Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:22:49.259Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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

REFERENCES

Blount, B. G. (1970). The pre-linguistic system of Luo children. AnthLing 12. 326–42.Google Scholar
Blount, B. G. (1972). Aspects of socialization among the Luo of Kenya. LangSoc 1. 235–48.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. A. (1964). Baby talk in six languages. AmAnth 66. 103–14.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. A. (1975). Baby talk as a simplified register. PRCLD 9. 1–27.Google Scholar
Kaplan, E. L. (1969). The role of intonation in the acquisition of language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Lieberman, P. (1967). Intonation, perception, and language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Weir, R. (1966). Questions on the learning of phonology. In Smith, F. & Miller, G. A. (eds), The genesis of language, Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Wells, G. (1975). Interpersonal communication and the development of language. Paper presented at the Third International Child Language Symposium,London.Google Scholar