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

“涌现”一词有时被用于儿童习得第一语言的过程，因为所有的儿童都是在习得语言的过程中创造语言的。这个项目探讨了孩子们需要多少交流输入才能最终发展出像成年人一样的语言能力。它将检查交际输入的来源是否会影响最终的流利程度，以确定儿童学习者是从成人语言模型中获益更多，还是从同龄同伴提供的模型中获益更多。该项目还将研究一种新语言在一群说话者或手语者中的出现，是否与一个与完全建立的手语使用者隔离的孩子的出现相似或不同。本研究结果可为聋人教育政策及教学法提供参考。这些问题将通过研究生活在危地马拉的失聪儿童和成人发明的手势交流策略来解决。由于他们的耳聋，本研究的参与者无法接触他们所在社区的口语，他们所在的城镇也没有既定的手语。聋人在这种情况下创建的系统被称为“家庭手语系统”。在缺乏语言模型的情况下，这些系统中出现了类似语言的特性。因此，这项研究的参与者缺乏语言输入，但他们确实有一个模型，以其他与他们互动的聋人创造的其他家庭手语系统的形式。在布伦塔里博士的指导下，霍顿女士将与多代失聪家庭以及一起上学的失聪儿童一起工作。聋哑儿童从成年聋哑亲属处获得的家庭手语输入被解释为一种垂直传播形式，而聋哑儿童一起上学经历的家庭手语接触被解释为水平传播形式。该项目将分析来自不同社会背景的每个参与者所产生的符号，以了解水平或垂直传播是否加速了每个家庭符号系统中形式和语法的一致性。这项研究的结果将与其他很少或根本没有与聋人接触的家庭手语者的数据集以及使用更成熟的手语（如美国手语）的本地手语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.