Child Directed Speech: Similarities and Differences between Saudi Mothers and Fathers Based on Syntax and lexical Items

This study investigates the differences and similarities between male and female parents while speaking to children. Speech styles were analyzed based on two linguistic areas; utterance-construction level and lexical categories. The parents’ speeches were recorded during different occasions and activities. Each recording was six to eight minutes in average in order to collect data and find out different patterns in the adults’ way of speaking to the kids. The results indicated that both mothers'' and fathers’ speech with their children is mainly constructed as imperatives, questions and fragments. The results also showed that male parents show more complexity in their speeches to their kids. They use verbs more frequently due to the frequent use of the imperatives when they speak to the children. On the other hand, the common nouns and proper nouns are used more than verbs by the female parents. Based on the utterance-construction level, it is found that both male and female parents use questions and imperatives in general. The difference lies in how frequently they use these sentence types. The difference between the male and the female parents exists based on the more frequently used lexical categories. The male parents use more verbs while the female parents use more common nouns. It is found that some female parents usually use simpler range of vocabulary in which they use nouns more than verbs. Other aspects of child directed speech, like phonology and morphology, needs be studied and analyzed.