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Young children's use of age-appropriate speech styles in social interaction and role-playing*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Jacqueline Sachs  and
Judith Devin
Jacqueline Sachs
Affiliation:
The University of Connecticut
Judith Devin
Affiliation:
The University of Connecticut
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Abstract

Four children (aged 3;9 to 5;5) were recorded talking to different listeners (adult, peer, baby, and baby doll) and role-playing a ‘baby just learning how to talk’. As a measure of the children's responsiveness to situational cues, each sample was analysed for formal and functional characteristics. The children's speech was different on many of the measures when talking to a baby or doll as compared with the speech to a peer or adult. Speech to a baby doll was similar to that addressed to a real baby, indicating that feedback is not necessary for speech modifications to occur. In the role-playing situation, children changed and simplified their speech when talking as a baby.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , February 1976 , pp. 81 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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Footnotes

*

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Lorraine St. Lawrence and Susan Moeller, who helped in the transcription and analysis of the data, and of the mothers who did the recording in their homes. Thanks are also due to Jane Bisantz, who made helpful suggestions about analysis procedures. Some of these data were presented at a meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, December 1973

References

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