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Universal 1867:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1867:

Original
Baby talk is also characterized by:
high percentage of questions;
frequent use of tags;
here-and-now semantics;
high semantic continuity between pairs of utterances;
striking shifts in pronoun use (especially in alternatives for YOU).
Standardized
Baby talk is also characterized by:
high percentage of questions;
frequent use of tags;
here-and-now semantics;
high semantic continuity between pairs of utterances;
striking shifts in pronoun use (especially in alternatives for YOU).
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
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP
    1. May 2020

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