transcript of Ella explains what a wookie is

"Hey /Ella."
"[/INAUDIBLE BABY NOISE]"
"Who's the guy from Star Wars on your cup?"
"Chewbacca."
"Chewbacca? (1) What is Chewbacca?"
"A woobkie"
"A what?"
"A wookie."
"A Wookie?"
"nmmmn"
"What does he say?"
"Byah"
"What- How does- What do Wookies say?"
"Blyah."
"Blrlrlrlrl," [the mother laughs] "What do they say?"
"Brryah. Brryah. Brrr. Byah. Byah. Byabyah!"
"Who says that?"
"Chewbacca."
"And what is Chewbacca again?"
"A wookie."



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=229NvV0SRHw




This text features two speakers, who I assume to be parent and child but whose exact relationship is not explicitly stated. The main audience is likely casual browsers of video sharing site YouTube, or people who enjoy videos of cute things, which is a very wide demographic. Most people find YouTube videos such as this either through specific search terms, through the website's 'recommendations' feature, or by stumbling across it via related videos (which is how I found it). The purpose is to entertain, as the information presented in the video is not worth anyone's time and effort by itself. The form is a seemingly unedited video.

This conversation is formatted as a series of interrogatives, asked by a parent, and answered by the child. This is likely because it can be difficult to speak with very young children without giving them specific prompts to work from, as the framework of social conventions is still usually very bare bones at such a low age. For example, 'Who's the star wars guy on your cup?' asks the parent. 'Chewbacca.' is the childs response, but then the parent repeats the answer: 'Chewbacca?'. I think the parent does this for a few reasons: to confirm that she heard the child correctly, as children do not always pronounce words as an adult would, to again prompt the child into making further conversation, and also as a low-effort response to the child's correct answer. For the child this probably creates the effect of knowing that the parent heard their answer, as a kind of back-channel agreement, and also draws the child into further conversation, which forwards the parent's agenda of teaching their child English language and conversational technique through immersive learning.