What is it about?
We often talk to babies in a special way, sometimes called Motherese, Parentese, or Baby Talk. But does this way of talking help babies learn words? Since we don't know exactly how babies learn words, we used a set of diverse computer models, each representing possible strategies. These computer models were tested on transcriptions of adult-adult conversations, or child-adult conversations, both recorded in fully natural conditions, in the children's homes and daycares.
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Why is it important?
It has been very difficult to decide whether, for any learner, it is is easier to learn words from the Baby Talk that infants hear, and from other speech they overhear. We can provide a unique answer by analyzing fully natural conversations, and doing so with a diverse set of strategies.
Perspectives
The question of whether it is easier to learn from Baby Talk than regular speech is one that I find fascinating, not only for theoretical reasons (How do parents realize that this is good? Has there been an evolutionary selection for Baby Talk), but also for its societal implications (Should we tell parents to use Baby Talk?) The unique strengths of this paper made me feel we were one step closer to an answer.
alejandrina cristia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Segmentability Differences Between Child-Directed and Adult-Directed Speech: A Systematic Test With an Ecologically Valid Corpus, Open Mind, February 2019, The MIT Press,
DOI: 10.1162/opmi_a_00022.
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