Representations of stylistic variation in 9-to 11-year-olds: Cognitive processes and salience

Laurence Buson (1) , Jacqueline Billiez

1 LIDILEM - LInguistique et DIdactique des Langues Étrangères et Maternelles

The emergence of metapragmatic competence in children and the cognitive processes involved in the ability to evaluate style remain under-researched. They are, however, essential to understanding both stylistic usage in context and the developmental dynamic of the acquisition of variation. This article presents a study carried out with 196 children aged 9-11 in the Grenoble area (France), focusing upon representations of stylistic variation. It explores the central question of the association between salience and stereotypes in the construction of judgments on style. Analysis of the children's discourse identifies a number of criteria to which they refer in explaining their impressions of style. A schemabased model is then put forward for the cognitive process at work in stylistic evaluation, combining top-down and bottom-up processes.

Mots clés: Linguistics; style; variation; perception; metapragmatic competence; salience; stereotypes

Domaines: Linguistique

Laurence Buson, Jacqueline Billiez. Representations of stylistic variation in 9-to 11-year-olds: Cognitive processes and salience. Linguistics, 2013, 51 (2), ⟨10.1515/ling-2013-0013⟩. ⟨hal-03549639⟩