motherese

n. Motherese (also baby talk, infant-directed speech, caretaker speech) is speech directed at infants and young children, altered in relatively systematic ways across speakers. Infantdirected speech tends to be produced with an overall higher pitch as well as with exaggerated pitch movements. Sentences uttered to infants generally consist of simplified structure (subject-verb-object utterances, without embedded clauses) and convey relatively simple meanings. Caretakers tend to engage in frequent use of diminutives (doggie in English, perrito in Spanish, for example) and in frequent repetition (Look at the doggie. See the doggie? What a cute doggie!). Motherese is not characterized by the presence of correction; in fact, errors produced by children seldom are corrected, particularly if they involve form rather than meaning. While some aspects of motherese – the overall pitch differences in particular – are present across different cultures, caretakers of children across the world do not all uniformly alter speech directed at infants and young children. Furthermore, there are vast cross-cultural differences in caretaking behaviors; for example, children in some cultures are reared by older siblings rather than adults. That motherese is not universally available in all contexts where language is successfully acquired strongly suggests that it is not a necessary ingredient for first-language acquisition. – EMF