Bebeğe Yönelik Konuşmanın İçeriği: Türk Anneler Duygusal mı, Bilgilendirici mi?

Öz

Bu çalışma, Türk annelerin bebeklerine yönelik konuşmalarında bilgi ağırlıklı (information-salient) ve duygu ağırlıklı (affect-salient) içerik kullanımını incelemekte; anneye ilişkin (yaş, eğitim düzeyi, stres seviyesi, çocuk sayısı) ve bebeğe ilişkin (yaş, cinsiyet, doğum durumu) değişkenlerin bu içerik türleriyle ilişkisini araştırmaktadır. Araştırmaya, 7 ila 19 aylık bebeklere sahip 37 anne katılmıştır. Her anne, bebeğiyle beş dakikalık doğal etkileşimi sırasında ses kaydı almış; bu kayıtlar, annelerin kullandığı bilgi ağırlıklı ve duygu ağırlıklı ifadeler açısından kodlanmıştır. Bulgular, Türk annelerin yönergeler, sorular ve betimlemeler gibi bilgi aktarımına yönelik ifadeleri daha yoğun kullandığını göstermektedir. Duygu ağırlıklı ifadeler ise daha az tercih edilmiş; bu kategori içinde en çok oyun ifadeleri, sevgi sözcükleri ve anlamsız sesler yer almıştır. Bu tür ifadelerin, bağ kurma ve dikkat çekme işlevi gördüğü düşünülmektedir. Ayrıca, annenin eğitim düzeyi arttıkça duygu ağırlıklı ifade kullanımının azaldığı; bebeğin yaşının artmasıyla ise bilgi ağırlıklı ifadelere yönelimin arttığı saptanmıştır. Genel olarak, bulgular Türkiye’de ebeveynliğin sıcaklık ve denetimi harmanlayan yapısını yansıtarak, annelerin bilişsel uyarımı duygusal bağlanmayla dengeleme eğilimine işaret etmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• bebeğe yöneltilmiş dil,
• duygu ağırlıklı içerik
• bilgi ağırlıklı içerik

Content of Infant-Directed Speech: Are Turkish Mothers More Affective or Informative?

Abstract

This study explores the use of information-salient and affect-salient content in Turkish mothers’ infant-directed speech, investigating maternal (age, education, stress, number of children) and infant-related factors (age, gender, birth status). Thirty-seven mothers recorded five minutes of interactions with their infants, aged 7 to 19 months. Affect-salient and information-salient utterances were coded from the recordings of mother-infant dyads. The findings indicate that Turkish mothers more frequently used information-salient utterances, like directives, questions and reports, emphasizing information transmission. Affect-salient expressions were used less often; within this category, the most common were play utterances, endearments, and non-lexical vocalizations. These types of expressions are thought to serve functions such as fostering connection and capturing the infant’s attention. Furthermore, it was found that as mothers’ education levels increased, the use of affect-salient expressions decreased, whereas with increasing infant age, the use of information-salient expressions increased. Overall, findings reflect Turkey's parenting style of warmth and control, balancing cognitive stimulation with emotional bonding.

Keywords

• infant-directed speech,
• affect-salient content,
• information-salient content,

Kaynakça

1. Adi-Bensaid, L., Ben-David, A., & Tubul-Lavy, G. (2015). Content words in Hebrew child-directed speech. Infant Behavior & Development, 40, 231–241.
2. Aksu-Koç, A. E., & Slobin, D. I. (1985). Acquisition of Turkish. In D. I. Slobin (Ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition (Vol. 1, pp. 839–878). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
3. Aktan-Erciyes, A., & Göksun, T. (2023). Early parental causal language input predicts children’s later causal verb understanding. Journal of Child Language, 50(1), 177–197.
4. Baydar, N., Akçınar, B., & İmer, N. (2012). Çevre, sosyoekonomik bağlam ve ana babalık. In Ana babalık: Kuram ve araştırma (pp. 81–127).
5. Bornstein, M. H., Toda, S., Azuma, H., Tamis-LeMonda, C., & Ogino, M. (1990). Mother and infant activity and interaction in Japan and in the United States: II. A comparative microanalysis of naturalistic exchanges focused on the organization of infant attention. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 13(3), 289–308.
6. Bornstein, M. H., Tal, J., Rahn, C., Galperín, C. Z., Pêcheux, M.-G., Lamour, M., Toda, S., Azuma, H., Ogino, M., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (1992). Functional analysis of the contents of maternal speech to infants of 5 and 13 months in four cultures: Argentina, France, Japan, and the United States. Developmental Psychology, 28(4), 593–603.
7. Council of Higher Education. (2024). Women’s access to higher education. https://www.yok.gov.tr/Sayfalar/Haberler/2024/kadinlarin-yuksekogretime-erisimi.aspx Deater-Deckard, K. (1998). Parenting stress and child adjustment: Some old hypotheses and new questions. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 5(3), 314–332.
8. D'Odorico, L., Salerni, N., Cassibba, R., & Jacob, V. (1999). Stability and change of maternal speech to Italian infants from 7 to 21 months of age: A longitudinal study of its influence on early stages of language acquisition. First Language, 19(57), 313–346.

