linguistic environment.pdf

The Linguistic Environment The context of language Topics Language input (baby talk) Culture; parental speech styles Development of Conversation Methods to Study Input Research Findings Cultural Attitudes Piaget: “…very rarely have I been able, in America, to expound any aspect of my stage theory without being asked ‘How can I speed up development?” K’iche’ (Pye) - children are at risk - protection of the ‘soul’ - parents direct little speech to children - parents speak for their children - no language games or songs Sample Transcript Adult to Child: “Do you know what you are holding?” Mother to Adult: “he says ‘girl’” Mother to Child: “You say little horsie” (2x) Mother to Adult: “Play. He says little horsie play” Cultural Attitudes Towards Infants Mohave: the fetus is born capable of understanding the adult language Samoan: rules of etiquette restrict parents from speaking to young infants Javanese: infants are not yet human Baby Talk The language used by anyone in the linguistic community when addressing a child Baby Talk Features 1. Prosodic: higher pitch, more varied intonation 2. Lexical: special words like ‘nana’, ‘tummy’ 3. Complexity: shorter sentences, fewer auxiliaries 4. Redundancy: more immediate repetition, and repetition of words phrases 5. Content: topics in child’s world 1 Snow’s Hypothesis - Infants are conversational partners: e.g. Mother and Ann at 0;3 (Ann burps) What a nice wind as well! Yes, that’s better isn’t it? Yes. Yes. (Ann vocalizes) Yes! There’s a nice noise. - Infant units of conversation: Smiles, laughs, burps, yawns, sneezes, coughs, coos, looking at objects. M: What can you see? M: What are you looking at? (4 times) (Ann says ‘haaa’) M: Haaa. Kaye Hypothesis - Parents may vary in their expectations: Mother 1: Come on. Talk. Talk to me. Can you talk to me? Say something. Come on. Talk. Can you talk? Can you say something? Well, talk. Mothe