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Prosodic, paralinguistic, and interactional features in parent-child speech: English and Spanish*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Ben G. Blount  and
Elise J. Padgug
Ben G. Blount
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Elise J. Padgug
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
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Abstract

Parents employ a special register when speaking to young children, containing features that mark it as appropriate for children who are beginning to acquire their language. Parental speech in English to 5 children (ages 0; 9–1; 6) and in Spanish to 4 children (ages 0; 8–1; 1 and 1; 6–1; 10) was analysed for the presence and distribution of these features. Thirty-four paralinguistic, prosodic, and interactional features were identified, and rate measures and proportions indicated developmental patterns and differences across languages. Younger children received a higher rate of features that marked affect; older children were addressed with more features that marked semantically meaningful speech. English-speaking parents relied comparatively more on paralinguistic and affective features, whereas Spanish-speaking parents used comparatively more interactional features. Despite these differences, there was a high degree of similarity across parents and languages for the most frequently occurring features.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , February 1977 , pp. 67 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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Footnotes

*

Research on this project was made possible by an Office of Education Grant, OEG-72-3945 and by an institutional National Science Foundation Grant GU-1598. The data on speech behaviour were collected in Austin, Texas during 1972–73. Helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper were made by David Crystal, Paul Friedrich and Andrea Meditch. Any shortcomings of the paper remain, however, the responsibilities of the authors. The computer programming was done by Willett Kempton; Dorothy Wills assisted immeasurably in the data collection and analyses: and Marylou White completed the tape transcriptions.

References

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