Doctoral Dissertation Research: The development of numerical cognition and linguistic number use: Insights from sign languages

早期语言剥夺往往是出生在听力健全家庭的聋儿的特点，他们几乎无法接触到任何形式的语言，无论是口语还是手语。语言剥夺会对认知、教育和生活结果产生长期的负面影响。我们项目的目标是研究语言剥夺对手语中计算能力和语言数字使用习得的影响：这是一个尚未得到充分研究的重要课题。我们的研究可能会丰富对语言和数字之间关系的理论理解。本研究的实际意义是为聋人教育专家提供更多关于失聪晚期语言经验学生数字认知的优势和劣势的信息。在本论文的四项研究中，对美国手语（ASL）的母语（L1）手语使用者与晚期第一语言学习者（LL1）的手语量化进行了比较。晚期第一语言学习者（LL1）是早期无法接触自然手语的先天性聋人。在前两项研究中，我们研究了可能影响手语数字习得的因素：手语中（特定模态）数字标记的潜在复杂性以及数字系统与同步形态（而不是顺序形态）之间的相互作用。研究1研究世界手语数字系统的象似性和结构特性。研究二探讨了美国手语复数标记中符号数字系统与形态音系约束的相互作用。研究3使用数字Stroop测试范式研究语言（美国手语符号）和传统数学符号（阿拉伯数字）表达的数字的自动处理。研究4调查了L1和LL1学习者在选择的分类器结构中选择的美国手语中使用的同步形态结构（标记精确复数和非精确复数）的产生和理解，并与通过数字进行明显的数字标记进行比较。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。

Early language deprivation too often characterizes the circumstances of deaf children born in hearing families with little access to language in any form, spoken or signed. Language deprivation has long lasting negative effects on cognitive, educational and life outcomes. The goal of our project is to study the effects of language deprivation on the acquisition of numeracy and linguistic number use in sign language: an understudied and important topic. Our research can potentially enrich theoretical understanding of the relationship between language and number. The practical implication of the research is to provide specialists in deaf education with more information on the strengths and weaknesses of number cognition in students who are deaf and experience language at a late age. In the four studies of this dissertation, quantification through sign language in native (L1) signers of American Sign Language (ASL) is compared to that of late first-language learners (LL1), congenitally deaf individuals who had no access to natural sign in early life. In the first two studies, we investigate the factors that may influence number acquisition in signers: the potential complexity of (modality-specific) number marking in sign languages and the interaction between number systems and simultaneous morphology (rather than sequential morphology). Study 1 investigates iconicity and the structural properties of number systems of world’s sign languages. Study 2 investigates the interaction of iconic numeral system and morpho-phonological constraints in plural marking in ASL. Study 3 looks at the automatic processing of number expressed both linguistically (ASL signs) and in conventional mathematic symbols (Arabic digits) using the Number Stroop Test paradigm. Study 4 investigates the production and comprehension of selected simultaneous, morphological constructions used in ASL (that mark exact and non-exact plural) in selected classifier constructions by L1 and LL1 learners in comparison to overt number marking through numerals.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.