Abstract

Pauses and silence in family conversation has been investigated as a process implied in children's development and socialization: at this aim we grounded our study on the international literature about discourse's uses in natural settings. Nine hours of videotaped recordings of 6 dinners of 3 different families, consisting of father, mother, young child (3-4 years) and an older child, have been systematically observed in two different periods (8 months between the two measurements). Results have been analysed with log-linear and show that: 1) in the management of pauses there are shared rules and also a variability between families; 2) the person who speaks before the pause is usually the same one speaking after it (self-transition); however when the other-transition is taken into consideration, the patterns of association between familiar roles can be understood with a developmental explanation; 3) few differences and much more similarities are identified among the two different periods. Overall results are discussed from the perspective of the role played by pause management within the family system at dinner table.