Children's Use of a Social Speech Register: Age and Sex Differences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to trace the changes in a social speech register, talking to an animal, as used by children between the ages of five and 12 years. Each child's speech was recorded while she/he played alone with a rabbit. There were no changes in the nature of such speech between the age groups. However, boys and girls spoke differently to the rabbit. Boys used simpler speech, more imperatives and more annoyed utterances. Girls were more affectionate and asked more questions. Girls were less self conscious during the task. Girls' intonations were more expressive as measured by ratings and by the variability of the fundamental frequencies of their voices. A comparison of results on baby-talk with the characteristics of animal-talk indicated that the two registers are similar.

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