As childhood death is considered nonnormative and outside of the life course, children may be memorialized differently than adults who have had an opportunity for fuller lives. As obituaries are cultural artifacts used to provide public documentation of personal legacies, this study sought to determine how children obituaries differ from traditional obituaries of those who have lived full lives. I content analyzed 63 children’s obituaries to determine how they differ in intention and use of linguistic devices from what we know about traditional obituaries. Several key themes emerged in the obituary content – passions, religion and faith, children’s role as siblings, their effect on those around them, and messages written directly to the deceased children. These children’s obituaries read as tributes to the children’s lives, rather than as resumes as traditional obituaries often do.

由于童年死亡被认为是非正常的，并且不属于生命历程，因此儿童的纪念方式可能与有机会过上更充实生活的成年人不同。由于讣告是用于提供个人遗产的公共记录的文化产物，因此本研究试图确定儿童讣告与那些过着充实生活的人的传统讣告有何不同。我分析了 63 个儿童的讣告，以确定它们在意图和语言手段的使用方面与我们所了解的传统讣告有何不同。讣告内容中出现了几个关键主题——激情、宗教和信仰、儿童作为兄弟姐妹的角色、他们对周围人的影响，以及直接写给已故儿童的信息。这些儿童的讣告读起来是对儿童生命的致敬，而不是像传统讣告那样作为简历。