This study investigates framing in discourse
while considering spontaneous role-play between a young child
(age 2 years 11 months) and her mother, wherein the participants
reverse roles from real life and reenact shared prior experiences.
Data consist of two tape-recorded naturally occurring pretend-play
episodes and the real-life interactions on which they are based,
all of which took place at home. Analysis of the role-play episodes
illustrates how framing occurs from moment to moment in interaction
in this context, showing that the participants use both play
and non-play utterances collaboratively to evoke, maintain,
and embed multiple play frames with increasingly specific, and
at times blended, metamessages. By linking the role-play
interactions back to their real-life counterparts, I explore
the relationship between framing and “prior text.”
This analysis adds to our understanding of framing by showing
how frames are layered in discourse. Additionally, it links
frames theory to the notion of intertextuality by illustrating
how prior text can be used as a resource for framing.