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|
Volume 2 Number 1
Fall 2007
| On
Abbreviation: Dialogue in Early Life Maria C. D. P. Lyra Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil |
pp. 15-44 |
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| ABSTRACT. The
development process of the mother-infant communication system is
described as historical systems of relationships allowing for the
emergence of self-organization patterns of this system. Three
organizational patterns are proposed: establishment, extension and
abbreviation. Each corresponds to typical manners of dialoguing. I will
concentrate on the analysis of abbreviation, with the aim of inferring
a concomitant dyadic achievement: (1) the emergence of a new space,
broader than the immediate space of the actual partners’ actions and
(2) the infant’s differentiation of his/her own position in the
dialogue. Three interrelated characteristics of abbreviation contribute
toward the present analysis: decreased duration and turn-takings,
increased variability of abbreviated exchanges and the progressive
inclusion of new partners’ actions in abbreviated dialogues. The dyad
abbreviates the dialogical exchanges in flexible and innovative ways,
thereby suggesting that the infant learned a totality regarding the
relationship, and not a point-by-point contingency of actions. It is my
contention that abbreviated dialogues require mutual knowledge in which
an emergent new space allows for the infant’s differentiation of
his/her own position in the dialogue. |
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| Keywords: dialogue in infancy; communication development; self-organizing patterns; abbreviation; infant’s positioning differentiation | ||