Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Interpretation I 133

Table 5.3

Main Topics of Conversational Sequences

Binford's ethnographic study (Binford,1971) reports that all siblings and
cousins are called by the same term, but there is a definite, and also
lexical, distinction on the basis of age. Two siblings in consecutive
order of birth have a special relation, and they refer to each other and
are referred to by different terms. The older, regardless of sex and
absolute age, takes care of the younger even before weaning, carrying him
on his back and being responsible to the mother for him, and can be
stricter than the mother would be. The younger respects the authority of
the older and may call him by the term for 'mother' and 'father'. As in
many other parts of the world (see 2.5 and Reynolds,1986), children

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