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J O U R N A L O F V E R B A L L E A R N I N G A N D V E R B A L B E H A V I O R 6 , 5 6 0 - - 5 6 4 ( 1967)

H e s i ta t io n s i n C h i l d r e n ' s S p e e c h D u r i n g E x p l a n a t i o nan d Descr ip t ion ~

HARRY LEVIN, IR EN E SILVERMAN, AND BOYCE L. FORDC o r n e l l U n i v e r s i t y , I t h a c a , N e w Y o r k

Tw enty-fo ur children, six each from the kindergarten, second, fourth, and sixthgrades, w ere shown th ree simple physical demonstrations. Th ey described and ex-plained what they saw. For children of al l ages, explanation compared with de-scription was characterized by more words, pauses, hesitations, longer pauses, anda slower rate of speaking.

T h i s s t u d y c o n c e r n s t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p s b e -t w e e n t h o u g h t a n d s p e e ch . W e u s e t h ew o r d , " s p e e c h , " d e l i b e r a t e l y , a s d is t i n -g u i s h e d f r o m " l a n g u a g e ." T h e v a r i ab l e sw i t h w h i c h w e a r e c o n c e r n e d a r e a s u b -c a t e g o r y o f p a r a l i n g u i s ti c s ( T r a e g e r ,1 9 5 8 ) , t h e h e s i t a t i o n s a n d t t u e n c i e s ins p e e c h . A s s u c h , t h e y d e s c r i b e t h e f o r m o fs p e e c h a n d a r e a p p l i c a b l e t o l a n g u a g e r e -g a r d l e s s o f t h e c o n t e n t o r t h e g r a m m a t i c a lf o r m s o f t h e l a n g u a g e . B r o a d l y , w e a r ep r e d i c t i n g t h a t t h e p r o c e s s o f e x p l a n a t i o nis m i r r o r e d i n h e s i t a n t s p e e c h w h e r e a s d e -s c r i p t i o n i s m o r e f l u e n t.

G o l d m a n - E i s l e r ( 1 9 6 2 ), h a s d e m o n -s t r a t e d c l e a r r e l a t io n s h i p s b e t w e e n a u t o -m a t i c s p e e c h a n d s p e e c h w h i c h r e q u i r esn e w c o g n i t i v e c o n s t r u c t io n s . F o r e x a m p l e ,s h e p r e s e n t e d a d u l t S s w i t h N e w Y o r k e rc a r t o o n s w h i c h t h e y f ir st h a d t o d e s c r i b ea n d t h e n i n t e r p r e t . H e s i t a t i o n s i n c r e a s e du n d e r t h e s e c o n d c o n d i t i o n . S i m i l a rl y , w eh a v e f o u n d t h a t t h e p a t t e r n s o f h e s i ta t io n sc o u l d b e i n t e r p r e t e d i n t e rm s o f th o s ew h i c h w e r e r e s p o n s i v e t o s tr e ss a n d t h o s ew h i c h r e f l e c t i n s t r u c t i o n s f o r h i g h i n t e l l e c -t u a l q u a l i t y ( L e v i n a n d S i l v er m a n , 1 9 6 5 ).

T h e p r e s e n t s t u d y is a n a l o g o u s t o G o l d -1 This s tudy was su ppor ted b y G rant MH -07226from the National Insti tute of Mental Health.

m a n - E i s le r 's , b u t e x p lo r e s th e p h e n o m e n aw i t h c h i l d r e n v a r y i n g i n a g e f r o m 5 t o 1 2y e a r s . T h e c h i l d r e n a r e s h o w n t h r e e p h y s i -c a l d e m o n s t r a t i o n s a n d a r e a s k e d , f o r e a c h ,t o d e s c r i b e a n d t h e n t o e x p l a i n w h a t t h e yh a v e s e e n .

