Abstract

The paper analyses directive utterances and their context of emergence in family conversations. Parent-child verbal exchanges including directives have been extracted from video-recordings of four families (2 parents, 2 siblings age between 8-13) observed in their homes. Directive utterances are described on the basis of their components and formats, showing the effects of Summons and Negative qualifiers and detailing the characteristics and interactional import of Preliminary Questions, Coercive Requests and Norm Reminders. A distinction is drawn between directives oriented to control and those oriented to the scaffolding of joint activities, the first typically using a question format and the second the imperative format. Finally, distinct forms of participation of mother and father to directive sequences are discussed.