Motherese and Aesthetic Foundations

Motherese, the clinical term for infant-directed speech, is the universal modification caregivers make to their speech when addressing infants: higher pitch, slower tempo, elongated vowels, exaggerated melodic contours, increased repetition, greater facial expression. The modification appears across every culture studied, activates biologically rather than culturally, and elicits preferential attention from infants as young as days old. Dissanayake's distinctive claim is that motherese is not merely analogous to art — it is the evolutionary origin of art. The five proto-aesthetic operations that characterize making special across all cultures are all present in motherese, and they were selected for first in the context of mother-infant bonding before being co-opted for the broader social functions of communal aesthetic behavior.