3/4/2020 Constraints on metalinguistic awareness: Journal for the Study of Education and Development: Vol 18, No 72

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Journal for the Study of Education and Development 

Infancia y Aprendizaje
Volume 18, 1995 - Issue 72

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Original Articles

Restricciones de la conciencia
metalingüística
Constraints on metalinguistic awareness
Annette Karmilo -Smith 
Pages 33-50 | Published online: 23 Jan 2014

 Download citation  https://doi.org/10.1174/02103709560561140

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Resumen

La conciencia metalingüística (“metalinguistic awareness”) puede incluirse en el

desarrollo metacognitivo en general. Aunque se ha establecido que los niños
desarrollanprogresivamente una conciencia metalingühtíca sobre determinados
aspectos del sistema lingüístico, nada se sabe de su conciencia (“awareness”) de las
funciones del dhcurso. Las propiedades del nivel de discurso (por ejemplo, el empleo

de pronombres o sustantivos para marcar la estructura global del discurso) con

frecuencia violan propiedades locales del nivel de frase (por ejemplo, precedencia,
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frecuencia violan propiedades locales del nivel de frase (por ejemplo, precedencia,
ambigüedad, etc.). 
 References SeCitations
presenta
una metodología
Metrics nueva
 Reprints para estudiar el
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conocimiento metalingüístico que tienen niños y adultos de las propiedades

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cohesivas y de nivel de discurso de la lengua hablada. Se ha utilizado un dise˜no
experimental de dos partes: Una tarea de tiempo de reacción en la que los sujetos
tenían que detectar una serie de correcciones (“repairs”) -que sonaban de manera
natural- de tipo léxico, referencial y de discurso en unas narraciones, seguida de una
entrevhta estructurada de tipo metalingüístico sobre estas correcciones. La parte de
detección estableció que los tres tipos de correcciones fueron diferenciadas y se
detectaron fácilmente en todas las edades. La parte metalingüística indicó que, si
bien tanto los ni˜nos como los adultos pueden proporcionar explicaciones muy
adecuadas de correcciones léxicas y referenciales, todos los grupos de edad
ofrecieron un rendimiento bajo en relación a la conciencia de las funciones del nivel
de discurso de los mismos marcadores lingüísticos. Se exploran varias hipótesis para
determinar por qué las funciones de nivel de discurso de estos marcadores no están
abiertas a la re exión metalingüística. Se argumenta que, durante el desarrollo, los
dos procesos de codi car el contenido proposicional y codi car la estructura del
discur- so compiten entre sí por recursos de procesamiento. En cuanto las dechiones
“on line”(en tiempo real) sobre la estructura del discurso se llegan a automatizar, no
se almacenan en la memoria a largo plazo y no están disponibles para la re exión
metalingüística. En cambio, la información sobre las características de los
marcadores lingüísticos que codi can el contenido proposicional se almacena en la
memoria a largo plazo y está disponible para la conciencia metalingüística. La
discusión se plantea dentro de una teoría de redescripción representacional que
aboga por múltiples recodi caciones del conocimiento en la memoria a largo plazo,
recodi caciones que permiten alcanzar niveles más altos de conciencia
metalingüística.

Abstract

Metalinguistic awareness can be subsumed under metacognitive development in

general Whilst it has been established that children progressively develop
metalinguistic awareness about certain aspects of the linguistic system, nothing is

known about their awareness of discourse functions. Discourse-level properties (e.g.

use of pronouns or nouns to mark the overall discourse structure) often violate local
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3/4/2020 Constraints on metalinguistic awareness: Journal for the Study of Education and Development: Vol 18, No 72
use of pronouns or nouns to mark the overall discourse structure) often violate local
sentential-level
 Referencesproperties (e.g.
 Citations antecedence, ambiguity,
Metrics  Reprints etc.). A new methodology
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

forstudying children's and adults' metalinguistic knowledge of the cohesive,

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discourse-level properties of spoken language is presented. A two-part experimental
desing was used: a reaction time task in which subjets had to detect a series of
naturally-sounding lexical, referential and discourse repairs in narratives, followed by
a structured metalinguistic interview about the repairs. The detection part
established that the three types of repair were di erentiated and were easily
detected at all ages. The metalinguistic part indicated that while both children and
adults can furnish very adequate explanations of lexical and referential repairs, all
age groups performed poorly with respect to awareness of the discourse-level
functions of the same linguistic markers. A number of hypotheses are explored as to
why the discourse-level functions of these markers are not open to metalinguistic
re ection. It is argued that during development the two processes of encoding
propositional content and encoding discourse structure compete for computational
resources. Once on-line dechions about discourse structure become automatized,
they are not stored in long-term memory and are not: available to metalinguhtic
re ection. By contrast, information about features of linguistic markers that encode
propositional content is stored in long-term memory and is available to
metalinguistic awareness. The discussion is couched within a theory of
representational redescription which argues for multiple re-encodings of knowledge
in long-term memory, allowing for increasing levels of metalinguistic awareness.

Extended Summary

Metalinguistic awareness can be subsumed under metacognitive developmentin

general. Just as cildren develop ideas to explain how the physical and social worlds
function, so they build mini-theories about how language works. In other words, they
become progressively able to engage in metalinguistic re ection.

Whilst it has been established that children progressively develop metalinguistic

awareness about certain aspects of the linguistic system, nothing is known about
their awareness of discourse functions. Discourse-level properties (e.g. use of

pronouns or nouns to mark the overall discourse structure) often violate local
sentential-level properties (e.g. antecedence, ambiguity, etc.). In other words,
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sentential level properties (e.g. antecedence, ambiguity, etc.). In other words,
although at the sentential
 References level
 Citations the use of 
Metrics a pronoun
Reprints & usually refers to the antecedent
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and is not ambiguous, at the discourse level a pronoun may be used even when a
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protagonist has not been referred to in a recent sentence, simply because that
protagonist may be taken by default to be the main theme of a story and therefore
referred to with a default pronoun.

