The Emergence of a Sign Language in Nicaragua

尼加拉瓜手语出现在15年前，当时数百名以前孤立的聋人第一次在学校里聚集在一起，这是一场致力于向每个人提供识字培训和四年级教育的教育改革运动的结果。几乎是第一次，人们可以直接观察到一种新语言的出现。这一案例特别令人感兴趣，因为这种语言的产生不是语言接触或先前现有语言克里奥尔语化的结果，而是特殊手势系统的融合，这些手势系统被称为“家庭手势”，第一代聋哑儿童进入学校时使用这些手势系统在直系亲属内部进行交流。家庭签名者很快开始分享他们独特的系统，赋予通信系统越来越多的常规。在一代人的时间里，接触到混合手势的幼儿开始产生一种与他们的输入截然不同的交流形式。新的形式更流畅、更复杂，完全像语言一样。由于没有手语共存，而且由于识字率低和听不见，西班牙语的使用有限，这种高度复杂的语言结构可能来自于那些非常年轻的第一语言学习者的人脑。这构成了迄今为止最干净的案例，支持了人类与生俱来的习得语言的能力--即使输入是非最佳的。该项目将探索尼加拉瓜案件所提供的丰富的先天语言能力证据来源。它首先对过去十年收集的语言数据进行系统的归档、转录和分析，包括词汇、句子结构、自由对话和通过1.5分钟的非语言卡通片引发的受控叙事。这些漫画是一项人口研究的刺激因素，该研究将记录尼加拉瓜所有签名者的标志。这项研究包括几个部分：1.人口研究，其中考虑了影响手语流利性的各种因素，包括年龄、年代和接触手语的次数；2.临界质量的问题(即，需要多少手势者才能形成一种语言？)；3.语言产生的过程。在解决关键时期、临界质量和人脑对语言的固有贡献等问题的同时，该项目还将对尼加拉瓜手语进行系统的语言分析。重点领域包括这种新语言的“语音学”，对其量词和共指系统的深入分析，以及对非手动手势和面部表情的使用进行编码和分析，以标记问题、主题和许多其他语法功能。

Nicaraguan Sign Language arose fifteen years ago when hundreds of previously isolated deaf individuals were brought together in schools for the first time as the result of an educational reform movement dedicated to providing literacy training and a fourth-grade education to everyone. For virtually the first time, it became possible to directly observe the emergence of a new language. This case is particularly interesting because this language arose not as the result of language contact or the creolization of previously existing languages, but rather from the merging of idiosyncratic gesture systems, called "home signs" that were used for communication within the immediate family by the first generation of deaf children to enter the schools. Home signers quickly began to share their idiosyncratic system imparting to the communication system more and more conventionality. In one generation, young children exposed to a mix of gesturing began to produce a communication form radically different from their input. The new form was more fluid, more complex and wholly language-like. With no co-existing signed languages and limited access to Spanish as a result of low literacy and inability to hear, the only source from which this highly complex linguistic structure could have come was the human brains of those very young first language learners. This constitutes the cleanest case to date in support of the proposal that humans are innately endowed with the capacity to acquire language--even when the input is non-optimal. This project will explore the rich source of evidence for innate language capacity offered by the Nicaraguan case. It begins with a systematic archiving, transcription and analysis of the language data collected over the past ten years including vocabulary, sentence structure, free conversation and controlled narratives elicited via 1.5 minute nonverbal cartoons. These cartoons are the stimuli for a population study that will document the signi ng of the entire population of signers in Nicaragua. The research involves several components: 1. the population study where a variety of factors conditioning sign fluency are considered including age, chronological year, and amount of exposure to signing; 2. the issue of critical mass (i.e., "How many gesturers does it take to make a language?); 3. the process by which a language emerges. While addressing issues of critical period, critical mass and the innate contribution of the human brain to language, the project will also produce a systematic linguistic analysis of Nicaraguan Sign Language. The areas of focus include the "phonetics" of this new language, an indepth analysis of its classifier and coreference systems, and the coding and analysis of the use of nonmanual gestures and facial expressions marking questions, topics, and a host of other grammatical functions.