Communicative function in child directed speech: A cross-cultural analysis

Language development can be framed as the process of learning how to mean (Halliday, 1975). From this perspective, the role of communicative function is central to the language-learning process with development being guided by interaction with experienced others. In the current study, we present a d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:First language 2024-08, Vol.44 (4), p.395-421
Main Authors: Zhao, Chen, Serratrice, Ludovica, Lieven, Elena, Steele, Circle, Malik, Nivedita, An, Yi, Hayden, Emily, Neumegen, Jo, Cameron-Faulkner, Thea
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Caregivers
Child-directed speech
Cultural groups
Infants
Interpersonal communication
Native language acquisition
Socialization
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Summary:Language development can be framed as the process of learning how to mean (Halliday, 1975). From this perspective, the role of communicative function is central to the language-learning process with development being guided by interaction with experienced others. In the current study, we present a detailed analysis of the communicative functions used in interaction with prelinguistic infants aged 10–12 months from three cultural groups living in the United Kingdom. The findings indicate that caregivers from all three groups used a wide range of communicative acts when interacting with their infants, ranging from directives to discussions of inner thoughts and feelings. In addition, we identified significant differences in the frequency with which different communicative acts were used across our three groups. The study complements the positive contributions made by pivotal studies on language socialisation by highlighting the diversity and variation of caregiver speech at the functional level.
ISSN:0142-7237
1740-2344
DOI:10.1177/01427237241259065