Maternal speech to prelingual infants in Japan and the United States: relationships among functions, forms and referents

Abstract

ABSTRACT Maternal speech to 3-month-old infants was compared for American and Japanese mother-infant dyads. Utterances were analysed at the levels of function, form and referent, and in relation to infant gaze direction. Loglinear categorical analysis revealed that infant gaze affected the intended functions of maternal speech differently for the two cultural groups. Cultural differences were also seen in the nature of function-form, and function-referent relationships. The differences seem to be consistent with culture-characteristic profiles of maternal behaviour towards older infants and children. It is suggested that transmission of culture through maternal speech starts at the earliest stage of infant development.