METHODS u b jec ts . The Ss for this study were 24 childrenattehding the Cayuga Heights Elementary School,I thaca , N.Y . This school serves an u ppe r middle-class neighborhood where, in general, the childrenmay b e charac te rized as having advanced v erba lskil ls. Three boys and three gir ls were randomlyselected from each of four grades: kindergarten,second, fourth an d s ixth . Th e children were as-signed w ithout bias to one o f three Es. ~T h e T a s k s . Th ree physical demonstrations w erecarr ied out by E for each child, who was sys-tematically queried about each. The interactionbetw een S and E was tape-recorded. Eac h childwas seen in a room apart f rom his classroom,during a single session. The following three dem-onstrations were presented to each child and

always in this order: 1. Tw o balloons o f differentcolors and sizes we re inflated w ith gas, the largerone with helium, the small one with air . The Eholds both in one hand, then releases them so thatthe helium-filled one r ise s and the other falls.2. Tw o dis cs of identical size, shape, and colorWe wish to thank the teachers and principalof Ca yug a Heights Sc ho ol for their cooperationand Ani ta Ianeo and Gary Shaw for the i r par ts ingathering the data.

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HESITATIONS IN CHILDREN'S SPEECH 561are made of different materials, one of lead, theother of wood. They are placed in front of S whois told to lift the heavier and then the lighterone. 3. Two colorless liquids are presented to Sin separate beakers. They are mixed together.The result is a magenta-colored liquid. It will benoted that the three demonstrations were chosenfor their counter-intuitive natures: the larger bal-loon rises, two objects look alike but "feel" differ-ent, colorless liquids that result in a vivid color.We expected the surprise value to fascinate thechildren and keep them involved with the task.The Queries. The E fastened a lavalier micro-phone around the child's neck, meanwhi le explain-'ing that he was going to show him some things,that they would talk about the things he saw andthat the microphone and tape-recorder were usedbecause we wanted to have a record of what wetalked about. To put the child at ease, E firsttalked with him about what he was doing in hisclassroom.The E placed the materials f6r each demon-stration in front of the child and asked the fol-lowing questions in this order: 1. Tell me whatyou see here. 2. Now I am going to do something.Watch and see what happens. (With D1 and D3)What happened? (With D 2) Pick up this one,then this one. How did they feel? 3. Why do youthink that happened? (D2: VV'hy did they feelthat way?). 4. I'd like you to tell me, as thoughyou're telling a story, from the time I broughtthese over, what they looked like, what I did,what happened, and why you thought it happened.It was often necessary for E to probe furtherwhen S did not respond, especially after the re-quest for explanation. The E used sueh questionsas, What colors are they? Do they look the sameor different? Why did one go up and one falldown?Scoring the Hesitation Phenomena. Each ses-sion was transcribed verbatim and all hesitations,including repetitions, sighs, giggles, deep breaths,and tongue clicks were included. Pronunciationas we heard it rather than conventional spelling("wanna," not "want to") was typed. The follow-ing variables were entered on the typescript by anE who listened to the tape. These variables havepreviously been described in detail (Levin andSilverman, 1965): 1. Vocal segregates: "uh, urn,er." g. Grammatical correction: "The balloons go-went up." 3. Word order correction: "The red iswater-The water is red." 4. Lexical correction:"The circles-the discs are the same." 5. Accentualcorrection: "When did you do that? When didydu do that?" 6. Phonological correction: "That's

the idear-the idea." 7. Sentence ineompletion:"The two balloons-The red one went up."8. Repetitions, including phrase, words, syllable,etc.: "Then-then-you put them together." 9. Slipsof the tongue. 10. Omission of words or parts ofwords. "Then you started to put-away." 11. Par-enthet ie remarks: for example, I mean, etc.12. DraMs: nonphonemie lengthening of a pho-neme. la . Zero segregates (unfi lled pauses) werereeorded visually by playing the tapes through arectifier into a Brush Reeorder. Pauses of 80 mseeor longer were noted on the transeriptions.Reliability. Two seorers, one (IS) highly experi-enced in seoring hesitation variables, eoded severaltapes independently. A total of 147 items wasscored on which the two agreed on 142 itemsor 97%. Thereafter, during independent scoringof the tapes, problematie instances were dis-cussed by the two coders,Fluency Variables. The following were eountedfor each part of eaeh demonstration: number ofwords, syllables and time, in seeonds.Description and Explanation. The questionswere designed to elicit either description or ex-planation. The typescript for each demonstrationwas divided into sections in this manner: I. Pres-entation of materials for demonstration and re-quest to S for description of materials. II. Thedemonstration itself and description of what hap-pened. III. S's response to why? IIIs. Spontane-ous explanation by S. IV. Summary of total dem-onstration.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe basic variables described above

