 'Look at[' both as initiator and response (see also examples 1, 4, 5 and 7 above). (18) M. picks up a doll. *MOT: es el nifio. 'it's the baby.' *KOK: ah, e a ni~o[ 'ah, it's the baby! [K01] (19) *KOK: #1_0 ah! 'ah!' *KOK: mam6! 'mommy! ' [K04] b. Textual functions: Acknowledgment, indication of acceptance or understanding. (20) *KOK: qud es ? 'what is that?' *MOT: un mono. 'a monkey.' *KOK: ah. [K07] (21) *KOK: por qu~ me la compr6 ? 'why did she buy it for m e ? ' *MOT: porque eran lindas. 'because they were pretty.' *KOK: ah. [K07] c. Other The uses grouped under 'other' are particular to the child's speech. They do not occur in the mother's data, or in adult language in general. In fact, they seem to be holdovers from early child directives where ah was used to request, accompanied by extending a hand towards the requested object. There are three instances of ah used to request [2xK04, lxK07], pointing or extending a hand towards an object, and one case of ah accompanying a rejection and turning away from an object [K 11 ]. There are no cases in the child's speech of the use of ah to mark arguments or objections in the metaphorical sense of 'look here' or 'notice'. In conclusion, on the use of ah by both mother and child we would reiterate what was said earlier. The basic use of ah seems to be to indicate or mark something that is physically noticed or to call the interlocutor's attention to something. This basic function could be glossed as: 'I see'/'Look'. It calls attention to a physically present

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object or to an event that is occurring and perceivable. From this basic use, other uses are derivable which are based on a metaphoric extension of 'I see' to indicate 'I understand'.

5.1.2. Oh The definition given by the dictionary of the Real Academia (1970: 937) is the following: " O h ! : interj, de que se usa para manifestar muchos y muy diversos movimientos del ~inimo, y m~is ordinariamente asombro, pena o alegrfa" [Interjection used to express many and diverse movements of the spirit and more ordinarily amazement, sorrow or happiness]. Oh occurs in the same contexts as ah, and most speakers when asked seem to think they are interchangeable. However, when examining the data we can note that oh occurs very often in a context in which the focused object is seen to be noteworthy in some respect causing in the speaker surprise, wonderment, admiration and so forth. The object or event may be newsworthy in a positive or negative way (Oh, qu~ bien/ 'Oh, how nice! ', Oh, qu~feo! ' O h how ugly! ', Oh qu~ sucio! 'Oh how dirty! '). The data for the mother are found in Table 6: Table 6 Use of oh by the mother

Oh

Tapes K01-K05

N=49

lnit.

Resp.

Contextual pos. or neutral 4 negative 6

9 6

Textual -pos. orneutral 0 negative 0

0 6

-

-

-

Totals

N=31

Tapes K07-KI3 Init.

14 78% 6 4

3 1

0 0

1 3

19%

10 32% 21 68%

Totals

Resp.

25 81%

6

N=I8

22 56% 39 17 44%

80%

I 10% 10 9 90%

20%

4 22%

10 56%

8 44%

where we can see that oh predominates in the contextual function. It is also interesting that while oh in this function may refer equally to a positive or a negative situation, in the textual function it seems to be used almost exclusively to preface a negative comment (an evaluation that something is dirty or ugly, fell, broke and so forth). Examples from the mother's data are the following: a. Notice, look (positive or neutral) (22) *MOT: oh/

'oh/' *MOT: mire qu~ bonitos! 'look how pretty!' [K09]

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b. Notice, look (negative) (23) *MOT: mire! 'look !' *MOT: oh, qu~ sucio! 'oh, how dirty!' [K01]

(24) *KOK: ah mira! 'ah, look!' [shows a cut] *MOT: oh pobrecita! 'oh, poor little baby!' [K04] c. Acknowledge (25) *MOT: y d6nde est6 la pelota de Koki? 'and where is Koki's ball?' *KOK: no s~. 'I don't know.' *MOT: oh, qu~ 16stima! 'oh, what a pity!' [K03] (26) *KOK: ahora tumbamos la casita. 'now we knock the little house down.' *MOT: oh. 'oh.' [expressing regret] *KOK: si: ! 'yes!' [K13] In Table 7 we see use of oh by the child: Table 7 Use of oh by the child

Oh

Tapes K01-K06

N=21 (72%)

Tapes K07-K13

N=8 (28%)

Totals

N=29 Init. Contextual - pos. or neutral - negative

Resp. 21

9 11

Totals

0

20

95%

1

5%

Resp.

