Vocal Pitch in Motherese

Abstract

Summary Many writers have described motherese as characterised by higher vocal pitch relative to the pitch of adult to adult speech. The research literature pertaining to this issue is discussed under the following headings: cross‐cultural comparisons; male‐female comparisons; speaker's experience with children; speaker's attitudes towards and perceptions of children; social status of speaker; influence of child‐perceptions of children; social status of speaker; influence of child‐listener; age of child‐listener; state of arousal of child; nature of task; linguistic characteristics of speech and functions of raised pitch. Deficits in the resulting knowledge base are then identified. The review concludes with an outline of current developments in research in these areas.