Universal #1875

Legacy number: 1875

 Number  1870
 Original  Like other registers, baby talk or selected features of it may be extended to secondary uses, e.g. (i) to suggest the speech of children, (ii) in talking to pets, (iii) in coaxing other people or even objects to behave the way the speaker wants, (iv) in calling arttention to someone's childishnesss, (v) in adult intimate interaction such as talk between lovers.
 Standardized  Like other registers, baby talk or selected features of it may be extended to secondary uses, e.g. (i) to suggest the speech of children, (ii) in talking to pets, (iii) in coaxing other people or even objects to behave the way the speaker wants, (iv) in calling arttention to someone's childishnesss, (v) in adult intimate interaction such as talk between lovers.
 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: 211

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Notes
Some of these extensions are undoubtedly widespread or even universal, but there is considerable cross-cultural variation. <author>The implicational core:If relevant features are used secondarily in (i)-(v), then they will also be used in baby talk.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Some of these extensions are undoubtedly widespread or even universal, but there is considerable cross-cultural variation. <author>

The implicational core:
If relevant features are used secondarily in (i)-(v), then they will also be used in baby talk.