4 1

3 0

100%

1 0

Textual

Init.

8

0%

0

5

63% 3

100%

0%

17 59% 29 12 41%

100%

0

0%

38%

This table shows that the child uses the interjection only in the CONTEXTUALfunction, after having noted something in the environment, and predominantly as a discourse sequence initiator. There are no instances of the use of oh to acknowledge some verbal input from the interlocutor. Following are examples:

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a. Notice (positive or neutral):

(27) *KOK: oh, oh! 'oh, oh!' *KOK: mira el p- [//] oh mira? 'look at the h- [//] oh look!' *KOK: mira peli- [i] pelito! 'look at the ha- [/] hair !' [K01 ] (28) *KOK: qu~ bien/ 'how nice !' *KOK: qu~ bien/ 'how nice !' *KOK: oh, qu~ bien! 'oh, how nice!' *MOT: qu~ estd haciendo, loquita! 'what are you doing, you little nut! [K01] b. Notice (negative) (29) *KOK: s- [//] oh:, sucio! 'd-[//] oh, dirty!' [K01] (30) *KOK: e mira (ex)p(l)ot6. 'and look it broke.' *MOT: se romp!6. 'it broke.' *KOK: oh, (ex)p(l)ot6! 'oh, it broke!' *KOK: oh, (ex)p(l)ot6! 'oh, it broke! [K01] (31) *MOT: oh, zapatito! 'oh, the shoe!' *KOK: oh, no se p(u)ede. 'oh, I can't (put it on).' [K02] (32) *KOK: #10_1 oh! 'oh!' *KOK: eso ya est6 fea. 'that one is ugly now!' [K08]

5.1.3. Uh Like ah and oh, uh is also used to mark noticing some object or event in the context. There are very few instances of this interjection and only one case of use

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by the child (see Table 8). All 8 instances in the mother's speech are cases of the CONTEXTUAL function and they seem to initiate a discourse sequence; in addition, most are accompanied by an expression of quantity or extent. Examples are the following: Table 8 Use of uh

Uh Mother Child

N=8 N= I

K07

K08

K09

KI0

KI 1

KI2

K13

I 0

4 1

I 0

I 0

0 0

1 0

0 0

(33) *MOT: uh mire qu~ grandote pedacito? 'ooh, look what a big little piece!' [K08] (34) *MOT: uh cutinto me sac6! 'ooh, look how much you pulled out!' *MOT: muy bien ! 'well done ]' [K08] (35) *MOT: uh, ya 1o termin6 tan rtipido Koki/ 'ooh, you finished it so quickly Koki!' [KI0] The single instance of uh used by the child is dubious in the sense that it is not an actual use but a case of reported use upon explicit elicitation by the mother: (36) *MOT: y qu~ dice cuando llora, Pupi? "and what do you say when you cry, Pupi?' *KOK: a- [//] ["]. "a- [//] ooh.' [K08] Since there are no other occurrences, we are left in doubt about whether the child has actually acquired the semantics shown by the adult for use of uh.

5.2. Subjective markers: Ay. oy, uy The series ay, oy, uy parallels the previous series ah, oh, uh. As is the case for the previous interjections discussed, these are used to mark noticing an object, action or event, but they add to this an indication of how the object and event has affected the speaker. Of these interjections the most frequent by far is ay for both mother and child. Oy and uy are used rarely by the mother (three instances) and slightly more by the child in the early tapes only. The data are seen in Table 9.

