RAPID: Language Emergence from Inception

众所周知，当一群没有获得口语或手语的聋哑儿童第一次在教育环境中被聚集在一起时，手语就会自发地出现。新手语的出现可以为人类语言的进化提供洞察力。然而，到目前为止，对这一现象的研究在性质上是追溯的，始于聋儿被聚集在一起的十年或更长时间。这意味着我们对失聪儿童如何分享他们独特的手势来创造一种共同的手语知之甚少。2016年3月，35名目前通过手势交流的聋哑儿童首次被带到秘鲁伊基托斯的两个全聋教室。该项目收集了失聪儿童个体的手势以及他们最初使用这些手势进行人际交流的数据。我们的目标是理解语言产生的第一个阶段。这项调查的独特见解是收集关于聋童在与其他聋童见面之前的手势的数据，以及他们在与其他聋童互动的第一年中手势是如何变化的。事实上，世界各地的失聪儿童在成长过程中经常无法接触到共同的语言。本研究收集的数据将为儿童如何通过手势进行交流互动提供第一份文件，这些数据将被编码为构成语言基础的初始符号和象征性话语。这项研究还将为如何利用一种低技术、低成本的手段促进孤立的聋哑儿童获得手语，在拉丁美洲和发展中国家教育聋哑儿童提供见解。长期以来，研究人员一直假设，将无法在言语或手势方面使用传统语言的聋人儿童聚集在一起，将导致聋人儿童特有的手势系统中出现一种新的手语。其中一个众所周知的情况是尼加拉瓜手语NSL的出现，它被用来模拟语言的演变(Senghas 2003；Senghas&Amp；Coppola 2001；Senghas et al 2004)。由于对非第二语言的研究是在马那瓜的聋哑儿童第一次被聚集在一所学校10年后才开始的，现有的关于手语出现的数据和研究纯粹是回溯性的。手语出现的关键的初始阶段以前从未被观察或研究过。调查秘鲁伊基托斯出现一种新的手语所需的数据将从个别儿童和聋儿群体那里收集，这些数据涉及新出现的词汇形式和话语结构或句法。每个孩子在入学前通过手势与家人交流时，都已经从他们那里收集了自发和引出的数据。将继续每年收集儿童个人数据。在小组层面，聋儿们在一起的第一年里，将在教室里定期录制彼此之间的自发交流的视频。这些数据将在儿童和团体两个层面上收集：(1)在儿童初次接触之前、(2)期间和(3)一年后。这些数据将产生关于手语何时以及如何从儿童特有的手势系统中出现的独特观察。尽管研究表明，当聋人儿童第一次被聚集在一起时，手语在学校环境中迅速出现，但每个孩子的手势系统对该群体新兴手语的初始组织的贡献目前尚不清楚。有机会记录语言从一开始就出现的情况，这项拟议的研究将填补这一理论空白，将每个儿童先前存在的手势系统和能力与他或她随后对他人手势和手势的学习之间的关系进行映射。

Sign languages are known to emerge spontaneously when groups of deaf children, who have acquired no spoken or signed language, are brought together for the first time in educational settings. The emergence of new sign languages can provide insights into how human language evolves. To date, however, studies of the phenomenon are retrospective in nature beginning ten or more years after the deaf children were brought together. This means that we know little about how deaf children share their idiosyncratic gestures, known as 'homesign', to create a common sign language. In March 2016, 35 deaf children who currently communicate via homesign gestures were brought together for the first time in two all deaf classrooms in Iquitos, Peru. This project gathers data on the individual deaf children's gesture and their initial inter-personal communication using these gestures. The goal is to understand the very first stage of language emergence. The unique insight of this investigation is the gathering of data about the deaf children's gestures before they meet other deaf children and how their gestures change throughout their first year of interaction with one another. In reality, deaf children across the world frequently grow up without access to a shared language. The data gathered in the present study will provide the first documentation of how children's communicative interactions via gesture become codified into the initial symbols and symbolic utterances that form the basis of language. The study will also provide insights into how a low-tech and inexpensive means to facilitate sign language acquisition for isolated deaf children can be used to educate deaf children throughout Latin America and the developing world. Researchers have long hypothesized that bringing together deaf children who have not had access to a conventional language in either speech or sign will result in the emergence of a new sign language from the deaf children's idiosyncratic gesture systems. One such well-known situation is the emergence of Nicaraguan Sign Language, NSL, which has been used to model language evolution (Senghas 2003; Senghas & Coppola 2001; Senghas et al 2004). Because research on NSL only began 10 years after deaf children of Managua were first brought together in a school, the available data and research on sign language emergence is purely retrospective in nature. The crucial, initial stages of sign language emergence have never before been observed or studied. Data essential to investigate the emergence of a new sign language in Iquitos, Peru will be gathered from individual children and groups of deaf children with respect to emerging lexical forms and utterance structure, or syntax. Spontaneous and elicited data have already been gathered from each child while communicating via gesture with his or her family prior to school enrollment. The individual child data will continue to be gathered on a yearly basis. At the group level, the deaf children's spontaneous communication with each other will be videotaped in the classrooms at regular intervals throughout their first year together. This data, at both the child and group level, will be gathered (1) prior to, (2) during, and (3) after one year's time of the children's initial contact. The data with will yield unique observations about when and how a sign language emerges from children's idiosyncratic gesture systems. Although research suggests that sign languages emerge quickly in school settings when deaf children are brought together for the first time, the contribution of each child's gesture system to the initial organization of the group's emerging sign language is currently unknown. With the opportunity to document language emergence from inception, the proposed study will fill this theoretical gap by mapping the relation of each child's pre-existing gestural system and ability onto his or her subsequent learning of others' gestures and signs.