Doctoral Disseration Research: Conventionalization of Homesign Systems in Guatemala: Lexical and Morpho-phonological Dimensions

“涌现”一词有时被用来指儿童习得他们的第一语言的过程，因为所有的儿童都在创造语言，甚至在他们习得语言的时候。这个项目解决了儿童需要多少交际输入才能最终发展成成年人的语言熟练程度。它将检查交流输入的来源是否会影响最终的流利性，以确定儿童学习者从成人语言模式或同龄同龄人提供的模式中受益更多。该项目还将研究一种新语言在说话者或手语者社区中的出现是否与与完全建立的手语使用者隔绝的独生子女的出现相似或不同。这项研究的发现可能会为聋人的教育政策和教育学提供参考。这些问题将通过研究生活在危地马拉的聋哑儿童和成年人发明的手势交流策略来解决。由于耳聋，这项研究的参与者无法接触到他们所在社区的口语，而且他们所在的城镇也没有使用一种既定的手语。聋人在这种情况下建立的系统被称为“回家手势系统”。在没有语言模型的情况下，这些系统中出现了类似语言的特征。因此，这项研究的参与者缺乏语言输入，但他们确实有一个由与他们互动的其他聋人创建的其他手势系统的形式的模型。在布伦塔里博士的指导下，霍顿将与患有多代耳聋的家庭以及一起上学的聋童合作。聋儿从成年聋人亲属那里得到的家庭手语输入被理解为一种垂直传递形式，而聋儿一起上学所经历的家庭手语联系被解释为水平传递。该项目将分析来自不同社会背景的每个参与者产生的符号，以了解水平或垂直传播是否会加速每个家庭手语系统中形式和语法的一致性。这项研究的结果将与其他与聋人接触很少或根本没有接触的家庭签名者的数据集以及使用更成熟的手语(如美国手语)的本地签名者的数据集进行比较。

The term "emergence" is sometimes used for the process by which children acquire their first language because all children create language, even as they acquire it. This project addresses how much communicative input children require to eventually develop adult-like language proficiency. It will examine whether the source of the communicative input affects eventual fluency to determine if child learners benefit more from an adult language model or the model provided by same-aged peers. This project also will examine whether the emergence of a new language in a community of speakers or signers parallels or diverges from emergence in a single child who is isolated from users of a fully established sign language. The findings from this study may inform educational policy and pedagogy for the deaf. These issues will be addressed by studying the gestural communication strategies invented by deaf children and adults who live in Guatemala. Because of their deafness, the participants in this study do not have access to the spoken language in their community, and there is not an established sign language in use in their town. The systems that deaf individuals create under such circumstances are called "homesign systems." Language-like features in these systems emerged in the absence of a language model. Thus the participants in this study lack language input, but they do have a model in the form of other homesign systems created by the other deaf individuals with whom they interact. Under the direction of Dr. Brentari, Ms. Horton will work with families with multiple generations of deafness as well as with deaf children who attend school together. The homesign input that a deaf child receives from a deaf adult relative is construed as a vertical form of transmission, whereas the homesign contact that deaf children attending school together experience is construed as horizontal transmission. The project will analyze the signs that each participant from a different social context produces to understand whether horizontal or vertical transmission accelerates the consistency of the forms and the grammar in each homesign system. Results from this study will be compared to datasets from other homesigners who have had little or no contact with deaf people as well as to native signers who use a more established sign language like American Sign Language.