It is a rough transcript, capturing as much of the audible conversation as possible.

Transcription

1 WITCHES AND STATUES Louise is playing with her four-year-old American cousin, Lanna. Although they haven t seen each other for over a year, they settle back into a close friendship. Louise seems the dominant one she is on home territory and Lanna is jetlagged. These are edited extracts from a half-hour episode, cutting out a lot of playing in silence except for sounds of snuffling, birdsong and insects. They begin inside their greatgrandmother s house with Technonanny, wanting to play with some walkie-talkies; then they go out into the garden on their own until the game palls. They are playacting quite scary situations, familiar from fairy tales (or TV / video versions?): caves, witches with magical powers to turn people into statues or even worse. Some stock phrases occur: turn you into, back to normal, for ever. They move from speech into singing / chanting, with the impressive number, 60 years, which is strangely close to the biblical concept of three score years and ten. It is a rough transcript, capturing as much of the audible conversation as possible. Transcription conventions??? indistinct speech CAPITALS particular emphasis unfinished utterance ( ) pause of a second or more [italics] actions, other sounds, etc sections cut between extracts TRANSCRIPT Lanna pretend that was??? Technonanny: wait I m going to get you the walkie talkies as well and then you can be REAL secret agents Lanna: huh? Technonanny: but first of all but we re not playing Technonanny: I know you re not playing secret agents but we re playing we re playing what s that game called Lanna: uh I don t know what s that game Technonanny: Lanna can I put this on you? Lanna: sure we re not playing that we re playing um we re playing witchy we re playing witchy Technonanny: yeah but OK sorry let me we re playing witchy Technonanny: OK doc Page 1 of 7

2 Technonanny: you said you were playing some other game first Lanna: yes Technonanny: what game was that? Lanna: ah ( ) what was that game called? um [unclear] walkie talkie witch Technonanny:??? [tries to repeat sounds] Both: no walkie talkie witch Technonanny: walkie talkie witch and and I am being the witch and her have to run away to the???... Lanna: why???? [Lanna and Louise go out into the garden on their own] Lanna: What are you going to do? Both: HULLO! HULLO! make you dead ( ) come over here??? are YOU gonna be dead? are you gonna be dead???? I turn you in a witch Lanna: oh ( ) when are we er when are you gonna do that? um tomorrow? Lanna: tomorrow? yeah Lanna: now? no Lanna: after this? yeah Lanna: that s not tomorrow well pretend it was already tomorrow ko I um um ko I um??? we was sleeping um in the night and I was gonna turn you in a witch yeah? Lanna: yes alright Lanna: turn you in a witch??? Pssh Pssh Lanna: Lanna: pretend you turn me into a statue now ok Pssh ( ) are you a statue? yes oh??? pretend you turn me into a witch again Lanna: Pssh Pssh??? Lanna: I m not gonna put this on right yet I m gonna put it on when I m a witch I turn you into a cave doc Page 2 of 7

3 huh? I said I turn you into a a a a cave yeah ko why you??? scared but you have to be??? then I turn you into a cave??? you went back to normal?? cave ko why everybody have a game called witches and them do a cave [silence, birds, insects] pretend you wasn t normal??? long long time ago and you wasn t normal you wasn t normal??? big witch Lanna: who are you? I am another witch??? another witch??? nice again? no you I told you??? it wasn t??? for ever??? wasn t awake wasn t today [singing] then we found the witches and made her all to dead her won t wake up for a thousand years till it ( ) 60 years ha ha ha [witchy voice] [whispering witchy things] that was a magic thing to turn you to um deader no debra it means deader and deady and deader and Lanna: I wanna play in the house um Lanna: I wanna play in the house ( ) I wanna play this in the house um well um um well Lanna: I want to alright go on alright ( ) I gonna WIN you I gonna win you??? Lanna: yeah doc Page 3 of 7

4 COMMENTARY This conversation between two girls (aged 3 years 10 months and 4 years 7 months) is fascinating at the levels of discourse and pragmatics: the way the children interact with each other the meanings implied by their use / abuse of social conventions their intertextuality and allusions to other genres. The data can also be quarried for evidence of grammatical, lexical and phonological features, though it seems a shame to interrupt the excitement of the communication to point out the stains down the front of the shirt. Walkie talkie witch extracts [In the house] Technonanny should learn not to meddle in children s games. Louise and Lanna know what they want to do. Lanna is quite compliant, willing to go along with others suggestions - from an adult and child who are virtual strangers. Louise, however, is determined after suffering a long car journey to get here that she, not her gran, is in charge. Politeness conventions go out the window. She contradicts and does not waver from her purpose. 1. We are NOT playing (whatever your suggestion was) 2. We are playing our OWN game (if only we could think how to name it). Technonanny has to concede finally, blustering incoherently like Vicky Pollard: Yeah but OK sorry. She is happy the girls have agreed to wear the microphone and hears nothing of the ensuing conversation till listening to the recording a few days later. The girls have been quite diplomatic, compromising on a general theme of walkie talkie witches. Lanna begins to rein in Louise s control over the specifics of the game, I am being the witch and her have to run and hide... with the riposte why?, which could imply no chance! She does not take a big share of the conversation and mainly asks questions. Probably because she needs to check out these two people and their plans for her. Phonology: Lexis: the trace of US accent in Lanna s speech her lexical choice of the US English form, sure Louise s use of the object pronoun her have to run away [In the garden] Now this agreed walkie talkie witch game can start, but they need to work out quite how it goes. Lanna still defers to the younger (but with the advantage of home ground as far as this situation goes) girl, Louise, with an exploratory question, what are you going to do? First the walkie talkie part (the microphone) is tried out with the usual testing phrase: Hullo Hullo. (Where did they pick this up from?) Then Louise s opening suggestion should make her more wary: gonna make you dead. Indeed, Lanna responds doc Page 4 of 7

