Doctoral Dissertation Research: The role of iconicity and gradience in children's acquisition of American Sign Language

语言不仅具有词对意义的任意映射，而且还包含着符号映射。由于象似性在手语中普遍存在，人们可能会认为聋哑儿童在学习新的象似性符号方面具有优势。然而，至少对于一些标志性的标志来说，情况似乎并非如此。例如，在手语中，描绘结构（dc）是标志性的，然而，相对于其他符号，儿童在较长的时间尺度上习得这些符号。这项研究询问了其中的原因，因此对有语言迟缓的聋儿进行早期干预具有启示意义。通过手语测试来评估儿童的手语知识是非常必要的，本项目可以为这些测试的发展提供信息。描绘结构（dc）具有非离散的、梯度的特性，这对儿童来说可能很难理解。一种假设是，年轻的学习者倾向于将语言系统中的所有动作解释为分类，导致难以解释符号中的梯度映射，从而导致dc错误。儿童可能不会将同样的语言偏见应用于非语言刺激（如手势，没有语言类别），如果是这样，他们应该能够解释手势中的梯度。另一种假设是，年轻的学习者可以解释手势和手势中的梯度映射，但不知道形成dc的语音约束，因此过度使用梯度，导致dc错误。本研究有三个目的：(1)研究母语儿童在生成手语时所形成的错误类型；(2)了解这些学习者如何在语言（符号）和非语言领域（如手势）中解释标志性的梯度运动；(3)通过对接触手语的儿童和未接触手语的儿童进行测试，了解特定的语言经历如何塑造儿童对手势和手势的假设。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Language is not only characterized by arbitrary mappings of words to meaning, but also contains iconic mappings. As iconicity is prevalent in sign languages, one might think that deaf children would have an advantage in learning new iconic signs. However, this does not appear to be the case, at least for some iconic signs. For example, depicting constructions (DCs) in sign language are iconic, yet children acquire these signs at a prolonged timescale relative to other signs. This research asks why, and thus has implications for early intervention in deaf children with language delays. There is a great need for sign language tests to assess children's sign language knowledge, and this project can inform the development of these tests.Depicting constructions (DCs) have non-discrete, gradient properties, which may be difficult for children to understand. One hypothesis is that young learners are biased to interpret all movements within a linguistic system as categorical, resulting in difficulty in interpreting gradient mappings in sign, which leads to errors in DCs. Children might not apply this same linguistic bias to non-linguistic stimuli (such as gesture, which has no linguistic categories) and, and if so, should be able to interpret gradience within gesture. The alternative hypothesis is that young learners can interpret gradient mappings in both sign and gesture, but do not know the phonological constraints on forming DCs and thus overuse gradience, which leads to errors in DCs. This research has three aims: (1) examine the types of errors native signing children form when producing DCs; (2) understand how these learners interpret iconic, gradient movements within linguistic (sign) and non-linguistic domains (e.g., gesture); and (3) understand how specific language experiences shape children's assumptions about gesture and sign by testing children exposed to sign language and those not exposed to sign.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.