Baby talk: adult talk direct to the child. Which child? Which adult?

Abstract

As a researcher interested in understanding how children are socialized in the communities to which they belong, I look at language socialization studies (Ochs and Schieffelin, 1986; 2001) for a theoretical and analytical framework to pursue this goal. Departing from this framework, I discuss a practice which is widely linked, academically, to the language acquisition process – baby talk. Baby talk was defined by Ferguson (1996 [1964]) as a special register used by adults in interaction with children. This register, according to the author, makes it easier for children to access the linguistic code that characterizes the speech community to which the children belong. Studies that follow this proposal are able to reveal how simplified – syntactically, semantically and lexically – this register appears to be. However, what is perceived is that the relations between children’s linguistic competence e the use of baby talk are essentialist since they attribute the children a cognitive limitation to understand the “adult” linguistic code, taken as the “normal” one. Thus the current study proposes to relocate the use of baby talk in the light of language socialization studies so as to understand this code as part of the local practices (Wenger, 1998) and its cultural meanings (Ochs, 1986; Ochs and Schieffelin, 2001; Schieffelin and Ochs, 1986; 1996). Making use of an ethnographic approach to the analysis of verbal exchanges (Sacks, 2000; Duranti, 1997; Erickson and Shultz, 2002 [1981]; Gumperz, 1982), the domestic environments of two Brazilian families are investigated, enabling the mapping of the local practices of baby talk. It is possible, then, to think about the local construction regarding the (linguistic) competence of children and adults’ rights and duties in interaction with children. This study reveals that, although baby talk takes place in both of the families, the local understandings that surround this practice – and which make it take place – are considerably distinct.

Key words: baby talk, language socialization, childhood, family, talk-in-interaction.