Fwd: RE: Do children know what it means to 'talk posh'?

[Beverly Flanigan]

This sounds more like style shifting than code (dialect) switching, but
nonetheless the age is going down.

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>From: "Caroline Bowen" <cbowen at ihug.com.au>
>To: <info-childes at mail.talkbank.org>
>Subject: RE: Do children know what it means to 'talk posh'? as we say in
>  gbenglish
>Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 08:42:15 +1000
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>Dear Aubrey
>
>Very young children, much younger than 8;0, code switch. I have just been
>listening to two three year olds, twins 3;4, "being" the trains (Thomas the
>Tank Engine and friends) talking dead common, and the Fat Controller talking
>dead posh. The interesting thing is that the three year old with the
>language disorder (my client) could change voices, apparently as easily as
>the one with typical language development.
>
>I don't know how relevant this is to what you are seeking, Aubrey, but two
>year olds "talk down" to children they perceive as younger. I have seen two
>and three year olds talk down to older children with Down Syndrome in the DS
>clinic at Macquarie and at DS Association social functions. Young children
>also talk in a bossy, authoritative way to dollies, teddies and pets, don't
>they?
>
>I would look in the autism/pragmatics literature, particularly the work that
>has been done on teaching individuals with pragmatics issues to adopt an
>appropriate "tone" and demeanour to talk to peers vs. those in authority,
>etc. There is a lot of work done with children and young people with HFA,
>autism, semantic pragmatic disorder in "social skills training groups" along
>these lines.
>
>I don't have any references at my fingertips, but have you talked to Gina
>Conti-Ramsden? Nicola Botting?
>
>Caroline
>
>Caroline Bowen PhD
>cbowen at ihug.com.au
>Speech Language Pathologist
>9 Hillcrest Road
>Wentworth Falls NSW 2782
>Australia
>
>Do you know about the
>Speech Pathology Australia National Tour?
>INFORMATION HERE:
>http://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/2005nt.htm
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
>
>My question is this: how early and how accurately do children learn to
>detect corelations between a particular sort of speech and the exercise of
>authority and power?
>
>Aubrey Nunes,
>Pigeon Post Box Ltd
>52 Bonham Road
>London, SW2 5HG
>I:  www.pigeonpostbox.co.uk