Which aspects of production of extended discourse show important developmental

changes and might be candidates for subsequent metalinguistis awareness? An
earlier study of children's production of spans of discourse in narrative showed that
initially children merely juxtapose a sequence of albeit correct sentences, only
making use of minimal discourse constraints for textual cohesion. However, with
development, children structure their narratives as a single unit rather than as a
mere juxtaposition of sentences. They then adhere to the «thematic subject
constraint» (TSC). The TSC stipulates that in English (and several other languages)
pronominalization in subject position is preferentially preempted for reference to the
main protagonist, other protagonists being referred to by full noun phrases, proper
names, and stressed pronouns. In other words, the default interpretation for
unstressed pronouns in subject position is reference to the main protagonist,
irrespective of whether that protagonist is the inmediate antecedent in the previous
sentence. By contrast, subsidiary characters when in subject position tend to be
referred to with full noun phrases, despite the fact that they may have just been
referred to in the previous sentence and that the di erent sexes of the protagonists
in a story would obviate any potential ambiguity with pronominal reference. The TSC
has been shown to have psychological reality for both older children and adults.
Moreover, it is not con ned to narrative discourse but occurs in conversational
interaction also.

It has only been demonstrated that constraints such as the TSC hold at the level of
childrens and adults on-line use of language in perception and production. The
question raised here goes beyond this. Do subjects have metalinguistic knowledge of
the discourse-level constraints on referential devices, as they do of certain aspects of
the sentence-level constraints?

A new methodology was developed for studying childrens and adults metalinguistic
knowledge of the cohesive, discourse-level properties of spoken language.
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3/4/2020 Constraints on metalinguistic awareness: Journal for the Study of Education and Development: Vol 18, No 72
knowledge of the cohesive, discourse level properties of spoken language.
Spontaneous repairs
 References turned out
 Citations to be veryinformative
Metrics of children's developing
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capacity for discourse cohesion and their adherence to the TSC. A twopart
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experimental design was used: a reaction time task in which subjects had to detect a
series of naturally-sounding lexical, referential and discourse repairs in narratives,
followed by a structured metalinguistic interview about the repairs. Forty-eight
monolingual subjects took part: 12 adults, 12 seven years olds (range:6,6 years to 7,6
years, mean age: 7,0 years), 12 nine year olds (range:8,6 years to 9,6 years, mean age:
8,10 years) and 12 eleven year olds (range:10,9 years to 11,6 years, mean age:11,2
years).

The detection part established that the three types of repair were di erentiated and
were easily detected at all ages. The metalinguistic part indicated that while both
children and adults can furnish very adequate explanations of lexical and referential
repairs, all age groups performed poorly with respect to awareness of the discourse-
level functions of the same linguistic markers. A very high percentage of all subject
explained lexical and referential repairs appropriately, even the youngest group
giving 83% and 77% appropriate responses respectively for these two categories. By
contrast, only a very small percentage of subjects gave even vaguely (generously
attributed) appropriate responses for discourse repairs. Although consistently low for
all age groups, appropriate discourse repairs increased signi cantly with age in
childhood, but this was followed by a decline in adult subjects.

A number of hypotheses are explored as to why the discourse-level functions of

these markers are not open to metalinguistic re ection. Unlike the deterministic
constraints of syntax, discourse regularities are probabilistic: the feeback from each
decision regarding the choice of a discourse marker becomes the input for the
generation of the next choice, i.e. a closed loop control. The discourselevel properties
are fundamentally rooted in rapid, real-time computations. Two processes operate
simultaneously in adult language production and perception. One contributes to
propositional content. The other contributes to discourse structure. A developmental
perspective helps us to see how these two systems progressively become
coordinated and why one of them only becomes unavailable to metalinguistic
re ection. As discourse structure begins to operate during acquisition, the two
processes compete for computational resources. In this study, it was shown that the
function of linguistic markers to encode propositional content eventually wins out
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3/4/2020 Constraints on metalinguistic awareness: Journal for the Study of Education and Development: Vol 18, No 72
u ct o o gu st c a e s to e code p opos t o a co te t e e tua y s out
over 
theReferences
function of
 the same markers
Citations  Metricsto encode discourse
 Reprints organization. By the time
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acquisition is complete, only the former are available to metalinguistic re ection. The
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discourse-level properties are only relevant to real-time processing: they involve
computational decisions as to whether to use a pronoun or full noun phrase at this
particular point in this stretch of discourse in the light of the overall structure of this
output. These choices are not stored in long-term memory, because they are only
relevant in real-time. This constrains metalinguistic access. By contrast, information
about features of the same markers to encode propositional content (e.g., that «he»
encodes male, singular, etc.) are stored in long-term memory and thus with
development become available to metalinguistic re ection. Expert linguists only have
access to the dynamics of discourse cohesion by freezing the fast fading message of
spoken text and recoding it into a static written form with a trace. It is on such
external notations that linguists discourse analysis of spoken language can take
place.

The general discussion is couched within a theory of representational redescription

which argues for multiple re-encodings of knowledge in long-term memory, allowing
for increasing levels of metalinguistic awareness.

Palabras clave: Conciencia metalingüística, procesos automáticos, propiedades del lenguaje de nivel

discursivo y de nivel de frase, redescripción representacional
Keywords: Metalinguistic awareness, automatic processes, discourse-level and sentential-level
properties of language, representational redescription


 

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3/4/2020 Constraints on metalinguistic awareness: Journal for the Study of Education and Development: Vol 18, No 72

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