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Table 9 Subjective markers: ay, oy, uy

Mother Child

N=62 N=66

ay

oy

uy

59 52

2 10

1 4

5.2.1. Ay The definition given by the dictionary of the Real Academia (1970: 149) is the following: " A y : interj, con que se expresan muchos y muy diversos movimientos del ~inimo, y m~s ordinariamente aflicci6n o dolor" [Ay: interjection used to express many very different changes in one's feeling, most commonly affliction or pain]. Ay is, in fact, one of the most frequent interjections used by both the mother (N=59) and the child (N=52). The basic use of ay, as for ah, seems to be to call attention to an action or event, but whereas ah simply calls attention, ay at the same time expresses the speaker's affectedness or reaction. Ay has traditionally been associated with pain, as shown in the definition given in the Real Academia dictionary and in somewhat archaic expressions like dar de ayes or dar ayes de dolor 'give ays (of pain)', where the interjection has been lexicalized into a noun. We find in the data a few cases where ay is used to express pain; however, we often find it used to express a negative reaction in general and in a number of cases to express pleasure or an explicitly approving attitude. If 'pain' were taken as the basic meaning for ay there would be no way to associate this meaning with positive expressions like ay, qu~ lindo! 'ay, how nice!' or ay, gracias! 'ay, thank y o u ! ' or even with expressions of surprise like ay, que susto! 'ay, what a scare!' or with apologies as in ay, perddn! 'ay, excuse m e ! ' . If being affected (feeling) is taken as basic, then the various uses are explainable. In Table 10 we see uses of ay by both mother and child in the two periods indicated earlier. Table 10 Use of ay Child

Mother

Ay

K0 I-K06

N= 14

K07-K 13

N=38

K0 I-K05

K07-K 13

Neutral Positive Negative

2 1 11

14% 7% 79%

13 0 25

34% 0% 66%

3 4 17

3 8 24

12.5% 17% 71%

9% 23% 69%

We can see that in the majority of cases what is marked by ay is perceived as negative. The child, however, has almost no uses in which ay is used to indicate something positive, although she does have a number of general exclamations, in contrast to the mother's 20% of positive ay. Thus, we can see that using ay in a negative context seems to be acquired first by the child.

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Table 11 indicates whether the utterance with ay initiates a sequence or is a response to another's action. Table 11 Ay as initiation or response

Child Child Mother

K01-K06 K07-K13 K01-K013

Initiation

Response

13 93% 30 79% 31 53%

1 7% 8 21% 28 47%

Here there is another difference between the child and the mother. The mother's use of ay seem to be fairly evenly distributed between initiating a sequence and responding to another's initiation. The child's use is predominantly that of initiating, which may be a reflection of her general conversational development. Examples taken from the data for both mother and child are the following: a. Exclaim, notice: (37) *KOK: van ahL 'they go there.' *KOK: ay, esa es su casita ! 'ay, that's their house!' [K09] (38) *KOK: #17_4 ay, qu~ son estos? 'ay, what are these?' [ K l l ] (39) *KOK: mira otra sehora. 'look another woman.' *MOT: ay, qu~ hace esa otra sehora ? 'ay, what's that other woman doing?' [K03] (40) [K draws a card from the deck] *MOT: ay, un copo. t 'ay, a flake!' [K11] b. Exclaim negative:

(41) *KOK: ay, se cay6 solito! 'ay, it fell by itself! [K04] (42) *KOK: ay, m e caigo! 'ay, I'm falling!' [K08] (43) *KOK: ay, se caen.t [K09] 'ay, they're falling!' [K09]

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(44) *KOK: ay de chiquito? 'ay it's too little! [complaining that M had cut some figures too small] [K11] (45) *MOT: ay, cuidadito? 'ay, be careful!' [K01] (46) *MOT: ay, ay, que se cae, que se cae! 'ay, ay, it's falling, it's falling!' [K01] The negative uses indicate fear, pain, commiseration and, in general, the noticing of a sudden danger. Thus we find a number of cases of Ay, cuidado/ 'Ay, be careful!' (M:8) or Ay, se cae/se cayeron? 'Ay, it's falling/they fell!' (M: 10, K: 13). c. Exclaim positive: (47) *MOT: ay, c6mo se lo pone de lindo? 'ay, how nice you've put it on! [K01] (48) *MOT: ay, qud bonito? 'ay, how pretty!' [K02] (49) *MOT: ay, qug rico! 'ay, how tasty!' [K10]

