Conditional Threats in Young Children's Peer Interaction

Purpose – In this chapter, the use and organization of conditional threats are analysed in relation to preschool children's disputes.

Methodology – Using conversation analysis, naturally occurring examples of children's threats observed in preschool classrooms demonstrate how conditional threats are placed, used and analysed by children in their talk-in-interaction.

Findings – The function of threats – specifically in terms of the outcome of children's disputes – cannot be classified by the content of the inducement. ‘You can’t come to my birthday party’, for example, is commonly heard in young children's discourse, but this threat is implicated in both the resolution and dissipation (abandonment) of dispute episodes. Accordingly, the meaning and analysability of threats is explored with respect to their relative value and their practical rationality.

Research limitations – This small data set presents the opportunity for the phenomena of children's threats to studied further in a larger collection.

Originality/value of chapter – This chapter makes a unique contribution to the study of language and social interaction by illustrating young children's competent use of conditional threats in the closings of peer disputes.