were combined into the following indiceswhich form the variables used henceforthin the analysis: 1. Total number of words(W). 2 . Tota l number of hesi ta t ions (H) .This measure is the sum of all hesitationsscored, e x c l u d i n g the number of pauses.No single hesitat ion variable, other thanthe frequency of pausing, occurred oftenenough in our data to be analyzed sepa-rately. We, therefore, summed all hesita-tions into a single index. 3. Total numberof pauses (P) . This measu re includes al lpauses longer than 80 msee. 4. Rate. Ratiobe tween number of words and secondsspeaking. 5. Total amount of t ime pausing(TP). 6. Ratio of number of hesitat ions to

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5 6 2 L E V I N , S I L V E B M A N , A N D F O B D

n u m b e r o f w o r d s ( H / W ) . A s v a ri ou s in -v e s t i g a t o r s h a v e p o i n t e d o u t ( G o l d m a n -E i s l e r , 1 9 6 2 ; L e v i n a n d S i l v e r m a n , 1 9 6 5 ) ,t h e f r e q u e n c y o f h e s i t a t i o n s i n s p e e c h i sr e l a t e d t o t h e S ' s p r o d u c t i v i t y . T h i s m e a s -u r e c o n t r o l s f o r p r o d u c t i v i t y . F o r c o n s i s t -e n c y w i t h o t h e r s t u d i e s , w e h a v e c h o s e nn u m b e r o f w o r d s a s t h e d e n o m i n a t o r , a l -t h o u g h w e c o u l d h a v e u s e d s y ll ab l es o rm o r p h e m e s . 7 . R a t i o o f n u m b e r o f p a u s e sto n u m b e r o f w o r d s ( P / W ) . 8 . A v e r ag e

T A B L E 1M E A N S C O R E S F O R E A C H P A R T

P a r tM e a s u r e I I I I I I I V

W o r d s 2 6 . 0 3 1 5 . 2 1 5 5 . 9 6 8 4 . 6 5H e s i t a t i o n s ~ . 9 2 1 . 4 6 8 . 7 4 9 . 3 1P a u s e s 4 . 5 1 ~ . ~ 4 1 ~ . 8 1 ~ 0 . 2 9R a t e ~ . 6 4 3 . ~ 4 ~ . 3 4 ~ . 4 1T o t a l P a u s i n g 3 . 0 8 1 . 2 6 1 1 . 2 4 1 1 . 5 1H e s . / W o r d s . 1 0 . 0 8 . 1 5 . 1 ~P a u s e / W o r d s . 1 5 . 1 3 . ~ 1 . ~ 4A v e . P a u s e . 5 4 . 4 0 . 9 1 . 6 0

l e n g t h o f p a u s e s ( A P ) , i.e . r a ti o b e t w e e nt o t a l t i m e p a u s i n g a n d f r e q u e n c y o fp a u s e s . T h e m e a n s o f e a c h o f t h e s e v a r i-a b l e s f o r t h e f o u r p a r t s a r e s h o w n i n T a -b l e 1 .Intercorrelations Among Variables. T a -b l e 2 p r e s e n t s t h e i n t e r c o r r e l a t i o n s a m o n gt h e e i g h t v a ri a bl e s. E a c h s c o r e w a s b a s e d

o n t h e t o t a l s e s s i o n , o n a l l t h r e e d e m o n -s t r a t i o n s . O b v i o u s l y , t h e v a r i a b l e s a r e , o nt h e w h o l e , s tr o n g l y r e l a t e d t o e a c h o t h e r .C h i l d r e n w h o t a l k e d a l o t a l s o h e s i t a t e da n d p a u s e d f r e q u e n t l y . T h e y s p e n t m o r et i m e , o v e r a l l , p a u s i n g , b u t p r o d u c t i v i t yh a s n o r e l a t i o n s h i p t o t h e a v e r a g e l e n g t ho f p a u s e s . T h i s g e n e r a l e f f e c t o f p r o d u c -t i v i t y r e p l i c a t e s a f i n d i n g o f G o l d m a n -E i s le r 's ( 1 9 6 2 ) a n d c o n f i r m s o u r e a r l i e rs p e c u l a t i o n t h a t h e s i t a t i o n s a n d p a u s e s c a nb e d e s c r i b e d a s o c c u p y i n g a s i n g le d i m e n -s i o n ( L e v i n a n d S i l v e r m a n , 1 9 6 5 ) . F u r -t h e r , i t c a n b e s e e n t h a t o u r a t t e m p t t o d e -s c r i b e h e s i t a t i o n s a n d p a u s e s i n d e p e n d e n to f w o r d s is e f f ec t iv e ( W X H / W : r - - - . 11 ) .

