SIMPLIFIED LANGUAGE IN PET TALK

Abstract

This academic exercise will be examining speech addressed to pets. Although a large number of animals are kept as household pets in Singapore, this study is limited to dogs du~ to the time and space constraints of this academic exercise. Dogs, in addition, are sociable animals and are more responsive to human attention. This responsiveness increases the possibility of humans engaging in verbal activity with the dogs. Ferguson's (1977) description of Baby Talk is used as a guide to analyze Pet Talk as both Pet Talk and Baby Talk can be seen as two varieties of simplified speech. Ferguson's description has been modified at areas where the descriptions are unsuitable for describing Pet Talk. Simplifying processes have been identified in Pet Talk. These processes make the language simpler in structure. Simplification can be achieved through the omission or reduction of words, for example, the omission of the verb 'be', dropping of subject, object and the auxiliary 'do', 'does' and 'did' and the reduction of inflections. Directive and expressive functions have also been identified and these serve to firstly, direct the dog to perform some action and secondly, to express some emotion for the animal. Repetition (either of words or phrases) serves the directive function. For the expressive functions, the use of pragmatic particles and self-answer among others, allows the speaker to express some emotion towards the pet Identifying processes are used to identify that pets are involved in the interaction. These are mainly lexical items like "bark bark" and "ruff ruff". Pet Talk is used most likely as a way to express some form of emotion to the pet who may be treated as a young infant or as a member of the family, needing care and attention, just like a human infant.