Grammatical Regularities in Sign Language and Homesign

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Diane Brentari博士将对成熟的手语中使用的手形以及未接触过手语或口语的聋人所使用的发明系统（称为“homesign”系统）进行为期五年的语言学研究。三个不同的聋人群体，使用视觉手势系统作为他们的主要通信手段将被研究：意大利手语（成人和儿童）的本地签名;意大利homesigning儿童，和印尼homesigners（成人和儿童）。这些人群都来自手势也是语言环境重要组成部分的环境。 这些数据将来自于对运动和位置事件的描述。 首先，在儿童从父母那里习得一种语言的情况下，与儿童在没有来自家庭的语言输入的情况下发明自己的手势系统的情况下，句法、语音和形态学方面的语法特性是如何出现的？第二，在习得情况下和发明情况下，语法的哪些方面或多或少是健壮的，以及在什么年龄？ 第三，当家庭手势系统被用作一生中的主要通信手段时，就像尼加拉瓜成年人的家庭手势一样，家庭手势系统是否变得更加复杂？ 最后，这项研究将有助于我们理解语言的演变，因为homesigners正在以一种在口语领域无法观察到的方式重新发明交流;口语历史的这一特殊时刻没有以当代手段研究的方式记录下来。 除了科学价值外，该项目还将招募母语手语聋人本科生和研究生帮助分析数据，从而为这些学生提供从事手语第一手科学研究的机会。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Diane Brentari will conduct five years of linguistic research on the handshapes used in well-established sign languages and in the invented systems used by deaf individuals who have not been exposed to a signed or spoken languages, called 'homesign' systems. Three different deaf populations that use a visual-gestural system as their primary means of communication will be studied: native signers of Italian Sign Language (adults and children); Italian homesigning children, and Nicaraguan homesigners(adults and children). The populations are all from environments where gesture is also a strong part of the language environment. The data will come from descriptions of events of motion and location.The scientific questions addressed by this project are the following. First, how do grammatical properties in syntax, phonology, and morphology emerge in the case of children acquiring a language from their parents vs. when children are inventing their own systems of gestures without language input from their families? Second, what aspects of grammar are more or less robust in the case of acquisition case vs. the case of invention and at what age? Third, do homesign systems become more sophisticated when they are used as the primary means of communication over the course of a lifetime, as is the case in homesigning adults in Nicaragua? Finally, this research will contribute to our understanding of the evolution of language because homesigners are inventing communication anew in a way that is not possible to observe in the realm of spoken languages; this particlar moment of spoken language history was not recorded in a way that it can be studied with contemporary means. In addition to its scientific merit, this project will recruit native-signing Deaf undergraduate and graduate students to help analyze data, and so provide an opportunity for these students to engage in first-hand scientific research on sign languages.