T h e r e l a ti o n s h ip s w i t h r a te ( w o r d s / s e c )p r e s e n t a c l e a r p i c t u r e . T h e o v e r a l l n u m -b e r o f w o r d s s p o k e n d o e s n o t i n f l u e n c er a t e . O n t h e o t h e r h a n d , a l l v a r i a b l e s h a v -i n g t o d o w i t h h e s i t a t i o n s a n d p a u s e s a r ei n v e r s e l y r e l a t e d t o r a t e . T h a t is , t h e t i m es p e n t i n h e s i t a t i o n s a n d p a u s e s a d d s t o t h et i m e s p e n t i n s p e a k i n g b u t n o t t o t h e n u m -b e r o f w o r d s s p o k e n , s o t h a t w e m a y t h i n ko f h e s i t a t i o n s d i s p l a c i n g w o r d s a n d d i m i n -i s h i n g t h e r a t e .

E v e n w h e n c o r r e c t e d f o r p r o d u c t i v i t y , i ts h o u l d b e n o t e d t h a t f r e q u e n c y o f h e s it a -t i o n s a n d f r e q u e n c y o f p a u s e s a r e a l m o s ti n t e r c h a n g e a b l e v a r i a b l e s ( r --- . 7 9 ) . F i -n a l l y , t h e a v e r a g e l e n g t h o f p a u s e , w i t ht h e e x c e p t i o n o f t h e t w o r e l a t i o n s h i p s

T A B L E 2I N T E R C O R R E L A T I O N S : T O T A L S C O R E S

M e a s u r e 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8W o r d s - - . 7 5 . 8 ~ - . 0 7 . 5 3 . 1 7 . 1 1 - . 0 8H e s i t a t i o n s - - . 8 1 - . 3 7 . 5 5 . 6 7 . 4 1 - 0 7P a u s e s - - - . 4 3 . 6 6 . 5 4 . 6 1 - . 0 ~R a t e - - - . 6 8 - . 6 6 - - . 7 7 - . 5 7T o t a l P a u s i n g - - . 4 8 . 5 5 , 6 9H e s . / W o r d s - - . 7 9 . 1 7P a u s e / W o r d s - - . ~ 5A v e . P a u s e

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HESITATIONS IN CHILDREN'S SPEECH 56~

n o t e d a b o v e , t e n d s t o b e i n d e p e n d e n t o ft h e o t h e r v a r i a b l e s .Tests of Hypotheses. O u r h y p o t h e s e ss t a t e t h a t s p e e c h u n d e r i n s t r u c t i o n t o e x -p l a i n w i l l b e m o r e h e s i t a n t t h a n w h e n S sa r e a s k e d t o d e s c r i b e . T h e p r i m e c o m p a r i -s o n s a r e b e t w e e n t h e r e s p o n s e s t o Q u e s -t i o n I I , W h a t h a p p e n e d ? , a n d Q u e s t i o n I I I ,W h y ? T h e f i r s t q u e s t i o n w a s p r i n c i p a l l y aw a r m - u p t o w h i c h t h e a n s w e r s w e r e g e n -e r a l l y l a c o n i c . Q u e s t i o n I V , t h e s u m m a r y ,r e a l l y i s a m e m o r y e x e r c i s e , c o n t a i n i n gb o t h e x p l a n a t i o n a n d d e s c r i p t i o n .

