reversal of 1st and second person

[Rosa Graciela Montes]

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002, A. Katz wrote:

> Does anyone know of any case studies in first language
> acquisition where a child reverses first and second
> person, referring to himself in second
> person and to his interlocutor in first person?

You might want to post this question on the CHILDES list
(info-childes at psy.cmu.edu) since this is a topic widely
studied by those working on children's language development.

IN the case I studied (child-mother interactions) over a
period of a year and a half approximately
(Child: 1:8-3:00). There was a period up to
around age 2, where both participants referred to themselves
in the third person, thus avoiding the deictic switch. This
continued into the time that the child started using first
person forms to refer to herself. I
have one or two instances recorded of the child using a
*correct* first-person form for herself and repairing it to
a third person:

CHI: no puedo.          (I can´t)
CHI: no puede cerrarlo. (She can´t close it)

This is not the use of "you" for "I", but it does provide a
stable for for self and addressee-reference, apparently
because of the difficulties of the deictic switch. This
stage did not last for very long in the child
although the mother seemed to continue it long after the
child had started using first person forms consistently.

I also have anecdotal observation from a 14 year-old with
some kind of not-just-linguistic impairment who consistently
uses "tu" and second person verb forms to refer to
himself. He addresses a teacher with forms
like:

        Quieres ayuda.          ((You) want help)
        Ese no te gusta.        (You don't like that)

referring to himself. A psychologist I talked to mentioned
that this type of reversal was fairly common in some forms
of autism.

Hope this is of some use.

Rosa Graciela Montes, UAP (MEXICO)