STRUCTURE AND ACQUISITION OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

本研究将调查的结构和收购 美国手语（American Sign Language，简称ASL）是美国聋人的自然语言。 北美 ASL可以作为主要或次要的 语言，无论是早期或晚期的生活，无论是从本地 或从那些自己很晚才掌握语言的签名者那里 生活中 因此，它的研究提供了一个不寻常的机会， 调查早期与晚期经验的后果，以及 在输入环境的广泛变化，对过程中， 语言是后天习得的，语言使用者的最终性格是后天习得的。 知识 提出了六项研究，其中四项研究 早期与晚期暴露的后果和两个调查 输入环境的贫乏对语言的影响 采集 早期与晚期暴露的研究旨在 跟踪以前的发现，暴露年龄强烈 多年后，无论是在第一次还是第二次， 第二语言。 这些新的研究将调查是否 第一次与第二次接触年龄的影响程度不同 语言习得，是否延伸到应用 语言中普遍的句法原则，以及它们如何 在最初的几年里， 语言 对语言贫困的研究能够 重新组织他们输入的不一致方面，从而超越 他们自己的输入模型，获得一种语言， 他们所接触的那个 新的研究将调查 这一点适用的语言结构范围，以及 这种语言变化的机制。 结果应该有助于我们对 早期经验对语言习得的重要性， 儿童期与成年期的学习特点。 此外，本发明还提供了一种方法， 他们应该对有关语言接触的决定做出贡献， 无论是口头还是手势，在聋人教育和家长中， 辅导

This research will investigate the structure and acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL), a natural language of the deaf of North America. ASL may be acquired as a primary or second language, either early or late in life, and either from native signers or from signers who themselves acquired the language late in life. 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. Six studies are proposed, four investigating the consequences of early vs. late exposure and two investigating the consequences of impoverished input environments on language acquisition. The studies of early vs. late exposure are intended to follow up on previous findings that age of exposure strongly influences performance, many years later, in both a first and second language. These new studies will investigate whether the effects of age of exposure differ in degree for first vs. second language acquisition, whether they extend to the application of universal syntactic principles in the language, and how they manifest themselves in the initial few years of learning the language. The studies of impoverished of a language are able to reorganize inconsistent aspects of their input and thereby surpass their own input models, acquiring a language rather different than the one to which they were exposed. New studies will investigate the range of linguistic structures for which this is true, and the mechanisms by which such language change occurs. The results should contribute to our understanding of the importance of early experience for language acquisition, and to the character of learning in childhood vs. adulthood. In addition, they should contribute to decisions regarding language exposure, whether spoken or signed, in deaf education and parent counseling.