T o t e s t t h e s e h y p o t h e s e s t t e st s b e t w e e nP a r t s I I a n d I I I w e r e c a l c u l a t e d f o r e a c ho f t h e e i g h t i n d i c e s . T h e d i f f e r e n c e s b e -t w e e n t h e s e t w o p a r t s i s s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g -n i f i c a n t . W h e n w e c o m p a r e d e s c r i p t i o nw i t h e x p l a n a t i o n , S s i n t h e l a t t e r i n s t a n c e ss p e a k m o r e , w i t h m o r e h e s i t a t i o n s a n dp a u s e s , a n d t h e a v e r a g e l e n g t h o f t h ep a u s e s i s l o n g e r . A l s o , t h e c h i l d r e n s p o k em o r e s l o w ly w h e n e x p l a i n in g t h e p h y s i c a lp h e n o m e n a t h a n w h e n d e s c r i b i n g t h e m .

T h e s e f i n d i n g s m a t c h c l o se l y th o s e r e -p o r t e d b y G o l d m a n - E i s le r ( 1 9 6 2 ) f o ra d u l t s . Y et , t h e r e a r e s e v e r a l a s p e c t s o f o u rp r o c e d u r e w h i c h m i g h t h a v e i n f l u e n c e dt h e s e r e su l ts a n d s h o u l d b e c o n s i d e r e d .T h e r e q u e s t f o r e x p l a n a t i o n f o l l o w e d , i na l m o s t e v e r y e a s e , t h e c h i l d ' s d e s c r i p t i o n ,s o t h a t t h e g r e a t e r h e s i t a t i o n s m a y b e d u et o t h e s e q u e n c e r a t h e r t h a n t o t h e t a s k o fe x p l a n a ti o n . T w o o b s e r v a ti o n s s u g g e s t t h a tt h e s e q u e n c e e f f e c t d o e s n o t a d e q u a t e l yi n t e r p r e t t h e f i n d i n g s . I f t h e r e w e r e a " r u n -d o w n " w i t h t i m e , i t w o u l d b e a c c e n t u a t e da c r o s s t h e t h r e e d e m o n s t r a t i o n s . T h e d i f -f e r e n c e s b e t w e e n e x p l a n a t i o n a n d d e s c r i p -t i o n , h o w e v e r , h o l d f o r a l l o f t h e t h r e ed e m o n s t r a t i o n s .

A s e c o n d l i n e o f e v i d e n c e c o m e s f r o mt w e l v e i n s t a n c e s o f s p o n t a n e o u s e x p l a n a -t i o n s . T h e s e e x p l a n a t i o n s a l s o f o l l o w e dP a r t I I b u t w e r e n o t e l i c i t e d b y i n s t r u c -t i o n s t o e x p l a i n . S p o n t a n e o u s e x p l a n a t i o n s

a r e b r i e f b u t m o r e f l u e n t t h a n r e s p o n s e s t oW h y ? T h e r e f o r e , s in c e t h e y s h a r e a s e -q u e n c e w i t h s o l i c i t e d e x p l a n a t i o n s b u t a r en o t r e s p o n s i v e t o t h e p r o b e , t h e y s u g g e s tt h a t t h e h e s i t a n c y o f e x p l a n a t i o n c o m -p a r e d t o d e s c r i p t i o n i s d u e s p e c i f i c a l l y t oE ' s r e q u e s t t h a t t h e c h i l d e x p l a i n t h e p h y s -i c a l p h e n o m e n a .

T h e Es, a t t h e i r d i s c r e t i o n , a s k e d q u e s -t io n s o f t h e c h i l d r e n w h e n t h e y w e r e e s p e -c i a l l y h e s i t a n t o r w e r e n o t a d d r e s s i n gt h e m s e l v e s . I n P a r t l I I , 2 2 6 p r o b e s w e r er e c o r d e d c o m p a r e d w i t h 9 2 i n P a r t I I .T h e f r e q u e n c y o f p r o b e s w a s c o r r e l a t e dw i t h t h e v a r io u s i n d ic e s . T h e r e a r e n o r e-l a t i o n s h i p s i n P a r t I I . I n P a r t I I I , t h e n u m -b e r o f p r o b e s a r e n o t r e l a t e d t o e i t h e r t h ec h il d 's n u m b e r o f w o r d s o r n u m b e r o f h es i-t a t i o n s . T h e y a r e , h o w e v e r , r e l a t e d t o t h eo t h e r s i x v a r i a b l e s . T h e s e f i n d i n g s s u g g e s tt h a t E a s k e d l e a d i n g q u e s t i o n s w h e n t h ec h i l d s p o k e s l o w l y o r p a u s e d a g r e a t d e a l .N e v e r t h e l e s s , t h e s e p r o b e s d i d n o t h a v et h e e f f e c t o f i n c r e a s i n g t h e c h i l d ' s f l u e n c yc o m p a r e d t o h i s p e r f o r m a n c e d u r i n g d e -s c r i p t i o n .

