There are many ways of talking to children and preverbal infants and also a great variety of opinions about how important the child’s environment is or if it plays a role at all. The question is not only how and why children understand grammatical forms and language (Ochs & Schieffelin 1995: 73), but also which role other aspects, such as Parentese and Baby Talk, play. Are they necessary or totally unimportant? Should parents talk to their children at all or is it senseless because they do not understand what the parents say to them? Some people are of the opinion that Parentese only plays “a minimal role” (Garnica 1977: 63) whereas other people think that the verbal environment is important. In how far is the acquisition of language “the result of a process of interaction between mother and child” (Snow 1977: 31)? By explaining some aspects of talk to children, such as Parentese, Baby Talk, expansion, correction, imitation and by giving examples of children being socialized through language, the question about which role these aspects really play in first language acquisition should be answered.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Children as Addressees
- Differences in Cultures
- USA, Canada and Europe
- Other Societies
- Differences in Simplification
- USA, Europe, Tamil, Inuit
- Javanese, Kaluli and Samoan
- Parentese
- Definition
- Aspects of Parentese
- Importance of Parentese
- Baby Talk
- Prosodic Modifications
- Grammatical Modifications
- Lexical Modifications
- Phonological Modifications
- Discourse Modifications
- Other Forms of Baby Talk
- Differences in Cultures
- Children as Speakers
- Expansion
- Imitation
- Correction
- Use of Grammatical Forms
- Grammatical form as frequent but inappropriate for child use
- Samoan
- Kaluli
- Grammatical form as infrequent but appropriate for child use
- Kaluli
- Samoan
- Grammatical form as frequent but inappropriate for child use
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This seminar paper examines the social aspects of language acquisition, specifically focusing on language socialization and grammatical development. The aim is to explore how different cultures approach the interaction between adults and children, including the use of simplified language, and to analyze the impact of these interactions on children's language acquisition.
- Cultural differences in addressing children
- The role of simplified language (Parentese and Baby Talk) in language acquisition
- The influence of social interaction on grammatical development
- The impact of different language socialization practices across cultures
- The interplay between language acquisition and the child's social environment
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The paper begins by introducing the diverse approaches to talking to children in different cultures, highlighting the debate on the importance of the child's environment in language acquisition. The discussion moves on to examine the role of simplified language, specifically Parentese and Baby Talk, in communication with preverbal infants and young children. Chapter 2 dives into the cultural variations in addressing children, contrasting the practices of "middle class communities" in the USA, Canada, and Europe with those found in other societies like the K'iche' Mayan and Javanese. This chapter further explores the different levels of simplification across cultures, examining the use of modifications in phonology, morphosyntax, and discourse. The paper concludes by exploring the significance of grammatical forms in different contexts, analyzing how their frequency and appropriateness for child use vary across cultures. The study provides insights into the complex interplay between language acquisition and the child's social environment.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The key concepts explored in this paper include language acquisition, language socialization, Parentese, Baby Talk, cultural variation, grammatical development, conversational interaction, and simplified language. It examines the impact of social and cultural factors on the development of language skills in children.
- Quote paper
- Jessica Narloch (Author), 2006, Social Aspects of Language Acquisition - Language Socialization and Grammatical Development, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/70469
