Distribution of function words in mothers' speech to young children

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of function words in motherese, or mothers’ speech to their young children. Two measures were obtained; 1) the occurrence distribution of a set of function words in three clause positions—initial, medial, and final; and 2) the occurrence distribution of clause-final function words in three utterance types-comments/statements, questions, and responses to one’s own questions.

Twelve previously audiorecorded speech samples of mothers interacting with their young children (17 to 26 months; MLU; 1.00 to 1.50 morphemes) during individual free play situations were evaluated. The samples were orthographically transcribed, coded for the presence of function words, and analyzed using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) computer software program.

A repeated measures ANOVA yielded a statistically significant finding for the effect of function-word category as well as for that of clause position. Additionally, a significant interaction was found between the two variables of category and position. The result for effect of utterance type was found to be approaching significance.

Based on the results of this investigation, it was proposed that the low clausefinal function-word occurrence rates found within motherese contribute to young children’s slow, but eventual, function-word acquisition. In addition, this study revealed that mothers’ use of responses to their own questions may contribute to their children’s future auxiliary verb growth. Clinical implications of the study include the development of therapeutic approaches to increase function-word awareness and comprehension by language-impaired children in order to facilitate the function-word acquisition process.