CDS: How many modifications?

[Matthew Saxton]

Has anyone counted, even in rough ballpark terms, how many different
kinds of modifications have been observed in Child Directed Speech? I
have in mind the full gamut of features that characterise this register
(including changes to phonology, lexis, grammar and pragmatics).

 

I have the vaguest recollection that Roger Brown noted somewhere that
parents make more than 100 different kinds of modifications when
adapting their speech for children, but this may just be some strange
fantasy of my own concoction.

 

Any help people can offer with relevant references (real, not
imaginary!) would be very gratefully received.

 

Regards,

 

Matthew Saxton.

 

http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=4578&4578_0=10248

 

*********************************************************************

 

Matthew Saxton MA, MSc, DPhil

School of Psychology and Human Development,

Institute of Education,

25 Woburn Square,

London,

WC1H 0AA.

U.K.

 

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7612 6509

Fax: +44 (0) 20 7612 6304

 

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