| Much recent research has described the development of innovative functions of like as a discourse marker (Like they're trying to be discreet about it) or discourse particle ( Maybe it's like a girl thing) and as a quotative marker (He's like "I don't want to work until later"). Comparatively little is known about how speakers acquire this variable. This dissertation consists of two studies examining young children's use of, and knowledge and beliefs about, like to better understand how it is incorporated into maturing linguistic systems.;The first study examines children's use of like in spontaneous speech. Data come from recorded interactions between pairs of children ages 3-6 and 10. Children as young as four used like as a discourse marker/particle and as a quotative. Rather than mirroring adults' speech, in which the like is used most frequently clause-initially, young children used like primarily as a discourse particle attached to syntactic constituents smaller than the sentence. Children began using like in different syntactic positions in the historical order in which like began to be used in those positions.;The second study comprises two experiments assessing children's knowledge of grammatical constraints on like and social beliefs about like. Fifty-seven children ages 5-10 listened to sentences containing a use of like that is observed in adults' speech, like in a position from which it is categorically absent in adults' speech, or no like at all. In Task 1 participants made acceptability judgments; in Task 2 they decided whether sentences were more likely produced by a female or male speaker. Children of all ages exhibited awareness of grammatical constraints on like. Older children, particularly girls, demonstrated a prescriptive stance toward like. Nine- and ten-year-olds attributed sentences to a female speaker more frequently if they contained like.;The results are evidence for early acquisition of like. Knowledge of constraints on grammatical distribution is evident at age five, and may precede the use of like in discourse. Social beliefs develop later in childhood, suggesting that like is acquired early as part of children's knowledge of syntax and discourse structure, and social meanings attached later on. |
