Publications

Publication details [#8518]

Schieffelin, Bambi B. and Elinor Ochs. 1983. A cultural perspective on the transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication. In Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick, ed. The transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication. L. Erlbaum. pp. 115–131.

Publication type

Article in book

Publication language

English

Keywords

baby talk | culture | onset of verbal behavior

Language as a subject

English, American | Kaluli

Annotation

S. and O. argue that descriptions of caregiving (including caregive speech or 'baby talk') in the psychological literature should be reinterpreted as ethnographic descriptions because they are neither characteristic of all societies nor of all social groups. Anglo-American white middle class acquisition is compared with Kaluli acquisition.