A cross-cultural study on early vocal imitative phenomena in different relationships

The present study constitutes an effort to extend our understanding of the universality of vocal imitative exchanges. It aimed to investigate early vocal imitative phenomena in different countries and relationships. In particular, several basic aspects of vocal imitation, such as frequency across the age range of the study, structure, the linguistic nature, the direction and the temporal patterns of it, were micro-analysed, and compared in spontaneous dyadic interactions of fathers and mothers with their infant boys and girls in Scotland and Greece. Fifteen infants (eight boys and seven girls) born in Crete, Greece, and 15 infants (eight boys and seven girls) born in Edinburgh, Scotland, were observed in dyadic interactions with their mothers and fathers at home from the second to the sixth month of their life at 15-day intervals. It was found that:

• most aspects of vocal imitation differ between Greece and Scotland;

• the frequency of vocal imitation across the age range of the study, the structure (turn-takings, co-actions, multiple series), the linguistic nature (vowels, consonants, vowel-consonant combinations), and the durations of imitative interactions, but not the imitative direction (who imitates whom) were found to differ between girls and boys;

• maternal and paternal vocal imitative exchanges were found to be different, rather than similar.

It is suggested that vocal imitation constitutes a flexible mode of intersubjective communication that reflects differences in the styles and patterns of interaction of certain relationships and cultures.