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

Iaterpretatioo / 159

About a quarter of the utterances considered are accompanied by another
utterance in the sane turn providing an explanation or an elaboration of
the first utterance, and only half are in single-utterance turns. This
means that while the actual reply may be minimal, the response can be
complex.

An interesting item deserving further comment is the Rhetorical Question,
i.e. a question that does not expect an answer because the information is
known to both interlocutors. Most of the cases found in home
conversations had the function of requesting acknowledgment of
information previously given, and can be considered mainly a device for
turn distribution or specific of tutorial events (and are asked mainly by
adults). Leaving these latter cases aside, there remain some 87 Rhetorical
Questions. Given that adults ask children four times more questions than
children do adults, it can be said that children make use of Rhetorical
Questions as much as adults, and for certain types, even more than
adults.

Table 5.15

Questions and Rhetorical Questions by Speaker in CSs

Rhetorical Questions perform various functions:

- to get or focus the attention of others, as in CS 09.12. 50, Ilda is
showing a picture magazine to her grandmother: dont you see, they got
OD the вале place, oa the donkey, and they fell?

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