Abstract

PESSOA, Luciana Fontes; SEIDL-DE-MOURA, Maria Lucia  and  OLIVA, Angela Donato. Analyses of maternal speech to babies in two steps of the development. Psicol. pesq. [online]. 2008, vol.2, n.2, pp.74-86. ISSN 1982-1247.

Language is considered an instrument of symbolic mediation that characterizes the human species, involved in interpersonal exchanges and internalization of the processes that are constructed in these exchanges. In this article the theoretical contributions and conceptions about language development were described, and the role of adults’ speech in this process. Roman Jackobson’s model of was adopted for the analyses of pragmatic characteristics of mothers’ speech. Mothers’ talk of 40 dyads were transcribed and analyzed in two moments of the babies’ development (30 days and 5 months). The affective and cognitive aspects of maternal language were also analyzed. The results indicated the predominance of phatic function in both age groups. Affective aspects were also more frequent in relation to cognitive ones. Knowledge about maternal and child language characteristics at the initial stages of development, and the identification of its pragmatic aspects that can contribute for child language development are relevant.

Keywords : Language acquisition; Mother-infant dyads; Development.

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