26
EDY VENEZIANO
3. The data
3.1. The subjects
The data presented here come from two longitudinal studies of mother-child dyads
living in Geneva, Switzerland3. In one of the dyads the child was a girl (C) and, in the
other a boy (G). C was the second-born child of two children, her brother being about
three years older, while G was the first and only child. The social background of the
two families can be considered middle-class. The language spoken at home was French.
For the girl, the observations started when she was 1;3 and ended when she was 2;24
(the study provides 15 and a half hours of videorecordings); for the boy they started
when he was 1;4 and ended when he was 2;3 (this study provides 17 hours of
videorecordings).
At the beginning of the study the children had less than ten recognizable words in
their repertoire and produced exclusively single-word utterances. At the end, their
production consisted in a majority of multiword utterances, and contained recogniz-
able grammatical morphemes (articles, prepositions, auxiliaries and conjunctions).
3.2. Modalities of observations and of transcriptions
Dyads were observed at home for about one hour every two weeks, during natu-
rally-occurring interaction. Both video and independent audiorecordings were made
of the sessions. Videos were made with a shoulder-held camera allowing for follow-
ing the child in his/her displacements around the room or the apartment.
The sessions included various types of free play activities (e.g., block construc-
tion, playing ball, ritual games, manipulation of objects), book reading, spontaneous
symbolic play and, sometimes, snack/coffee around the kitchen table. Two observers
(including the author) were present, taking turns at filming and note-taking, while
sitting out of the way, generally assuming a friendly, non-intrusive attitude, but re-
sponding when solicited by the child. During the second half-hour, the observer took
a more active role.
The sessions were transcribed by one of the observers and checked by at least one
other person. Many tapes were again viewed several times together; disagreements
were generally resolved during this phase of joint repeated listening/viewing. Tran-
scriptions of the child’s speech and of the interacting persons were made primarily
from the videotapes, complemented when necessary by the independent
audiorecordings. Transcription of the children’s speech remained close to actual pro-
nunciation (transcribed mainly in IPA); adult speech was transcribed in conventional
French orthography. Transcripts include detailed information about non-verbal activi-
ties contributing to the understanding of what was said.
3 We thank the FNRS, the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research, for support during data
collection.
4 The principal study ended when C was 1;10.12 but an additional visit was recorded four months later, at
2;2.