Como a categoria do outro como semelhante emerge da linguagem infantil: processos de interação em sala de aula

Abstract

Language is a cultural entity which is in constant evolution. A subfield of linguistics entitled "Language Acquisition" seeks to understand how human beings, since birth, acquire language. This work, centered on sociointeracionista theory Tomasello, aims to find out how, in the process of language acquisition, children formulate the category of the other as similar, in other words, what factors contribute to children consider a person as similar, thus forming a category. Tomasello (2003) considers the formation of categories as a factor fundamentally necessary to acquire language, because children can only enter the process of language acquisition when, engaged in moments of interaction with others, assume the place of another, realizing that the other is like them. In order to develop this research, we set as our central objective to describe how the categorization of another person as similar in the classroom interactions happens, for, from the observation of the oral speech productions of children in the classroom, describing how children form this category, which mediations favor that category, and how that category helps the child in the language evolution. For this, it was adopted a qualitative research methodology, of descriptive and interpretive nature. The results pointed that it is the classroom itself, through the person of the teacher and also the classmates - the other children - an environment that favors the formulation of the category of the other as similar, for, as often, daily contact with a higher number of other children causes the comparison that gives rise to the category of co-specifics. In addition, questions of a teacher regarding the formation of this category end up developing the argumentation of the child, thereby causing the evolution of language of that child.