Speech overlap in Japanese mother-child conversations.
This study aimed to clarify the development of conversational style in Japanese mother-child interactions. We focused on the frequency of speech overlap as an index of Japanese conversational style, with particular attention to ne, a particle produced by the speaker, and to backchannels, such as 'uh-huh', produced by the listener that support sympathetic conversation. The results of longitudinal observations of two Japanese mother-child dyads from approximately 0;11 to 3;3 suggest that an adultlike conversational style with frequent overlaps emerges in Japanese child-directed speech around the two-word utterance period, and a child's development of ne use is closely related to this shift.
Kajikawa
Sachiyo
S
NTT Communication Science Laboratories, NTT Corporation, Kyoto, Japan.
Amano
Shigeaki
S
Kondo
Tadahisa
T
D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D014705:Verbal Behavior