Maternal speech to three-month-old infants in the United States and Japan.
An American-Japanese comparison of maternal speech to 3-month-old infants is presented. Mother-infant dyads were videotaped in the laboratory, and the maternal speech was analysed by function and syntactic form. US mothers were more information-oriented than were Japanese mothers; they also used more question forms, especially yes/no questions. Japanese mothers were affect-oriented, and they used more nonsense, onomatopoeic sounds, baby talk, and babies' names. The differences between countries in maternal speech addressed to 3-month-olds appear to reflect characteristic culture-specific communicative styles as well as beliefs and values related to childrearing.
Toda
S
S
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Fogel
A
A
Kawai
M
M
D000339:Affect; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D012660:Semantics; D014481:United States; D014705:Verbal Behavior