Syntactic and conversational characteristics of fathers' speech

Hummel, Donna D.

doi:10.1007/bf01067494

Cited by 32 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…For example, some studies have found basically no differences between mothers' and fathers' speech to young children. Both parents tend to engage in "motherese" (Kavanagh & Jirkovsky, 1982)' both mothers' and fathers' speech tends to contain the same number of syntactic and conversational features (Hummel, 1982), and both parents tend to be equally responsive to their children's level of communicative competence (Pellegrini, Brody, & Siegel, 1985).…”

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confidence: 99%

Mothers' and fathers' speech to infants in a teaching situation

Brachfeld-Child¹,

Simpson²,

Izenson³

1988

Infant Ment. Health J.

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The purpose of this study was to compare mothers' and fathers' speech to their preverbal infants in a teaching situation. Thirty‐two parents of 16 8‐month‐olds were asked to teach their infants to put a small cube into a cup. Infant Gender (2) x Birth Order (2) x Parent (2) analyses of variance were performed with repeated measures on parent. Results indicated that fathers issued more utterances and used more words per utterance than did mothers. Although there was no difference in the proportion of imperatives used by mothers and fathers, fathers' imperatives were significantly longer than mothers'; this difference was not evident for utterances that contained indirect instructions. Mothers tended to use more exact repetitions. There were differences in parental speech related to infant gender: Parents directed more utterances, particularly utterances that contained negative statements, imperatives, and exhortations, to girls than to boys. Infant Gender x Parent effects for imperatives and exhortations indicated that these differences were especially true for fathers. Overall, it appeared that fathers made greater efforts to control the situation and to direct their infants' behavior, which might have reflected mothers' and fathers' different perceptions of both their infants' ability and their own role as teachers.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mothers' and fathers' speech to infants in a teaching situation

Brachfeld-Child¹,

Simpson²,

Izenson³

1988

Infant Ment. Health J.

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“…Some researchers have found that parents do not differ in the total or mean number of utterances and/or words they direct to their young children (Masur & Gleason, 1980;Malone & Guy, 1982;Bellinger & Gleason, 1982;McLaughlin, White, McDevitt, & Raskin, 1983). Hummel (1982) also found that mothers and fathers were similar for the mean number of utterances per conversational turn. On the other hand, other studies have found that mothers directed more utterances, words, or morphemes to their children than fathers while children were observed separately with each parent (Hladik & Edwards, 1984), with Iboth parents together (Golinkoff & Ames, 1979), and both alone with one parent and with the two parents together (Randal, 1980;Bredart-Compernol, Rondal, & Peree, 1981).…”

Section: Total Language Producedmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…The longer and more complex the sentence, the more difficult it is to understand. Most researchers found no differences in mothers' and fathers' Mill to children from 3-monthsold to preschoolers (Gleason, 1975;Golinkoff & Ames, 1979;Bredart-Compernol et al, 1981;Kavanaugh & Jen, 1981;Kavanaugh & Jirkovsky, 1982;Hummel, 1982;Lipscomb & Coon, 1983;Hladik & Edwards, 1984;Papousek, Papousek, & Haekel, 1987). A few studies, however found that mothers' MLU was longer than fathers' (Rondal, 1980;Malone & Guy, 1982;McLaughlin et al, 1983).…”

Section: Structural and Lexical Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most studies analyzing iexical variability as measured by the Type Token Ratio (the ratio of the number of different words spoken in a sample to the total number of words in the sample) showed no differences between mothers and fathers (McLaughlin, Schutz, & White, 1980;BredartCompernol et al, 1981, Hummel, 1982Lipscomb & Coon, 1983;Ratner, 1988). One study (Rondal, 1980), however, found that fathers' vocabulary is more diverse than mothers' as measured by the TTR.…”

Section: Structural and Lexical Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…questions (which require a more elaborate response), (Golinkoff & Ames, 1979;Rondal, 1980;Bredart-Compernol et aI., 1981;Kavanaugh & Jen, 1981;Kavanaugh & Jirkowsky, 1982;Hummel, 1982;Hladik & Edwards, 1984;Papousek et aI., 1987). Only one study (McLaughlin et aI., 1983) found that mothers used more 'yes/no' questions than fathers and that fathers used more 'wh-questions relative to the total number of questions asked in this study than mothers.…”

Section: Structural and Lexical Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Father-child and mother-child speech: A perspective on parental roles

Chanu

Marcos

1994

Eur J Psychol Educ

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An analysis of the existing research on parents' speech to young children suggests that the differences between mothers' and fathers' speech appear especially in the nature of their vocabulary and in certain functional and conversational aspects of their speech when addressing their children. The findings suggest that the father is a more demanding or challenging conversational partner [or the young child than the mother, who tends to be more sensitive to the child's abilities and requires less o~l the child as a conversational partner. We interpret these differences as reflecting parental roles which are in part different and complementary. The mother's specific role is to provide a feeling ofsecurity by avoiding situations where the child's established acquisitions would be challenged, while still stimulating the child. The father's specific roles is to prompt the child to attain higher levels oj success, even if it means momentarily destabilizing the child. Literature on children's communicative behaviors 'with each parent was also examined. The sparse amount of research in this field reveals that children may communicate differently with mothers and fathers. The conclusions of this literature review are discussed in terms of different perspectives open for future research.The following comparison of the speech mothers and fathers address to young children results from an examination of the literature in the field. We will attempt to demonstrate that the differences primarily concern conversational and functional aspects of language, the aspects which most accurately translate the nature of the relationship between interlocutors.In addition, we will examine the research which compares the child's productions when addressing his/her mother and his/her father. Although the quantity of research is small, we are still provided with a base in which to study how parents' and children's communicative behaviors influence one another.In other domains of study than language, a collection of research on children in different

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Mother‐child and father‐child communication in the second year: A functional approach

Marcos¹

1995

Early Dev. Parent.

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The purpose of this study was to compare young children's communication with their mother and with their father at the end of the second year. Communication was analysed in terms of the function or social goal of messages addressed to the adult. Twenty children attending day care centres were observed in a specifically planned setting. The findings showed that children (boys and girls) addressed more directives to their fathers and tended to address more expressions of reactions to objects and events (exprasives) to their mothers. These differences stem in part from the spontaneous choice by the child of his or her communicative acts.As for the parents, fathers produced more action directives than mothers and mothers produced more assertives than fathere. The results are discussed in terms of (a) the capacity of young children to adapt their communicative acts to the partners' characteristics, and (b) a difference in focus of father-child and mother-child relationships: the former appear to be more 'task-oriented' and the latter more oriented to sharing 'descriptions' of the inner or the outer world.Key words: communicative competence; message functions; toddlers; father; mother.The study presented here was designed to compare the ways in which young children communicate with their mother and with their father. Communication was studied by analysing the function of the message, i.e. the social goal of the person producing it. The proportion of messages with each type of communicative function was noted during interaction between parent and child at the end of the second year, when one-word sentences still prevail.Our aim was to shed light on early communicative skills, and in particular on the ability of children to adapt their communicative behaviour to different partners. In the case of interaction with a parent, the required adaptation does not pertain to familiarity or social status as it does with other types of partners, but rather to the specific interactive behaviours of each parent. Acts of communication rank among these interactive behaviours.

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Syntactic and conversational characteristics of fathers' speech

Cited by 32 publications

References 14 publications

Mothers' and fathers' speech to infants in a teaching situation

Mothers' and fathers' speech to infants in a teaching situation

Father-child and mother-child speech: A perspective on parental roles

Mother‐child and father‐child communication in the second year: A functional approach

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