Universal #1873
Legacy number: 1873
| Number | 1868 |
| Original | The most striking – and apparently universal – variability is in what can be called "degree of babyishness". Changes in the degree of babyishness may reflect the age of the addressee, thenature of the situation, the speaker’s estimate of the linguistics abilities of the child, the strength of the affetive bound between the interactants, and so on. |
| Standardized | The most striking – and apparently universal – variability is in what can be called "degree of babyishness". Changes in the degree of babyishness may reflect the age of the addressee, thenature of the situation, the speaker’s estimate of the linguistics abilities of the child, the strength of the affetive bound between the interactants, and so on. |
| Keywords | baby talk |
| Domain | discourse |
| Type | unconditional |
| Status | achronic |
| Quality | statistical |
| Basis | 27 lgs, high in IE, low in African and Oceanic lgs: Bengali, Marathi (both Indic, IE), Dutch, English, German (all Germanic, IE), Greek (Greek, IE), Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish (all Romance, IE), Serbo-Croatian (Slavic, IE), Latvian (Baltic, IE), Syrian Arabic, Neo-Aramaic, Maltese (all Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), Berber (Berber, Afro-Asiatic), Cocopa, Pomo (both Hokan), Comanche (Uto-Aztecan), Hidatsa (Siouan), Hungarian (Ugric, Uralic), Japanese (Japanese-Ryukyuan), Kannada (Havyaka) (Dravidian), Kipsigis (Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan), Luo (Eastern Sudanic, Nilo-Saharan), Nivkh (Isolate), Samoan (Oceanic, E. Malayo-Polynesian), Tzeltal (Mayan) |
| Source | Ferguson 1978a: 212 |
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