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The ecology of prelinguistic vocal learning: parents simplify the structure of their speech in response to babbling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2019

Steven L. ELMLINGER ,
Jennifer A. SCHWADE  and
Michael H. GOLDSTEIN Open the ORCID record for Michael H. GOLDSTEIN [Opens in a new window]
Steven L. ELMLINGER
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, USA
Jennifer A. SCHWADE
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, USA
Michael H. GOLDSTEIN*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, USA
*
*Corresponding author: E-mail: mhg26@cornell.edu
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Abstract

What is the function of babbling in language learning? We examined the structure of parental speech as a function of contingency on infants’ non-cry prelinguistic vocalizations. We analyzed several acoustic and linguistic measures of caregivers’ speech. Contingent speech was less lexically diverse and shorter in utterance length than non-contingent speech. We also found that the lexical diversity of contingent parental speech only predicted infant vocal maturity. These findings illustrate a new form of influence infants have over their ambient language in everyday learning environments. By vocalizing, infants catalyze the production of simplified, more easily learnable language from caregivers.

Keywords

vocal learninglanguage inputparent–child interactionlanguage statisticsinfant-directed speech
Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 46 , Issue 5 , September 2019 , pp. 998 - 1011
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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