infant-directed child speech

[Marilyn Vihman]

Margaret -

Elaine Andersen did research on older siblings' speech to their
younger sibs in the 1970s. There's a ref in Snow & Ferguson (1977),
Talking to children, to a 1973 working paper version of this, with
Carolyn Johnson, involving one 8-yr-old (I don't know where or
whether it came out in a journal later). But I am sure she also had a
study of 2- and 4-yr-olds talking to infant sibs. Someone must have
the ref! What I remember of it is that these young children did adopt
a CDS register at least to some extent. Elaine saw it as evidence of
pragmatic sophistication in these young children. -marilyn vihman

>Oh, ouch.   My initial question seems to have been easy to misread.   Let
>me rephrase a bit.
>
>I've seen a lot of discussion about what adults say to infants, but very
>little about what children (e.g. older siblings, playmates of older
>siblings) say to infants.   Casual observation suggests that they don't
>adopt motherese and, indeed, seem to do some things that adults don't,
>such as waving a ball in front of the infant saying "Look David, this is
>a BALL."   But that's just a few casual observations and I was curious
>about what's known.
>
>This question is probably more interesting when the children are old enough
>to talk well (e.g. 3 and up).
>
>???
>
>Margaret


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