query about "motherese" research

[Roger]

Dear friends:

The debate is very interesting, but I guess we are missing an important
question, maybe the fundamental one.

It concerns to human mind's creativity. Human mind creates infinite outputs
from finite inputs. This is the major contribution of Humboldt's ideias
about language, that were resumed by Chomsky. Human mind always recreates
the signals perceived in order to generate new ones. Then the focus has to
be in the mind power itself and not in the inputs. To understand this
perspective, try to read these works:

ALMEIDA, Júlia Maria Costa de. Sobre o aspecto criativo da linguagem [On
the human language
creativity].<http://revistaalceu.com.puc-rio.br/media/alceu_n4_Almeida.pdf>
[BRAZILIAN
PAPER]

BARSALOU, Lawrence W. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems.
[PAPER]<http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.4.5511&rep=rep1&type=pdf>

EDELMAN, Gerald (1989). *The remembered present*: a biological theory of
consciousness.<http://books.google.com.br/books?id=stJqAAAAMAAJ&q=the+remembered+present+gerald+edelman&dq=the+remembered+present+gerald+edelman&hl=pt-BR&sa=X&ei=7WtVUoCpI4ag9QSIsIHYBw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA>
 [BOOK]

FRANCHI, Carlos (1977-2011). Linguagem: atividade constitutiva. [BRAZILIAN
PAPER]<http://www.youblisher.com/p/328875-LINGUAGEM-ATIVIDADE-CONSTITUTIVA/>

TURNER, Mark (1998). The mind is an autocatalytic vortex. In: TURNER, Mark.
*The literary mind*. [BOOK CHAPTER] <http://TURNER, Mark (1998)>

I hope these brief comments as well as the reading suggestions shed some
light to the motherese question, which I am more a curious by what an
expert on. After all, the human mind misteries just have to be taken
seriouslly in the Western science.

Best regards,

*Roger Costa*
Master's in Linguistics and Portuguese Language
Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais
Brazil


2013/10/9 Cynthia Dunn <cyndi.dunn at uni.edu>

> I think one thing that is sometimes overlooked in these discussions is that
> the Samoan and Kaluli children spent much of their time immersed in rich,
> multiparty social interaction.  In other words, even if they weren't being
> directly talked *to* they were certainly receiving plenty of linguistic
> input.  By contrast, many American children grow up in isolated nuclear
> families or single-parent homes.  If their primary caregiver does not talk
> to them, they may not receive much linguistic input at all.
>
> I'm reminded of another article by Shirley Heath-- something like "The
> children of Trackton's children."  She found that these mothers were not
> immersed in a rich social community, but tended to live alone in apartments
> and spent much of their time watching television.  She seemed more
> concerned about their children's language and intellectual development than
> she had been about the original Trackton children.
>
> So I think the social context within which care giving practices are
> embedded makes a big difference here.
>
>
> Cyndi Dunn
> Associate Professor of Anthropology
> Dept. of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology
> University of Northern Iowa
> Cedar Falls IA 50614-0513 U.S.A.
>
> (319) 273-6251
> Cyndi.Dunn at uni.edu
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 4:44 PM, Judy Pine <Judy.Pine at wwu.edu> wrote:
>
> > Hello, all!  I have a student in my intro to linganth class who is a
> > Communications Science and Disorders major.  She raised a point in class
> > which I need to take into account as we move through the quarter.  I was
> > commenting on the fact that motherese is by no means necessary, and the
> > student piped up saying that motherese does enhance language acquisition,
> > she has been taught so in her CSD classes.  Now, I will certainly be
> > bringing in Ochs and Schieffelin when we get to language acquisition, and
> > we will have talked about Heath when we work our way through literacy and
> > writing (we are in phonology right now, the quarter began at EOM
> September,
> > and acquisition comes along at the tail end of things in my course).  I
> > would love to have additional material on which to draw, and I am
> > especially curious about what is out there that is recent that supports
> the
> > motherese hypothesis.
> >
> > I will reach out to colleagues in CSD and hopefully get some material
> > there, but I thought it might be a good idea to see what my own community
> > has in our collective libraries.  Your time and assistance is much
> > appreciated.
> >
> >
> > -          Judy :)
> >
> > Judith M.S. Pine
> > Asst. Professor
> > Dept of Anthropology
> > Western Washington University
>