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Why we don't talk ‘baby talk’ to babies*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Kenneth Kaye
Kenneth Kaye
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Abstract

The speech of 36 mothers to their infants in a face-to-face situation at ages 6, 13 and 26 weeks was compared with unfamiliar adults' speech to the same infants, the mothers' speech to an interviewer, and their conversations with the same children 2 years later. Speech to the infants was quite different from so-called ‘baby talk’, but contrary to other authors the speech to infants was even shorter, more repetitive, and more limited in content than the speech to language-learning children. Differences appear due to the infant's changing status in the relationship, from a potential to an actual conversant.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , October 1980 , pp. 489 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

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