(50) *MOT: ay, qu~ buena! 'ay, what a good girl! *MOT: miren mi niha buena! 'look at my good girl!' [K12] The only instance which seems to be positive in the child's speech is the following: (51) *MOT: mire c6mo la mam6 le arregl6 el pelo a la muhequita. 'look how mommy fixed the little doll's hair.' *MOT: le gusta? 'do you like it?' *KOK: a:y? 'ay?' [K05] 5.2.2. Oy, uy As has been mentioned, there are relatively few cases of oy and uy, 3 by the mother and 14 by the child (see Table 12). Again most of these cases are used in the context of something unexpected, sudden or urgent, often negative.

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Table 12 Use of oy and uy by mother and child. ChildN=14

K01

K02 K03 K04 K05 K06 K07 K08 MotherN=3

K09

K10

KII

KI2

oy uy

7 2

. -

1 -

-

1 -

1

.

. -

. 1

. I

-

1 -

2 -

oy uy

Most of the child's uses of these interjections are to call the interlocutor's attention to something new, novel or urgent. Following are examples: (52) *KOK: o y ! 'oy!'

*KOK: e s e p e i n e . 'that('s a) comb.' [K01] (53) *KOK: #4_2 o y ! 'oyi'

*KOK: e s e e x p ( l ) o t 6 . 'that popped.' [K01] (54) *KOK: #1_8 o y ! 'oy!'

*KOK: u n a v f b o r a ~sa. 'that('s) a snake.' [K08]

(55) *KOK: #14_4

voy a hacer pipi.

'I'm gonna go wee-wee.' *KOK: o y i 'oyi'

*KOK: r 6 p i d o , t 'quickly! ' [K08] And the following from the mother: (56) [Noticing a grain of corn on the bed] *MOT: u : y ! 'u:y!'

*KOK: p e r d 6 n m a m 6 . 'sorry mommy.' [KI2] (57) *MOT: o : y , l o s ' o y , the *MOT: c u d n t o s 'what a

pescaditos!

fishes!' pescaditos !

lot of fishes!' [K09]

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5.3. Discussion To recapitulate some of the points made earlier, we find that the child seems to use these interjections in ways similar to the adult, as markers of change of knowledge state. However, in all cases the contextual function predominates over and is acquired earlier than the textual function. The subjective markers are used with greater frequency than the projective markers, but this may be due to the overall frequency of ay. With respect to ay, it is first used by the child in a negative context; whereas for the adult ay may also occur in a positive context. This could be taken as evidence to show that the child first forms concrete associations with particular affections, which later develop to a more abstract category of 'affectedness'. 5.4. Eh Eh serves two different and apparently separate functions: as a repair or hesitation marker, and as a tag which works as an intensifier for the speech acts to which it is attached. At this point, I will discuss them as two separate interjections although further research might make it possible to tie them together into one marker related to the function of hearing/listening. 5.4.1. Eh as hesitation marker Eh is used in utterance initial and utterance medial position to mark a hesitation. In utterance medial position, it usually indicates a word search. In utterance initial position, eh indicates a tentativeness for the speech act which it accompanies which may be a result of the speaker not being sure of the information he or she is imparting, not being sure whether or not to carry out the speech act in question, or not being sure how to address the hearer. In the case of the child, the hesitation often seems to reflect production problems; among others, difficulty in choosing an appropriate label for an object, difficulty in pronouncing a word or in producing the structure which she is attempting. Examples are the following: (58) *KOK: eh, m6s # cerrado? 'eh, more # closed'?' [K01] (59) *KOK: mira qu- [//] el pap6 t(i)ene eh # una banana. 'look wh- [//] the daddy has eh # a banana.' [K03] (60) *KOK: son eh malos. 'they're eh bad.' *KOK: son malos xxx. 'they're bad xxx.' [K04] (61) *KOK: dam- [//] eh, b~squelo arriba. 'giv- [//] eh, get it upstairs.' *MOT: c6mo se dice ? 'how do you say it?' [K07]

