the saddest ad in the world
From the December 14, 2009, issue of the New Yorker comes this at-first-winsome-but-then-oh-so-depressing advertisement for Canon cameras: “Can I Stay Up Till Dad Comes Home Mode.”
motherese
Once upon a time, you knew it as “baby talk.” These days, the jargon term of art is “motherese.” As pointed out by the authors of The Scientist in the Crib, motherese — the sing-songy, high-pitched, repetitive burblespeak people seem to naturally engage in with babies — “seems to actually help babies solve the language problem.” In other words, gurgling at your tot helps her learn to speak.
Well, duh, right? Except that many language-development experts — especially William Fowler — also admonish parents to be sure to use proper grammar when constructing those simple sentences. This might seem obvious — Delphine hears plenty of sentences along the lines of “Look at the kitty cat, the soft, black kitty cat” — but less so when, um, the mother realizes that a good deal of her motherese is nonsense.
