"BABY TALK" BY UMI AZIZAH

BABY TALK
(SECOND LANGUAGE AQUISATION)




Oleh
UMI AZIZAH
0713042049




FAKULTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENGETAHUAN
UNIVERSITAS LAMPUNG
BANDAR LAMPUNG
2010






A. Background Knowledge

If we observe children speaking for the first time, we will find it very fascinating. One of the amazing things is that language emerges at about the same time in the children all over the world.
Language may be set in motion by a biological clock, similar to which causes kittens to open their eyes when they are a few days old, chrysalises to change into butterflies after several weeks, and humans to become sexually mature at around 13 years of age.

The properties of mothers’ speech to their children in first language acquisition study found that children heard fluent meaningful and coherent corpus of linguistic features which could be used as data for language learning. Other studies have found that mothers’ speech to their children have special register known as ‘motherese’ or ‘caretaker’ or ‘caregiver speech’. In this study mothers’ speaking with their first born children were found to modify the form and content of their speech in ways which were distinctive in kind or number. Pica (1994) concludes that compared to the speech addressed to adults, mother speech to their children has the following characteristics:

a. it has shorter, more complete sentences
b. The syntax is simplified through use of fewer subordinate clauses and coordinate constructions.
c. The vocal pitch was higher and its range was wider
d. The speaking rate was slower, marked by many pauses between utterances, but fewer disfluencies within them
e. The articulation was more precise with more audible distinctions between voice and voiceless consonant such as t an d
f. Phonological features were simplified, for instance in the use of tummy for stomach
g. Attention to here and now, the use of present tense verbs and reference to concrete items within the child’s view
h. The use of self reference through kinship terms instead of pronouns such as ‘Mommy is drawing a picture’ and ‘where is sally’s ball?’ Instead of ‘where is your ball?’, and so on.

In terms of more interactional perspective mother speech also has the following features:
i. mothers repetition of their own words and those of their children
j. sometimes, mother expanded what their children said by using additional commentary or adding grammatical inflection. Such as, if child said “look dog”, the mother might respond with ‘yes, look at the dog’.





















B. Transcript of baby talk

I have recorded some video about the baby talk. I recorded three years old child who spoke to her mother.

The Baby conversation

Mother : sini, hpnya..
Baby : disimpen aja lah mah hp nya..
Mother : kenapa disimpen? Di pake’ aja lah...
Ela Pake’ baju dulu ya...
Baby (silent dan go to the bedroom)
Mother : ela ngaji sama mbak fitri ya?
Baby : enggak mau
Mother : kok di kamar maen nya? Diruang tamu aja, klo mau nulis
Baby : (geleng-geleng)
Mother : kenapa nggak mau?
Ela mau tidur ya?
Baby : (geleng-geleng)
Mother : kok Ela Bibirnya putih?
Baby : pake’ bedak
Mother : kok bibirnya juga dipake’in?
Baby : gak papa lah...
Mother : ela anak siapa?
Baby : (silent)
Mother : mbak fitri boleh gak tidur sini?
Baby : bole
Mother : ntar tidur dimana?
Baby : dikamar mamas
Mother : bener?
baby : benel!


C. Analysis

Babies have limited word to use but sometimes they can understand adult speech by using their skill in guessing the adult comment. They receive the message of speech by noticing the eye contact, gesture and expression of somebody else.
Take the example, when we (as adult) try to make some joke to the baby, we usually express our face as fun as possible to make the baby laughing. The baby knows that is a funny thing even she doesn’t understand the words that we’ve said to her.

According to the conversation above I conclude that baby talk always use simple word to answer the question and sometimes they only answer the question by nodding or shaking her head. And sometimes she cannot utter the right word in producing sentence. Like word in the conversation above the adult said “bener” but the baby said “benel”.
Baby sometimes doesn’t answer the adult question when she is asked about anything that makes her confuse, and when she focus to play something she always doesn’t answer the adult question.