VER Y INDRA WAHYU (0813042051) BABY TALK

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION


BABY TALK





VERY INDRA WAHYU

0813042051















ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

ARTS AND LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGY

UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG

2011
I. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Baby talk is more effective than regular speech in getting an infant's attention. Studies have shown that infants actually prefer to listen to this type of speech. Some researchers, including Rima Shore (1997), believe that baby talk is an important part of the emotional bonding process between the parents and their child that help the infants learn the language. More than one language can also be learned because eventually, the child will be clever enough to differentiate the languages. It is easier to learn languages as an infant than as an adult. Other researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Wisconsin confirm that using basic “baby talk” helps babies pick up words faster than usual. Therefore, studying baby talk is important to know the interaction between children and the adults.

1.2 The Formulation of the Problem
How do the characteristics of baby talk occur in the interaction between mother and the child?

1.3 Objectives
The objective of this research is to identify the characteristics of baby talk in the interaction between mother and the child.


II. FRAME OF THEORIES

2.1 Definition of Baby Talk

Baby talk is similar to what is used by people when talking to their pets (pet-directed speech), and between adults as a form of affection, intimacy, bullying or condescension.
Baby talk, also referred to as caretaker speech, infant-directed speech (IDS) or child-directed speech (CDS) and informally as "motherese", "parentese", "mommy talk", or "daddy talk" is a nonstandard form of speech used by adults in talking to toddlers and infants.
While some parents are naturally adept as deciphering the meaning of their baby's sounds, others find themselves frustrated by their inability to understand what their babies are trying to tell them. One mum, Priscilla Dunstan, found that by paying close attention to the sounds that her infant son was making, she could distinguish five specific "words" that each indicated a specific need. After observing other babies, she realised that they used those same sounds, with the same meanings.

2.2 Characteristics of Baby Talk

Pica (1994) summarises that compared to the speech addressed to adults, mothers’ speech to their children or adults’ speech to the children have the following characteristics:
a.) It has shorter, more complete sentence.
b.) The syntax is simplified through use of fewer subordinate clauses and coordinate constructions.
c.) The vocal pitch was higher and its range was wider.
d.) The articulation was more precise with more audible distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants.
e.) The speaking rate was slower.
f.) Phonological features were simplified.
g.) Attention to the here and now.
h.) The use of self reference through kinship terms instead of pronoun of their children.
i.) Mother expands what her child said.
j.) Mother’s repetition of her own words.

This 'baby talk' has some characteristics:
a.) It has simpler vocabulary and sentence structure than adult language.
b.) It exaggerated intonation and sounds.
c.) It has lots of repetition and questions.
All of these features help the child to sort out the meanings, sounds, and sentence patterns of his or her language.

While many toddlers regularly use only 50-75 words, they have the capability to understand many more. New words are learned on a daily basis, and parents often realism that their little ones repeat the words that they hear mum and dad using. Simple two word sentences begin to emergence and by the two year mark, sentences of three words are common. Now that they are opinionated and verbally capable human beings, two-year-olds often amaze their parents as just how well they can get their points across.


III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Subject
This taping was held on April 28th 2011. The child’s name is Aila Putri Sofia Adzini (Putri). She is researcher’s cousin. Putri is two and a half years old. The taping was held one times. Between putri and her mother.

