I. Social Interactionism Theory

A. Concentrated on the underlying reasons or social/communicative
functions of language (language function is critical to the
development of language)
B. Speech acts are an intentional verbally encoded message

II. Elements of a speech act

A. Propositional force
1. Contains the actual meaning (e.g. "thats noisy" means "thats
loud")
B. Illocutionary force
1. The speaker's intentions (e.g. "thats noisy" speakers
intention is to get the volume turned down)
C. Halliday studied the speech acts of children and developed a
speech taxonomy which described early function utterances.
(a child's language is composed of an instrumental, interactional,
personal, informative, imaginative, heuristic and regulatory
function)
D. Dore studied single word utterances and developed a speech act
taxonomy that described a child's single word utterances.
(children use words to label, repeat, answer, request action,
request answer, call, greet, protest and practice).

III. Contributions of Cognitive Theory

A. Theory emphasizes language use (pragmatics)
B. Theory stresses mother/infant interactions

IV. Limitations of Cognitive Theory

A. Does not explain how children acquire language