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quidn la compr6 ? 'who bought it?' *MOT: el papd. 'daddy.' * K O K : ah. 'ah.' * K O K : eh [/] eh [/] eh, ttl. 'eh [/] eh [/] eh. you (did).' [K07]

(62) * K O K :

(63) *MOT: qui~n los regal6 ? 'who gave them (to y o u ) ? ' *KOK:

eh:, Isabel. 'eh:, Isabel.' [K10]

The mother has only three instances of eh used as hesitation, which are the following:

los barriletes est6n ahi en la casita de los barriletes. 'the kites are there in the place (lit. house) for the kites.' *MOT: eh, los barriletes est6n ahi en la casita de los honguitos. 'eh, the kites are there in the place for the mushrooms.' [K09]

(64) *KOK:

a Reina el [//] es [//\ el qui~n [//] qui~n lo quiere ? 'for Reina the [//] it's [//] the who [//] who wants it?' *MOT: eh, Reina querfa el Oso. 'eh, Reina wanted the Bear.' [K13]

(65) *KOK:

(66) *MOT: el sehor de la ladrillera, el abuelito Jack, el abuelito Chocho, eh: +... 'the man from the brick place, Grandpa Jack, Grandpa Chocho, eh: "~-.,.

*KOK:

Carlos ? 'Carlos?' [K13]

The occurrence of eh as hesitation marker in the mother's and the child's data is given in Table 13. Table 13 Occurrence of eh as hesitation marker Child N--43 Mother N=3

K01

K02

K03

K04

K05

K06

K07

K08

K09

K10

Kll

K12

KI3

3 .

1

3

6 .

7

-

8

3

5

3

1

1

2

1

-

-

-

2

.

.

.

.

.

.

Here we can see that the child uses the marker eh as a repair or hesitation marker from the earliest period of observation (K=I ;7.20) on. The mother, on the contrary,

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has very few instances of eh for this function. In another study, which discusses both the child's and the mother's revision behaviors, it was seen that the mother preferred unfilled pauses or recycling of parts of her utterance, and when using a hesitation marker this was em or este, rather than eh (Montes, 1991). 5.4.2. Eh as intensifying marker Eh as a repair marker occurred in utterance-initial or medial position. As was mentioned earlier, eh can also occur by itself as a response to a question or statement, in which case it seems to call forth a repetition of the previous utterance. This has been observed frequently in everyday conversation, although there are no examples in the data. Eh may also occur in final position, as a tag on the preceding utterance, and has a rising intonation, as of an interrogative. It seems to function as an intensifier for the preceding act. Eh can be tagged on to practically any speech act:

Statement Command Prohibition Threat Promise Offer Proposal Question Waming

Esos son bien lindos, eh. 'Those are really pretty, eh.' Qu~dese sentadita, eh. 'Stay sitting down, eh.' No vaya a tocar nada, eh. ' D o n ' t go touching anything, eh.' Si toca eso me voy a enojar, eh. ' I f you touch that I'll get mad, eh.' Si se porta bien la llevo a pasear, eh. ' I f you behave I'll take you out, eh.' Si quieres yo lo puedo hacer, eh. ' I f you want I can do it, eh.' Vamos a poner estos aquL eh. ' L e t ' s put these here, eh.' C6mo se prende esto, eh ? ' H o w do you turn this on, eh?' Eso se estdt por caer, eh. 'That's gonna fall, eh.'

