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The identification of names in maternal speech to infants

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Abstract

Mothers' speech to 14-month-old infants was recorded during a free-play session. The findings suggest that this speech contained a number of characteristics which could facilitate the identification of names from the other words in an utterance; names were frequently the loudest word of an utterance and were highly likely to be positioned at the end of utterances. Thus, infants appear to receive a verbal input which may help them to identify semantically important words.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child and Family Research Branch, N.I.C.H.H.D., N.I.H., Bethesda, Maryland

    David J. Messer

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  1. David J. Messer
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This research was supported by an S.S.R.C. grant to H. R. Schaffer, Dept. of Psychology, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.

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Messer, D.J. The identification of names in maternal speech to infants. J Psycholinguist Res 10, 69–77 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067362

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067362

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