Social Class Differences in the Expression of Uncertainty in Five-Year-Old Children

Speech samples were obtained from five-year-old children differing in social class, verbal intelligence test scores and sex. The linguistic devices used by the children to express uncertainty were analysed. It was found that middle-class children, relative to working-class children, were more likely to use the egocentric sequence, certain types of question, refusals, suppositions based on perception and, in a certain context, hypothetical statements. Medium ability children, relative to high ability children, were more likely to use one type of sociocentric sequence, the reversed polarity tag, and certain types of question. These results support the hypothesis that the orientation towards the use of expressions of uncertainty is more strongly related to social class than to verbal ability. The results are related to Bernstein's work on types of familial socialisation.