The basic meaning of eh seems to be related to 'hearing' and perhaps it could be glossed as something like 'do you hear m e ? ' . It serves to intensify the act by seeking the interlocutor's involvement and response with a strong expectation of obtaining an agreement either with the content that is being expressed or with the act itself. Tables 14 and 15 show the data for the mother and child for use of eh. Table 14 Occurrence of eh as intensifying marker in the child's speech Child N = 1 9 eh

K01~36 -

K07 5

K08 1

K09 0

K10 1

Kll 0

K12 0

KI3 12

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Table 15 Occurrence of eh as intensifying marker in the mother's speech Mother N=20

K01

K02

K03

K04

K05

K07

K08

K09

K10

Kll

K12

KI3

eh

2

0

0

2

5

0

3

0

1

2

5

0

The absolute numbers are comparable for both mother and child; but the mother's instances of eh seem to be spread fairly evenly throughout the twelve tapes in which she participates, while in the case of the child, eh begins to be used at tape K07 (2;4.18), with most of the cases found towards the end of the period of observation (2; 11.7). It is interesting also to compare the acts to which the speakers attach the eh intensifier. Table 16 Acts to which the speakers attach the intensifiying eh Type of speech act Question Statement opinion pre-empt objection Directives suggestion/proposal order prohibition threat

Mother

N=20

Child

1

5%

8

5

25%

2

70%

9

N=I9 42% 11%

2

3 14

2 47%

4 2 7

6 0 2

1

1

Most instances of eh as shown in Table 16 are used when the focused speech act refers to a future act of the hearer (Searle, 1969). Since eh seems to ask the hearer to agree or confirm what is in the preceding act, it thus acts as an intensifier of that act. Examples from the mother and child are the following: a. Question: (67) *MOT: no sale nada. 'nothing's coming out.' * K O K : #2_3 qu~ sale, eh ? 'what's coming out, eh ?' [K 13] (68) *MOT: todos se van p o r el caminito. 'they're all going along the road.' *KOK: s[, todos. 'yes, all of them.' *KOK:

addnde van, eh ?

'where are they going, e h ? ' [K13]

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(69) *KOK:

por qu~ estaba gritando, eh ? "why was she crying, eh?' [K13] (70) *MOT: quiere acostadita nom6s ?

'do you just want to lie down?' *MOT: #1_8 eh ? 'eh?' [K01] In (70), the mother's only example of eh with a question, we see that the 'tag' is added to the question when an answer is not immediately forthcoming, stressing or intensifying the speaker's expectation of being attended to. However, the child uses eh frequently with questions, making them sound insistent or demanding, and even before the interlocutor has had a chance to answer. b. Prohibition: (71) *MOT: Koki, no me haga pillerias, eh. [K05] 'Koki, no funny stuff, eh.' (72) *MOT: no, pero no me abra. 'no, but don't open it.' *MOT: no abra eso, eh. 'don't open that, eh.' [K08] (73) *MOT: no se saque. 'don't take it off.' *MOT: no se saque, eh. 'don't take it off, eh.' *MOT: n o n o n o no. 'no no no no.' [K10] (74) *KOK: no los nifios. 'not the children.' *KOK: #2_2 no los ni~os, eh. 'not the children, eh.' [K07]

(75) *KOK:

con estos dos.

'with these two.' *KOK: #3_2 pero ya no # ponemos m6s, eh. 'but we're not # putting more on, eh.' *KOK: bueno. 'alright.' [K13] c. Suggestion: (76) *KOK: voy a cortar esa tijera. 'I'm gonna cut this scissor.'

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*MOT: vamos a guardarla, eh. 'let's put it away, eh.' [K05] (77) *KOK: ya v a m o s a hablar. 'let' s talk now.' *KOK: vamos a hablar, eh. 'let's talk now, eh.' *KOK: v a m o s a hablar. 'let's talk.' [K07] d. Directive: (78) *MOT: los mezclamos. 'we mix them up.' *MOT: todos mezcladitos. 'all of them mixed up.' *MOT: mirelo bien, eh. 'pay attention, eh.' *MOT: y ahora los mezclamos. 'and now we mix them up.' [K11 ] e. Threat: (79) *MOT: no se vaya a hacer p i p i en la bombachita, eh. 'don't go wee-wee in your pants, eh.' *MOT: que la m a m 6 s i que se va a enojar, eh. 'cause mommy is going to get angry, eh.' [K05] (80) *KOK: si no dejas un poquito de lugar yo te apago eso, eh. 'if you don't leave me some room I'll turn that off, eh.' [K08] f. Statement to pre-empt objection:

(81) *KOK:

no te lo tiro.

