STRUCTURE AND ACQUISITION OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

这项研究将调查美国手语的习得情况 (ASL)，北美聋人的一种自然语言。ASL可能是 在生命的早期或晚期作为主要语言习得，并且 来自本地签名者或来自自己习得该语言的签名者 在晚年，几乎没有接触过它。因此，它的研究 提供了一个不同寻常的机会来调查早期 与较晚的经验，以及输入环境的广泛差异，在 语言习得的过程及其语言的终极特征 用户的知识。这些问题在理论上具有重要意义，而且 对有关聋儿生活的应用决策至关重要。 之前的工作主要集中在早期与晚期接触，显示出 暴露的年龄对多年后的表现有很大影响 第一语言和第二语言，以及特定于语言和 语言的普遍方面。之前的工作还包括 关于中等贫困投入后果的一些研究 早期语言习得的环境。这项工作表明，早期 一种语言的学习者能够重新组织其语言中不一致的方面 输入，从而超越自己的输入模式，获得一种语言 与他们原来的不同，结构也更好 暴露了。在本申请中，提出了五项研究，全部 考察更严重贫困的投入的后果 环境。两项研究调查了ASL的纵向习得 受到中度或严重贫困投入的儿童的影响， 从输入来源和儿童语言能力两个方面进行分析 看看孩子们是否以及通过什么方式也可能超越这些人 降级的输入源。两项研究考察了 成人期，如此早的接触。最后一项研究探索了 在实验室模拟这种采集过程的可能性 范例。 这些结果应该有助于我们对语言学的理解 不同类型的早期输入对语言习得的影响，以及 儿童时期语言学习的特点和过程。在……里面 此外，他们应该为早期的质量决策做出贡献 聋人教育和家长中的语言接触，无论是口语还是手语 心理咨询。

This research will investigate the acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL), a natural language of the deaf of North America. ASL may be acquired as a primary language either early or late in life, and either from native signers or from signers who themselves acquired the language late in life and have had little exposure to it. Its study therefore provides an unusual opportunity to investigate the consequences of early vs. late experience, and of wide variations in input environment, on the process by which a language is acquired and the ultimate character of its users' knowledge. These questions are theoretically significant and also crucial for applied decisions surrounding the lives of deaf children. Previous work has focused primarily on early vs. late exposure, showing that age of exposure strongly influences performance, many years later, in both a first and second language, and on both language-specific and language universal aspects of language. Previous work also has included some studies of the consequences of moderately impoverished input environments on early language acquisition. This work has shown that early learners of a language are able to reorganize inconsistent aspects of their input and thereby surpass their own input models, acquiring a language rather different and more well-structured than the one to which they were exposed. In the present application, five studies are proposed, all examining the consequences of more severely impoverished input environments. Two studies investigate the longitudinal acquisition of ASL by children exposed to either moderately or severely impoverished input, analyzing both the input sources and the children's linguistic competence to see whether, and by what means, children may also surpass these more degraded input sources. Two studies examine the ultimate outcome in adulthood, of such early exposure. One final study explores the possibility of simulating such acquisition processes in a laboratory paradigm. The results should contribute to our understanding of the linguistic consequences of varying types of early input for language acquisition, and to the character and processes of language learning in childhood. In addition, they should contribute to decisions regarding quality of early language exposure, whether spoken or signed, in deaf education and parent counseling.