3.2 Analysis
Conversation between putrid and her mother:

Ibu : sini ke ibu sini..adu du duduu.. putrid nanti kalo gede mau jadi apa ya?jadi apa,hahh?
Putri : bisa naik motol
Ibu : o naik motor..terus apa lagi?
Putri : naik motol
Ibu : oo..mau naik motor..putri mau sekolah gk? Sekolahnya pinter gk?
Putri : hmm…kalo udah gede
Ibu : kalo udah gede puti mau sekolah,,sekolahnya dmna?..yang keras?
Putri : TK
Ibu : oohh,,di TK,,sekolahnya pinter gk?
Putri : pinter
Ibu : pinter..pinter ngapa??
Putri : pintel belajal..
Ibu : ho’oh..terus? belajar apa ya? Belajar nulis..
Putri : telol
Ibu : ooh bikin telor, terus?
Putri : buku
Ibu : oh dibukunya sapa
Putri : aku
Ibu : oh puti punya buku, bukunya berapa? Hmm bukunya berapa
Putri : Satu
Ibu : coba tangannya puti mana tangannya puti, puti pinter ngitung gk? Hmmmpinter ngitung gk, coba diitung tangannya ibu ne, tangannya ibu di itung, hitung tangannya ibu ni, sa…sa..
Putri : tu
Ibu : terus
Putri : dua
Ibu : terus
Putri : tiga
Ibu : terus
Putri : empat
Ibu : terus,li…
Putri : ma
Ibu : terus yang ini, en…
Putri : pat
Ibu : en…nam… tu
Putri : juh
Ibu : de…
Putri : lapan..sembilan
Ibu : terus sepu…
Putri : sepuluh
Ibu : puti udah mandi blm si?
Putri : udah
Ibu : udah,,kok bau..mandinya pake sabun gak? Hahh…pake sabun gk?
Putri :hooh
Ibu : pake sampo gk?
Putri : ia..
Ibu : o iya, tadi puti dari mana lho?
Putri : dali kalang
Ibu : dari karang…ooo…beli apa?
Putri : beli minum
Ibu : beli minum, minum apa lho?
Putri : minum es
Ibu : es pocari? Terus beli apa lagi?
Putri : beli pelmen
Ibu : beli permen..terus beli kelengkeng gk?
Putri : gak
Ibu : yang keras ngomongnya ibu gak denger
Putri : enggaaaakk..
Ibu : terus beli buah apa lho?
Putri : gak beli apa apa
Ibu : terus beli makan gak?
Putri : beli ayam bakal
Ibu : oohh beli ayam bakar,,kok ibu gak dikasih lho? Putri mau ikut mamas?
Putri : kemana?
Ibu : sekolah, dikarang sana lho? Mau?
Putri : emoh
Ibu : kenapa lho?
Putri :banyak olang
Ibu : ooohh banyak orang..lha emangnya kalo banyak orang putri takut?
Putri : heeh
Ibu : ya gak lah,,putri kan mau sekolah juga? Takut ama sapa?
Putri : mas ugi
Ibu : oohh takut ama mas ugi,gak boleh takut lah, putri kan anak pinter hooh? Kalo gede mau jadi apa ya? Dok…
Putri : tel..
Ibu : yang keras, mau jadi apa ya?
Putri : doktel

From the conversation above, we can see the characteristic of putri:
1. She uses repetitions in speaking.
Putri : bisa naik motol
Ibu : o naik motor..terus apa lagi?
Putri : naik motol

2. Putri is already able to give respond to the person she talks to.
Ibu : o iya, tadi puti dari mana lho?
Putri : dali kalang
Ibu : dari karang…ooo…beli apa?
Putri : beli minum
Ibu : beli minum, minum apa lho?
Putri : minum es
Ibu : es pocari? Terus beli apa lagi?
Putri : beli pelmen

3. The adult uses simple words to talk to the child.
Ibu : terus beli buah apa lho?
Putri : gak beli apa apa
Ibu : terus beli makan gak?
Putri : beli ayam bakal

4. The mother repeats her words to the child.
Ibu : pinter..pinter ngapa??
Ibu : ho’oh..terus? belajar apa ya? Belajar nulis..
Ibu : oh puti punya buku, bukunya berapa? Hmm bukunya berapa
Ibu : sini ke ibu sini..adu du duduu.. putrid nanti kalo gede mau jadi apa ya?jadi
apa,hahh?
Ibu : oh puti punya buku, bukunya berapa? Hmm bukunya berapa

5. The mother simplifies her phonological features. She says “gede” for “dewasa”.
Ibu : sini ke ibu sini..adu du duduu.. putrid nanti kalo gede mau jadi apa ya?jadi apa,hahh?



Besides that, based on Pica, the characteristics of baby talk are summarized below:
1. It has shorter, more complete sentence, we can see in the dialogue above:
Ibu : terus beli buah apa lho?
Ibu : terus beli makan gak?
Mother did that in order to make the sentence easier to be understood by Putri.
2. The syntax is simplified through use of fewer subordinate clauses and coordinates construction. “oh dibukunya sapa”, it should be “putri menulis di bukunya siapa?” , which has more systematic orderly arrangement.
3. The vocal pitch was higher and its range was wider. It can be clearly heard from the video that mother usually used more intonation in the each vocal than in conversation with adult, for example: “terus beli buah apa lho?”, which was said in rising intonation at the end of the sentence.
4. The speaking rate was slower, marked by many pauses between utterances. It can be heard from the video that Mother’s speaking rate was slower than usual, and he also repeated in order to help Putri understand what he meant, for example: “kenapa lho…?”.
5. The articulation was more precise. It can be heard from the video that Mother’s articulation was very clear in order to be easily understood by Putri, for example: “Putri tadi dari mana lho?”
6. Attention to the here and now. It can be seen from the video when Mother said, “itung tangannya ibu ni?” mother asked Putri to see her fingers.
7. The use of self reference. It can be seen from the video when Mother asked Putri, “dibukunya sapa?”. Then Putri answered, “aku.”, which refers to herself reference.

IV. CONCLUSION

From the analysis above, it can be conclude that about 90 % of the characteristics summarized by Pica can be found in the dialogues. It was done naturally by the adults when speak with children or mothers when speak with Putri in order to help the children easier to understand what they mean. So, the characteristic summarized by Pica is definitely true.