9. ELAN (Version 6.8) [Computer software]. (2024). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Language Archive. https://archive.mpi.nl/tla/elan
10. Fernald, A., & Morikawa, H. (1993). Common themes and cultural variations in Japanese and American mothers' speech to infants. Child Development, 64(3), 637–656.
11. Genovese, G., Spinelli, M., Lauro, L. J. R., Aureli, T., Castelletti, G., & Fasolo, M. (2020). Infant-directed speech as a simplified but not simple register: A longitudinal study of lexical and syntactic features. Journal of Child Language, 47(1), 22–44.
12. Ger, E., Küntay, A. C., Ertaş, S., Koşkulu‐Sancar, S., & Liszkowski, U. (2023). Correlates of infant pointing frequency in the first year. Infancy, 28(6), 986–1006.
13. Golinkoff, R. M., Can, D. D., Soderstrom, M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2015). (Baby) talk to me: The social context of infant-directed speech and its effects on early language acquisition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(5), 339–344.
14. Henning, A., Striano, T., & Lieven, E. V. (2005). Maternal speech to infants at 1 and 3 months of age. Infant Behavior and Development, 28(4), 519–536.
15. Hoff, E. (2003). The specificity of environmental influence: Socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech. Child Development, 74(5), 1368–1378.
16. Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1998). The relation of birth order and socioeconomic status to children's language experience and language development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19(4), 603–629.
17. Ikeda, Y., & Masataka, N. (1999). A variable that may affect individual differences in the child‐directed speech of Japanese women. Japanese Psychological Research, 41(4), 203–208.
18. Kagitcibasi, C., & Ataca, B. (2005). Value of children and family change: A three‐decade portrait from Turkey. Applied Psychology, 54(3), 317–337.
19. Kaymak-Özmen, & Özmen, A. (2012). Anne baba stres ölçeğinin geliştirilmesi. Milli Eğitim Dergisi, 42(196), 20–35.
20. Kısa, Y. D., Aktan‐Erciyes, A., Turan, E., & Göksun, T. (2019). Parental use of spatial language and gestures in early childhood. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 37(2), 149–167.
21. Kızıldere, E., Esmer, Ş. C., & Göksun, T. (2022). From woof woof to dog: Interactions between parents' use of sound symbolic words and infants' vocabulary development. Infancy, 27(5), 972–996.
22. Koo, T. K., & Li, M. Y. (2016). A guideline of selecting and reporting intraclass correlation coefficients for reliability research. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 15(2), 155–163.
23. Küntay, A., & Slobin, D. I. (1996). Listening to a Turkish mother: Some puzzles for acquisition. In D. I. Slobin, J. Gerhardt, A. Kyratzis, & J. Guo (Eds.), Social interaction, social context and language: Essays in honor of Susan Ervin-Tripp (pp. 265–286). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
24. Penman, R., Cross, T., Milgrom-Friedman, J., & Meares, R. (1983). Mothers' speech to prelingual infants: A pragmatic analysis. Journal of Child Language, 10(1), 17–34.
25. Phillips, J. R. (1973). Syntax and vocabulary of mothers' speech to young children: Age and sex comparisons. Child Development, 182–185.
26. Provera, A., Neri, E., & Agostini, F. (2023). Infant-directed speech to 3-month-old severe preterm infants: The influence of birth weight and maternal depressive symptoms. Healthcare, 11(12), 1807.
27. Rowe, M. L. (2008). Child-directed speech: Relation to socioeconomic status, knowledge of child development and child vocabulary skill. Journal of Child Language, 35(1), 185–205.
28. Saint-Georges, C., Chetouani, M., Cassel, R., Apicella, F., Mahdhaoui, A., Muratori, F., … Cohen, D. (2013). Motherese in interaction: At the cross-road of emotion and cognition? A systematic review. PLoS ONE, 8(10), e78103.
29. Scheiber, F. A., Ryckman, K. K., & Demir-Lira, Ö. E. (2022). Maternal depressive symptoms and maternal child-directed speech: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 297, 194–207.
30. Singh, L., Nestor, S., Parikh, C., & Yull, A. (2009). Influences of infant-directed speech on early word recognition. Infancy, 14(6), 654–666.
31. Soderstrom, M. (2007). Beyond babytalk: Re-evaluating the nature and content of speech input to preverbal infants. Developmental Review, 27(4), 501–532.
32. Soderstrom, M., Blossom, M., Foygel, R., & Morgan, J. L. (2008). Acoustical cues and grammatical units in speech to two preverbal infants. Journal of Child Language, 35(4), 869–902.
33. Toda, S., Fogel, A., & Kawai, M. (1990). Maternal speech to three-month-old infants in the United States and Japan. Journal of Child Language, 17(2), 279–294.
34. Ünlütabak, B., Aktan-Erciyes, A., Yılmaz, D., Kandemir, S., & Göksun, T. (2022). Parental input during book reading and toddlers' elicited and spontaneous communicative interactions. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 81, 101436.