Motherese in the Wichi Language ( El maternés en la lengua wichí )

Bibliographic Data

ID21479518
AuthorsAndrea Taverna (0000-0001-9394-9642, Centro Científico Tecnológico - San Juan, corresponding author), Andrea S TAVERNA (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas)
Year2021
Volume44
Issue2
Pages303-335
Publication date2021-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal for the Study of Education and Development Infancia y Aprendizaje (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0210-3702 • E-ISSN: 1578-4126
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1080/02103702.2021.1889290
OpenAlexW3162641994
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited25

This paper provides the first evidence of maternal speech — motherese — in Wichi, an indigenous language with a complex morphology spoken in the Gran Chaco region of Argentina. The corpus consists of 22 hours of video recordings from the daily life of three children, starting from their one-morpheme utterance period (MLU = 1) to the onset of combining early morphemes (MLU = 2.30). Employing a mixed methodological approach, results allowed us: (a) to create an observational system of specific categories for the analysis of the maternal speech in Wichi; (b) to identify motherese in Wichi, noticeably stable across cases and organized into constellations of lexical, pragmatic-discursive and prosodic features with changes and continuities during the developmental target period. The results are discussed cross-culturally in the light of a renewed cultural approach, while limitations and future directions are addressed

Biology · Humanities · Indigenous · Linguistics · Zoology · Communication · Computer Science · Language Development and Disorders · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Tools

Open DOI