Language
March 30, 2011 by Stephan Joseph
This video was shown on TV this morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTOPXoDjhng
In this video, twin babies look like they are engaging in a serious conversation using conversational acts, laughter, and everything else that normal people do when conversing with each other. One might think that this is just infant-directed speech, or baby talk, but I somewhat disagree. I believe that they are clearly trying to communicate with each other, but because of their lack vocabulary they are limited to just “da da da da.” Something that I noticed is that both of them show some type of understanding on how to communicate. I say this because both of them aren’t just babbling away and making noise; they are very organized with their speech. When one speaks the other listens and they do this for the whole conversation. They even react to each other’s gestures by mimicking them or giving their own version or understanding of it. Together they are displaying protodeclaratives, to help keep the conversation going or get their points across. I will even say that they show signs of understanding the concept of a rebuttal. As we discussed today in class, humans are able to learn things easier when they are babies. They probably saw their parents having a discussion one day and are just reenacting them as many children do, or maybe they actually grasped an idea on how to communicate on a higher level. You can even hear what sounds like phonological development as they change the pitch of their voices when speaking. If you listen closely you can hear them asking each other questions and laughing after hearing something funny. They most likely don’t know this but they are showing their emotions in everything they’re trying to say.
