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

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total number of requests only is considered, there is a marked contrast.
(See Table 5.7).

The converse is true for action requests: their percentage of the total
number of utterances suggests that adults request children to act much
more than children do adults, but when considered in the context of
requests only, children request adults to act as much as adults do
children : see Table 5.7.

see also Annex 5.3 for (O and Annex 5.4 for(+>

Influence of Distribution of Basic Functions in CSs

Adult to Child Child to Adult

'Solicit' and 'Give' functions are not to be interpreted as Requests and
Responses or even more narrowly as Questions and Answers: a speaker can
'offer' a proposition without being asked or solicited to do so, and
information is often given as a statement in Initiation Xoves or in
Confirmation Xoves (see Table 5.13). In other words, the solicit function
is more consistently 'prospective' (i.e., sets up predictions and
constraints about the next utterance), while the give function is not
necessarily 'restrospective^, (i.e., fulfils the predictions of the previous
utterance).

The great discrepancy between the basic functions Is bound to have
consequences on the sustaining of conversations. Conversations tend to be

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