T h e r e a r e n o v a r i a t i o n s i n o u r d a t a a t -t r i b u t a b l e t o t h e d i f f e r e n t a g e s o f t h e S s . I ts e e m e d t o u s , f r o m a p e r u s a l o f t h e m e a n so f t h e e i g h t v a r i a b l e s , t h a t t h e k i n d e r g a r -t e n c h i l d r e n w e r e o f t e n l o w e r t h a n t h eo t h e r t h r e e g r o u p s . H o w e v e r , t h e l a r g ev a r i a b i l i t y w i t h i n t h e f i v e - y e a r - o l d g r o u pp r e c l u d e d s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s w h i c h w em i g h t a t t r i b u t e t o a g e . W i t h o n l y s i x c h i l -d r e n i n e a c h a g e g r o u p , t h e s e r e s u l t s c a no n l y b e s u g g e s t iv e .

S e v e r a l f i n d i n g s m e r i t c o m p a r i s o n w i t ho u r p r e v i o u s s t u d y ( L e v i n a n d S i l v e r m a n ,1 9 6 5 ) . I n t h a t s t u d y , t h e S s w e r e a l l s i x t h -g r a d e c h i l d r e n w h o s e t a s k w a s t o t e lls t o r i e s i n r e s p o n s e t o a s s i g n e d s t o r yt h e m e s . T h e r a t e o f t a l k i n g u n d e r t h o s em o r e s p o n t a n e o u s c i r c u m s t a n c e s w e r e 2 . 1 0w o r d s / s e c , c o m p a r e d t o t h e o v e r a l l r a t e o f2 . 6 6 w o r d s / s e c , o r 2 . 8 8 f o r t h e m o s t s i m i l a r

7/29/2019 Explication Description Levin 1967

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p r e s e n t g r o u p , t h e s i x t h - g r a d e r s . W e m a yc o n c l u d e , t h e r e f o r e , t h a t s p o n t a n e o u ss p e e c h i s n o m o r e r a p i d t h a n s p e e c h u n -d e r t h e t e s t - l i k e c o n d i t i o n s o f t h e p r e s e n ts t u d y .

W e i n f e r r e d e a r l i e r t h a t l e n g t h o f t h eu n f i l l e d p a u s e s w a s r e s p o n s i v e t o w h e t h e rt h e S w a s u n d e r s tr e ss o r w a s p e r f o r m i n gc o g n i t i v e o p e r a t i o n s p r i o r t o t a l k i n g . T h ef i n d i n g t h a t p a u s e l e n g t h i n c r e a s e s u n d e ri n s t r u c t i o n s t o ex p l a i n b o l s t e r s o u r f o r m era s s u m p t i o n .

T o u n d e r s t a n d t h e d i f f e r e n c e s i n f l u e n c yw h e n a c h i l d i s a s k e d t o e x p l a i n o r t o d e -s c r i b e an ev en t , i t i s u s e f u l t o co n t r a s t t h et a s k r e q u i r e m e n t s o f t h e t w o p r o c e s s e s .T a k e , a s a n e x a m p l e , t h e d e m o n s t r a t i o no f t h e t w o b a l l o o n s . A t t h e e n d o f t h e d e m -o n s t r a t i o n , t h e ch i l d i s a s k ed t o t e l l w h a th e s a w . O n e b a l l o o n i s n e s t l i n g a g a i n s tt h e ce i l i n g , t h e o t h e r i s o n t h e f l o o r . T h ep r o p s f o r h i s s t o r v a r e d i r ec t l y av a i l ab l e t oh i m . H e m u s t r e l y o n s h o r t - t e r m m e m o r y ,h u t t h i s r e q u i r e s s t o r a g e a n d r e t r i e v a l o v e r ,a t t h e m o s t , a h a l f - m i n u t e i n te r v a l . H i s j o b ,t h en , i s t o en co d e a b r i e f s e r i e s o f s a l i en te v e n t s w i t h t h e o b j e c t s i n f u l l v i e w . I ts eem s t o u s t h a t h i s ch o i ce s co n s i s t o f ap -p r o p r i a t e l e x ie a l i t e m s a n d t h e p a s t t e n s ef o r h i s u t t e r a n c e . W e h a v e n o r e a s o n t o b e -l i e v e t h a t t h e w o r d s t o e n c o d e t h e e v e n ta r e n o t i m m e d i a t e l y a v a i la b l e t o a l l t h e s ec h i l d r e n , e s p e c i a ll y s i n ce t h e y w e r e a s k e di n t h e f i r s t q u e r y t o d e s c r i b e ( a t t a c h w o r d st o ) t h e s i m p l e a p p a r a t u s .

