Teleological talk in parent–child conversations in Quechua. Issue 4 (October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gelman, Susan A.; Mannheim, Bruce; Escalante, Carmen; Sanchez Tapia, Ingrid
• Is Part Of: First language. Volume 35:Issue 4/5(2015:Nov.)
• Page Start: 359
• Page End: 376
• Publication Date: 2015-10
• Subjects: Concepts -- parent–child -- picture book -- Quechua -- teleology; Language acquisition -- Periodicals; 401.9305
• DOI: 10.1177/0142723715596646
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-7237

Abstract

Southern Peruvian Quechua is an indigenous language spoken primarily in rural communities in the Peruvian Andes. The language includes a syntactic construction, ' -paq', that expresses purpose or function, thus providing an opportunity to trace how parents and children with little formal education express teleological concepts. The authors recorded parent–child dyads ( N = 36; children aged 3–5 years) talking about items in a picture book, and coded uses of - paq (e.g., 'What is that little [toy] bear for?' ['Chay usuchari imapaqtaq ?']. For younger children (3–4 years) and their parents, - paq was infrequent and equivalent across domains. For older children (5-year-olds) and their parents, - paq increased dramatically and differentially by domain (most commonly produced for artifacts, food, and animals). These results provide new evidence that speaks to existing developmental accounts regarding the domain-specificity vs. domain-generality of teleological concepts in development.