Differences in the syntactic complexity and lexical diversity of utterances with different pragmatic function in the speech addressed to Argentine babies

Abstract

Several studies have analysed the linguistic and interactive characteristics of child-directed speech (HDN) as they can influence children’s linguistic development (HOFF-GINSBERG, 1986). However, very few studies have addressed the relationship between these properties of HDN, different theorists are starting to emphasize the importance of approaching the study of linguistic input in a multidimensional way (ROWE; SNOW, 2020). In order to address this gap in the literature, this work analyzes the relationship between the interactive properties and the linguistic properties of child-directed speech. To this end, the lexical diversity and syntactic complexity of sentences with different pragmatic functions in speech addressed to 40 children living in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires are studied. Results showed that comments presented greater syntactic complexity and greater lexical diversity than action requests and verbal response requests. Requests for action were characterized by a more diverse vocabulary than requests for verbal response. The effect measures of the variance’s analysis show that the pragmatic function of the utterances explains a higher percentage of the variance for lexical diversity than for syntactic complexity of the utterances.