Child-directed speech vs doggerel : social interaction with babies and pets

Abstract

This dissertation strives to find the similarities and differences that exist between social interaction with babies and social interaction with dogs. The main aim is to discover language patterns in adult-baby and adult-dog dyads, as well as comparable structures of non-verbal communication between both dyads. A qualitative research is carried out, in which adult participants are recorded interacting with their babies or dogs. These video-recordings are thoroughly analysed and attention is paid to the numerous prosodic, syntactic and lexical characteristics common in Child-Directed Speech, as well as the facial expressions, gestures and spatial behaviours typical in non-verbal communication with babies. Results aim to display a link between these uses in adult-baby interaction and those in adult-dog interaction, in Doggerel. The data obtained from the video-recordings is compared to previous studies, and attempts are made to confirm or disprove the existing theories in this area of discourse analysis. Furthermore, attempts are made to measure the degree to which gender and age of the adult participants and babies, and the size of the dog are influential factors. This dissertation will endeavour to prove that the similarities between dyads suggest that both registers are used for social reasons, rather than for the baby's cognitive and linguistic growth.