STRUCTURE AND ACQUISITION OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

美国手语的结构和习得

• 批准号: 3215954
• 负责人: ELISSA L NEWPORT
• 金额: $ 19.65万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1988
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1988-07-01 至 1998-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3215954
• 关键词: adult human (21+); child (0-11); child with disability; deafness; early experience; human subject; interpersonal relations; interview; language development; longitudinal human study; paralinguistic behavior; parent offspring interaction; performance; schools; sign language; social group process; videotape /videodisc

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.

本研究将探讨美国手语的习得 (ASL)是北美洲聋人的自然语言。 ASL可能是 作为一种主要语言，在生命的早期或晚期获得， 来自本地的签名者或来自自己习得语言的签名者 在晚年，几乎没有接触过它。因此， 提供了一个不寻常的机会来调查早期 vs.最近的经验，以及输入环境的广泛变化， 语言习得的过程及其最终特征 用户的知识。 这些问题具有重要的理论意义， 这对围绕聋儿生活的应用决策至关重要。 以前的工作主要集中在早期与晚期暴露，显示 暴露的年龄会强烈影响多年后的表现， 第一语言和第二语言，以及特定语言和 语言的普遍性。 以前的工作还包括 对适度贫困投入后果的一些研究 环境对早期语言习得的影响 这项工作表明，早期 一种语言的学习者能够重新组织他们语言中不一致的方面。 输入，从而超越自己的输入模型，获得语言 与他们所处的环境相比， 暴露了 在本申请中，提出了五项研究，全部 研究更严重的贫困投入的后果 环境. 两项研究调查了美国手语的纵向习得 受到中等或严重贫困的儿童的影响， 分析输入源和儿童的语言能力 看看孩子们是否，以及通过什么方式， 退化的输入源。 两项研究考察了 成年期，如此早期的暴露。 最后一项研究探讨了 在实验室中模拟这种采集过程的可能性 范例 研究结果将有助于我们对语言的理解 不同类型的早期输入对语言习得的影响，以及 儿童语言学习的特点和过程。 在 此外，它们还应有助于就早期 聋儿教育与家长语言接触（口语或手语） 辅导