Learning how to use the word ‘know’: examples from a single-case study

In contrast to studies of cognitive development in developmental psychology, researchers of a child-focused conversation analytic orientation seek to address the question – how do children acquire the relevant methodic social practices necessary for indicating during ongoing talk-in-interaction what it is to ‘know’. Employing a single-case study approach this paper considers the circumstances and contexts within which a young child demonstrates a development of understanding the word ‘know’ and/or the phrase ‘don’t know’ over time.

The extracts discussed here have been selected from a larger corpus of conversation analytic based transcripts/recordings of a young female child between the ages of 1-3.5 years of age interacting with her parents, an older sibling and a family friend (of the author). The analysis traces out a developmental profile which moves from the correct use of the word ‘know’; through indications where ‘knowing and saying’ appear intertwined, and on to examples involving epistemic status and ‘knowing as performance’. Initially, the correct use of ‘know’ and ‘don’t know’ appears to be linked to practices of either avoidance or disagreement. Later, the significance of ‘knowing’ as related to being able to ‘say’ becomes evident, as well as instances where the child begins to recognize that ‘knowing’ can be related to being accountable (for what you know). The latter extracts also indicate the importance of ‘knowing ‘as performance. Overall, the analysis highlights the circumstances where a child begins to display an orientation towards epistemic discursive practices, highlighting the precarious and constantly shifting nature of the distribution of rights and obligations permeating talk-in-interaction.