A l m o s t e v e r y c h i l d , i t s e e m e d t o u s , u n -d e r s t o o d t h a t a d i f f e r e n t k i n d o f d i sc o u r s ew a s r e q u i r e d b y t h e " W h y ? " q u e s ti o n .M a n y o f t h e a n s w e r s w e r e , o f c o u r s e , i n -c o r r e c t . S o m e y o u n g e r c h i l d r e n s i m p l y

s t a t e d a p h e n o t y p i c a t t r i b u t e : o n e b a l l o o ni s r e d a n d t h e o t h e r i s b l u e . E v e n t h i s s i m -p l e e x p l a n a t i o n r e q u i r e s a c h o i c e f r o m al a r g e a r r a y o f . c h a ra c t er i st ic s t h a t h e m i g h th a v e u s e d . A l s o , w e a r e n o t c o n v i n c e d t h a tt h e c h i l d w h o a n s w e r s i n t h i s w a y s i m p l yd o e s n o t h a v e a n i d e a a n d u s e s " d e s c r i p -t i o n - ex p l an a t i o n s " t o s a t i s f y t h e E ' s d e -m a n d s . T h e r e f o r e , if t h e c h i l d d o e s n o tk n o w t h e a n s w e r y e t i s f o r c e d t o r e s p o n d ,w e e x p e c t h i s s p e e c h t o b e h e s i t a n t .

W e m a y c o n t r a s t t h i s l a c k o f f l u e n c yw i t h t h e s p o n t a n e o u s e x p l a n a t i o n s o f f e r e dt o a t l e a s t o n e d e m o n s t r a t i o n b y 1 2 S s .S p o n t a n e o u s e x p l a n a t i o n s w e r e b r i e f e r , b u to n a l m o s t a l l v a r i a b l e s w e r e m o r e f l u e n t :f e w e r h e s i t a t i o n s a n d p a u s e s , b r i e f e rp a u s e s a n d f a s t e r r a t e . T h e s e r e s u l t s c o n -f i r m o u r e x p e c t a t i o n s t h a t e x p l a n a t i o n sw h i ch t h e ch i l d h a s av a i l ab l e a r e l e s s h e s i -t a n t t h a n t h o s e w h i c h m u s t b e c o n s t ru c t e d .

I n o t h e r w o r d s , t h e h e s i t a t i o n s i n s p e e c hi n v e r s e l y m i r r o r t h e a u t o m a t i e i t y o f t h ec o g n i t i v e p r o c e s s . T o e n c o d e a n e v e n tw h o s e f e a t u r e s a r e a v a i l a b l e t o t h e c h i l d i sa u t o m a t i c . T o s e a r c h o n e ' s m e m o r y , t o a c -c e p t o r r e j e c t a n i d e a t h a t c o m e s t o m i n d ,t o p u t i d e a s t o g e t h e r - i n s h o rt , t o t h i n k -i s n o t a u t o m a t i c a n d r e s u l t s , a s w e h a v es een , i n s l o w , p au s e - f i l l ed , h e s i t an t s p eech .

~EFEll.ENCESGOLDMAN-EISLER, F. Spe ech and thought. Dis-covert.i, Ap ril , 1962.LEVlN, H ., AND SmVER_XIAN, I. Hes ita tio n ph e-nomena in children's speech. Language andSpeech, 1965, 8, 67-85.TRAECE~, (;. L. Paralangua ge: a first approxim a-tion. Studies in Linguistics, 19.58, 13, 1.(Received November 3, 1965)