'I won't drop it.' *KOK: #1_9 no te 1o voy a tirar, eh. 'I'm not gonna drop it, eh.' [K08] (82) *KOK: ay°

'ay.'

*KOK: y a va a estar ? 'is it almost ready?' *MOT: y a va a estar, eh. 'it's almost ready, eh.' [K12]

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g. Opinion statement: (83) *MOT: qu~ lindo, eh! 'how nice, eh!' [K01] (84) *MOT: curntos diablitos, eh.t 'what a lot of devils, eh!' [K01] What we find is that the mother uses eh as an intensifier when the act that it is tagged on to warrants it (a 'strong' act, a reiteration, or when there is reason to suppose the hearer hasn't heard or will not heed it). The child, on the other hand, very often intensifies her act by means of eh without apparent reason, as in the case of her questions, for example, giving them a sense of insistence. She seems to have acquired the semantics of the use of eh ('do you hear m e ? ' ) but not fully the pragmatics.

6. Conclusion This paper has examined seven Spanish interjections: ah, oh, uh, ay, ou, uy and eh. The few discussions or descriptions of these interjections in the literature consider them as markers by which the speaker indicates an attitude, emotion, or feeling towards some object or event. One difficulty in their description has been that the same interjection can be seen to be used to express a pleasant or positive attitude or feeling such as pleasure or appreciation, but also negative ones such as fear, pain, or sorrow. Furthermore, very often there is no particular attitude being expressed, and the speaker simply calls attention to some event or action. Interjections in the transcripts studied, however, occurred predominantly in sequences where the speaker had just noticed and/or wanted the interlocutor to notice something in the environment. Therefore, they could be grouped into what Schiffrin (1987) has called information management markers and specifically, change in knowledge state markers. These could then be subgrouped into projective markers which point out an external referent (contextual or textual) and subjective markers, which seem to focus on the internal reaction by the speaker to an external source. Examination of the child's data shows some particular acquisitional processes: a progression from concrete, particular instances to more generalized uses. These patterns of going from the concrete to the more abstract or general, from the literal to more extended or metaphorical, and from the contextually situated here and now to discourse or text 'situation' are similar to what the child does when acquiring other words, and seem to reflect general strategies in language development.

Appendix: Transcription conventions The transcription conventions followed are mostly those for MinCHAT (MacWhinney, 1995).

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*KOK: speaker identification declarative utterance 9 interrogative utterance exclamation trailing off # untimed pause #2_3 pause with time in seconds and tenths of seconds selects a portion of text I/] indicates a recycling of text selected [//] indicates a correction of text selected text selected is a quotation ["l indicates lengthening of previous sound (text) indicates omitted material indicates abrupt cutoff leaving a word fragment XXX unintelligible material

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Searle, John, 1969. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sweetser, Eve, 1990. From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wilkins, David, 1995. Expanding the traditional category of deictic elements: Interjections as deictics. In: Judith F. Duchan, Gail A. Bruder and Lynne E. Hewitt, eds., Deixis in narrative: A cognitive science perspective, 359-386. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Rosa Graciela Montes, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has resided in India, Ireland, the United States, Poland and Argentina, and currently lives in Mexico. She obtained her PhD degree from Georgetown University in the Sociolinguistics program. Research interests include pragmatic language development, classroom interaction, the role of interaction in the development of communicative competence, discourse analysis and gestures in discourse. For the past four years she has been director of the Language Sciences Graduate Program at the Universidad Aut6noma de Puebla and currently heads the Secretariat of Research and Graduate Studies for the Social Sciences and Humanities Institute at the same univeristy.