Publications

Publication details [#35803]

Farris, Catherine S. 1992. Chinese preschool codeswitching: Mandarin babytalk and the voice of authority. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 13 (1/2) : 187–213.

Publication type

Article in journal

Publication language

English

Keywords

authority | baby talk | child | code-switching | teacher

Language as a subject

Chinese, Mandarin

Place, Publisher

Multilingual Matters

ISBN

0143-4632

Journal WWW

www.multilingual-matters.com/multi/onlinej.asp

Annotation

This paper argues that Chinese teachers addressing preschool students codeswitch between an unmarked 'voice of authority', a style related to babytalk, and a babytalk register. The two speech styles are said to be motivated by Chinese cultural assumptions regarding childhood.