One among others: the emergence of erasure in writing acquisition

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate and discuss erasures (deletion, blot, obliteration, insertion) connected to word segmentation, by blanks observed in written statements, produced by level one elementary school children. Based on the theoretical assumptions of the Indiciary Paradigm, one hundred and ninety-eight erasures from a corpus of seven hundred and eight written statements were identified. We interpreted these erasures as traces of a particular subject/language relation, signaling a displacement of the writing subject, concerning his/her writing and that of others. Results showed, among other facts, the existence of favorite spots for the emergency of segmentation erasures as being more propitious for the writing subject's displacement. Although, on principle, erasures would occur in different children's statements spots, they were significantly observed in clitics and tonic monosyllables.

Writing acquisition; Erasure; Orthography; Graphical segmentation