5 to the imperative / request, come over here, by turning the suggestion back to her: are YOU gonna be dead? Louise calls on a formula from the genre of folk / fantasy tales: I turn you in (into) a witch. Lanna s practical question, when sets off an exchange which tests Louise s shaky concepts of time. After a polite series of questioning intonations, Lanna has to correct her: that s not tomorrow. Louise s gambit, when challenged with her lack of knowledge, is familiar: she rambles, clearly confusing even herself until she comes round in a circle to repeat her original point, followed by her version of a tag question: yeah? Lanna is perfectly co-operative with her brief yes, followed by another form of agreement to seal their arrangement: alright. Somehow it is now Lanna who performs the spell, probably accompanying the sound effect, Pssh with some (unseen) gesture. Lexis & semantics: Phonology: Louise initiates a dark semantic field around the topic of witches: run away night dead sleeping her understanding of tomorrow seems to mean later Louise does not change was into the plural form were sleeping she chooses a similar preposition: turn you in (into) a witch she uses the word ko as a conjunction, (often in the phrase ko why ) to mean something between so and because this could be because of her difficulty with the sound /s/. Turn into statues extract Louise initiates the next exchange with the imperative / suggestion and repeats the successful gambit, this time using the regular preposition: pretend you turn me into a statue now. The girls continue to co-operate with the affirmatives, OK and yes. There s a period of silence after this, probably accompanied by stillness - befitting statues. Turn into witch again extract Lanna responds to something inaudible Louise says with a negative: I m not gonna put this on, but adds a hedge, right yet and the positive alternative, when I m a witch. This is a common strategy to soften the impact of negatives. Turn into cave extract The next stage in the game departs from the conventions: I turn you into a cave. Lanna is no longer audible, but it seems that she can t follow Louise s train of thought, or realises that caves are of a different order to witches and statues places where things happen, rather than things to transform people into. Louise doesn t easily take no for an answer, repeats the suggestion a few times, adding on supporting reasons, including the killer appeal to majority vote: everybody have a game called witches and them do a cave. Lanna doesn t bother to argue the point, but Louise persists with references to the powerful era, long long time ago and the comforting state, back to normal. The ramifications of this make-believe world baffle Lanna, so she tries to clarify doc Page 5 of 7

6 one thing at least: who are you? The answer doesn t help a lot: another witch (not the big witch?) with other details: nice again wasn t normal wasn t awake for ever. Lanna also seems to be clearing up the time frame tomorrow wasn t today. Lexis & semantics: Louise only uses the form was of the verb, to be she doubles up conjunctions in the phrase, ko why she uses reduplication long long - a feature of oral storytelling and the evocative phrase, for ever she uses the object form of the pronoun them do (a regular habit, eg. her, him etc) and does not change the form of the verb, to do, to third person, does the word cave is used as a similar concept to witch and statue contrasting semantic fields: scared cave v normal nice using concepts of time: long long time ago for ever today Louise singing & witch whispering extracts Louise knows something about the behaviour of this genre / text-world and naturally moves into song, improvising the tune and words. She is clearly borrowing ideas from folk tales, though may have experienced them via TV / video, rather than or as well as stories read to her. There is a quest ( then we found the witches ); a conquest of a harsh kind ( made her all to dead ); with the chance, albeit distant, of re-awakening from the dead ( won t wake up for a thousand years ); or will it be sooner ( till it 60 years )? moves easily between past tense and future time uses irregular forms of past tense: found, made uses standard auxiliary, won t to express future negative uses range of prepositions to express time: for till uses non-standard preposition / phrasal verb: make her all to dead uses conjunctions to co-ordinate clauses: then, and is till used as a subordinating conjunction here? Although non-verbal, these whispering and muttering sounds show an awareness of the register of witches! End of game extract Lanna is inaudible for most of this exchange. Louise comments on the magic thing, this time phrasing the transformation as turn you to deader. She struggles to explain (or justify?) this to Lanna, perhaps not sure herself of the word or its meaning. She changes the pronunciation from deader to debra to deady. At this point, Lanna either loses patience, or feels freaked by the idea. She interrupts and becomes clearly audible with her repeated assertion: I wanna play in the house. There is a slight concession on the third repetition: I wanna play this. Louise avoids either accepting or rejecting the proposal with fillers: um well, until Lanna begins to repeat it for the fourth time doc Page 6 of 7

7 Louise concedes, alright, with the added (unnecessarily giving her permission?) encouragement, go on. Having conceded the point, Louise asserts her superiority in another dimension, boasting, I gonna win you. This is fine with Lanna. As the older child, or the guest, she is behaving considerately throughout. Phonology: non-standard use of comparative deader (not normally qualified) both use elision: gonna wanna. Note Explicit boasting is almost taboo among adults, though we may perform a similar function covertly. Louise is happy to boast about any and all her achievements. Indeed, this is encouraged by caregivers. When do children learn to hide behind modesty? Acknowledgements Thanks to Lanna and Louise for allowing us this glimpse into their world of imaginative play doc Page 7 of 7