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Learning to speak or to sign: Issues of modality and linguistic typology| old_uid | 3211 |
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| title | Learning to speak or to sign: Issues of modality and linguistic typology |
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| start_date | 2007/10/01 |
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| schedule | 14h-16h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | In signed languages, both linguistic signs and gestures are executed in the same modality. As a consequence, children acquiring a sign language may produce iconic gestures that are close to appropriate conventional signs in referential contexts. Nevertheless, the child must master the conventional forms of expression of the language, including both points and signs. Particular problems are posed by the management of gaze and by communicative requirements to distance signs and gestures from referents. Early sign language acquisition can be
seen as a gradual movement from gestural indices and icons to linguistic forms. The predominant forms are polycomponential verbs, with schematic information about types of entities in combination with movements and locations of various sorts. As a consequence, a deaf child learning a natural sign language is learning a language that differs typologically from the spoken language of the community. Sign language acquisition has been studied in Europe, East Asia, and the
Americas, where all of the dominant spoken languages are dependent-marking. Sign languages, by contrast, are head-marking, using spatio-temporal means to mark the argument roles of dependents. The modality of signed languages makes action and motion salient, drawing attention to verbs. Data on early vocabulary development in Sign Language of the Netherlands show relatively high proportions of predicates in comparison with spoken languages like English. Both the modality and typology of signed languages make it necessary to modify current theoretical accounts of the acquisition of such languages. |
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| oncancel | Adresse inhabituelle |
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| responsibles | Aroui |
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