[Linganth] Re: [ANTHRO-L] Is "motherese" universal?

[Ronald Kephart]

At 11:30 AM -0800 12/31/04, Dustin M. Wax wrote:

>In Way with Words, Heath (I think that's the author's name, too lazy
>to double-check) describes the poor, rural, black folks in her study
>as almost never speaking to their infants and toddlers, and when
>they do, it's always as adults...

Yes, Shirley Brice Heath. There's lots of other interesting stuff in
there; one of the most interesting being her analysis of different
questioning styles in these speech communities, which contribute to
differential success in school.

It's important to note, for those perhaps not familiar with this
topic, that this is not simply a poor or rural or black phenomenon.
Elinor Ochs and Bambi Schieffelin have a nice article comparing US
white, Samoan, and another group I don't recall; I also don't recall
the title of the article, but it's reprinted in Duranti's linguistic
anthropology reader (I'm writing from home).

Ron