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Ethnographic interpretations of parent-child discourse in Huli

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Laurence Richard Goldman
Laurence Richard Goldman*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
*
Department of Anthropology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia.
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Abstract

This paper seeks to account for a culturally patterned set of analogic renamings found in Huli baby talk, nursery rhymes and children's verbal games. These socialization activities evidence a marked concern with body motifs and appellations. In accordance with ethnographic paradigms of explanation, the frame of reference is broadened to include consideration of inter-adult behaviour involving ‘talk about the body’ to assess what is being learnt from such interactions as well as what communicative intents are encoded. The argument is developed that in addition to the significance of these play routines in sensitizing the child to cultural rules about speaking, these ludic forms also appear implicated in both an evolutionary and logico-operational sense in the conventional anatomical nomenclature.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , October 1987 , pp. 447 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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