The context matters: The use of communicative intentions by mothers to their children during playtime and mealtime

This study examined the use of various communicative intentions (CIs) of mothers directed to their children in two contexts: playtime and mealtime at two linguistic stages: preverbal and single-word. The study revealed that statements were most prevalent during mealtime, while both statements and directives were prevalent during playtime. Particularly, directives were more frequent during playtime than during mealtime. Moreover, the number of CIs directed to children in the preverbal stage was higher than children in the single-word stage. These findings emphasize the role of context and culture on the mother-child language use in general and CIs in particular.