ANTH 005 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Bambi Schieffelin, Elinor Ochs, Noam Chomsky
9 May 2020
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Chapter 4: language acquisition and socialization by laura m. ahearn, pages 273-288. Quote: language is a great force of socialization, probably the greatest that exists - edward. Attests to the importance of learning to communicate as a form of joining and maintaining society. Elinor ochs and bambi schieffelin research on modern and baby interaction: Katie (3-month old girl, usa) and mother: Katie gurgles incoherently, mother speaks in baby-talk (talking down to infant) Caregivers in us engage in 2 related practices. Self-lowering : simplifying utterances and asking questions to which they already know the answers. Child-raising : treating the child as more competent linguistically than she [katie] really is. Mother, playing along encouragingly, is giving meaning to what may be the baby"s genuine reactions to stimuli that appear as nonsensical gurgles to casual observers. Note that it is neither necessary nor universal for mothers to act this way. Research demonstrates that linguistic fluency may be developed in multiple ways.
