Is baby speech better than adult speech?
I was baby-sitting recently and suddenly realized: I think baby/toddler talk is nearly as efficient as adult talk!
Examples:
A toddler saw me fall off the bed. He didn't see the cause of my fall, so he said:
"Jack push you?"
Now, the reason he didn't say " Did Jack push you" is because his language skills aren't strong enough yet, of course.
But when you think about it, why would anyone need to include the word "did"? It doesn't add much to understanding the comment.
I suppose that use of the word "did" would imply that he is asking whether Jack has already pushed me. I suppose "Jack push you?" could also be interpreted as asking whether Jack is going to push me. I concede that the word "did" has some benefit in this context. But my point is that the word doesn't add as much value as you might think: after all, the context is important, and I didn't need to hear the word "did" in order to figure out that I was being asked whether Jack did push me, rather than being asked whether Jack was going to push me.
Another example:
A toddler was leaving the house, looks at me and says:
"Coming?" instead of "Are you coming?"
Again, the word "coming" by itself is all that's needed, because based on the context of him leaving the house, I could figure out that he's likely asking whether I'm coming now, not later.
Another example:
The toddler does something silly and looks at me and says "Funny?" instead of "Is that funny?"
Now I feel like using baby talk during a conversation just to see the reaction I get!
I was baby-sitting recently and suddenly realized: I think baby/toddler talk is nearly as efficient as adult talk!
Examples:
A toddler saw me fall off the bed. He didn't see the cause of my fall, so he said:
"Jack push you?"
Now, the reason he didn't say " Did Jack push you" is because his language skills aren't strong enough yet, of course.
But when you think about it, why would anyone need to include the word "did"? It doesn't add much to understanding the comment.
I suppose that use of the word "did" would imply that he is asking whether Jack has already pushed me. I suppose "Jack push you?" could also be interpreted as asking whether Jack is going to push me. I concede that the word "did" has some benefit in this context. But my point is that the word doesn't add as much value as you might think: after all, the context is important, and I didn't need to hear the word "did" in order to figure out that I was being asked whether Jack did push me, rather than being asked whether Jack was going to push me.
Another example:
A toddler was leaving the house, looks at me and says:
"Coming?" instead of "Are you coming?"
Again, the word "coming" by itself is all that's needed, because based on the context of him leaving the house, I could figure out that he's likely asking whether I'm coming now, not later.
Another example:
The toddler does something silly and looks at me and says "Funny?" instead of "Is that funny?"
Now I feel like using baby talk during a conversation just to see the reaction I get!
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