Patterns in babbling: a cross-linguistic study
J Blake1, B de Boysson-Bardies
1Department of Psychology, York University, Ontario, Canada.
Journal of Child Language
|February 1, 1992
Summary
Infants develop patterns in babbling, linking sounds to specific contexts, which increases after 1 year old. These early sound-meaning connections are similar across language groups and continue into word development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Child Language Acquisition
Background:
- Early infant babbling is a crucial stage in language development.
- Understanding the relationship between babbling sounds and their contexts provides insight into pre-linguistic communication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the development of phonetic-contextual patterns in infant babbling.
- To compare babbling patterns in Canadian-English and Parisian-French infants.
- To explore the continuity between babbling patterns and early word meanings.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal observation of six infants (three Canadian-English, three Parisian-French) from 9-11 months to 14 months.
- Phonetic transcription and contextual categorization of babbled utterances during naturalistic parent-infant interactions.
- Statistical analysis of co-occurrences between phonetic and contextual categories to identify significant patterns.
Main Results:
- Babbling patterns emerged and increased in frequency after 12 months of age for most infants.
- 1% to 30% of babbled utterances recurred in specific contexts with greater-than-expected frequency.
- Similar babbling patterns were observed within and across the English and French language groups.
Conclusions:
- Infant babbling exhibits context-specific patterning, suggesting early sound-meaning correspondences.
- These early patterns are not solely determined by language environment and show cross-linguistic similarities.
- Babbling patterns represent a continuous development towards situation-bound word meanings.
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