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Maybe we do it to babies to amplify the signals we’re giving them, since they can’t interpret most information yet. That could explain why we do it to dogs too,
by surfpel 3y ago
Maybe we do it to babies to amplify the signals we’re giving them, since they can’t interpret most information yet. That could explain why we do it to dogs too, since we can hardly communicate with them.
I’ve also noticed something similar when talking to people with whom I hardly share any common language with. I use more obvious or exaggerated facial expressions and vocal intonations to try to convey meaning better.
- lucideer 3y agoI know for dogs baby talk can be useful to separate your communications, ensuring dogs only react when you're directly addressing them, and not when you bring up keywords in idle conversation on unrelated topics. Not sure if this kind of compartmentalising is in any way useful for human babies, probably not in any beneficial way I guess.
- radicaldreamer 3y agoIt doesn’t work though, just try saying park, walk, or out in front of a dog to someone else…
- rkagerer 3y agoInteresting. My adult dog has an incredible sense of context. Knows exactly when to ignore key words. Even understands when we're talking about but not to him.
- lucideer 3y agoMine does too but the differentiation still helps a lot with enforcing the contextual difference. He at least knows when he picks up idle conversation that he's not being directly prompted: he's just likely to use it to anticipate something.