Susana Vique-KearneyDISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF FAMILY INTERACTIONS Annotated bibliographyBurnham, Denis. 2002. What's New, Pussycat? On talking to children and animals. Science. Volume American Association for the Advancement of Science. Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on 28 July 2014. Denis Burnham is a professor and director of the MARCS Auditory Laboratories at the University of Western Sydney. This research article mainly focuses on child-directed speech (IDS) and pet-directed speech (PDS). Dr. Burnham hypothesized that humans speak in ways specific to their intended audiences and that mothers, in most languages, hyperarticulate vowels to help their infants achieve the vowels of the native language. In this study, the tone, affect, and vocal hyperarticulation of twelve mothers were studied through the use of a lapel microphone. Mothers were asked to play with the words of the three toys provided (sheep, shoe and shark). They delivered this talk in fifteen-minute increments throughout the day to their child, pet, and an adult. Dr. Burnham was studying the similarities and differences in speech directed at pets, children, and adults. The test results showed that language aimed at children and pets is indeed similar and yet very different from language aimed at adults. Mothers overarticulate vowels when talking to their babies and not when talking to their pets. Dr. Burnham believes this is because mothers take both the linguistic and emotional needs of their audience into consideration when speaking. Tannen, Deborah. 2003. Power maneuvers or link maneuvers? Ventriloquism in family interaction. Washington, DC. Georgetown University Press.Debo...... middle of paper ......course examples demonstrated by Tannen. However, I believe that the manipulative control maneuvers that present themselves in each of the three studies demonstrate my theory that women are aware of their subordinate role in the family unit, so they resort to ventriloquism via a voiceless, unconditionally loving pet such as power maneuver to criticize, teach values, strengthen family bonds and demand apologies from other family members, while maintaining the appearance of the neutral peacemaker. Mothers and pets serve many purposes in the American family. Most offer unconditional love, security, acceptance and companionship, but expect little in return. The pairing of these two entities, in my opinion, benefits all family members and proves that pets open the lines of communication within a family and promote harmony in the family..