Doctoral Dissertation Research: Documentation of a Peruvian home sign system

纵观历史，学者们一直在思考语言的起源。公元前460年，希罗多德报告说，有两个孩子与世隔绝，在一间小木屋里长大，他们开始说弗里吉亚语。他的结论是弗里吉亚语一定是人类的第一种语言。在现代语言学中，人类大脑中固有的先天通用语法的观点对该领域产生了重大影响。如果希罗多德所描述的被禁止的实验现在进行，我们对语言的起源或语言的共性会有什么了解？什么样的结构会成为人类交流的弹性特性，只需要很少或根本不需要输入？我们不能做这个实验，但我们可以看看孩子们被剥夺了自然语言的情况。无法使用口语或手语的聋儿通常会发展出“家庭手语系统”。通过记录这些系统，我们对语言发展和语言起源的过程有了一个独特的视角。这项研究的对象是两个成年家庭签名生活在不同的Máíjùnà村庄在秘鲁亚马逊地区。RCM已经30岁了；ST是65。他们都没有接触过传统的手语。然而，这两个人通过手势和手势与周围的人交流。这个研究项目调查了他们家庭符号系统中的语法结构，以及这些系统如何相互比较。pi探讨了对失聪和手语的态度是否允许在这两种家庭标志系统中发展出比以前报道的家庭标志系统更复杂的特征的问题。主要的研究目标是建立在RCM和ST的家庭符号系统中发生的常规化水平，确定他们两个系统之间的任何语言关系，并探索听力社区成员坚持他们的交流系统的程度。

Throughout history, scholars have contemplated the origins of language. In 460 BCE, Herodotus reported that two children, isolated from language and raised in a cabin, began to speak Phrygian. His conclusion was that Phrygian must be the first human language. In modern linguistics, the idea of an innate Universal Grammar that is hardwired in the human brain has had a major impact on the field. If the Forbidden Experiment, as described by Herodotus, were performed now, what might we learn about the origins of language or about language universals? What structures would emerge as resilient properties of human communication that require little or no input? We cannot perform this experiment, but we can look to situations in which children are deprived of natural language. Deaf children with no access to spoken or signed language often develop 'home sign systems'. By documenting these systems we gain a unique perspective on processes of language development and language genesis. The subjects of this research are two adult home signers living in separate Máíjùnà villages in Peruvian Amazonia. RCM is 30 years old; ST is 65. Neither has ever been exposed to a conventional sign language. Nevertheless, these two men communicate with those around them through gestures and signs. This research project investigates the grammatical structures present in their home sign systems and how those systems compare to one another. The PIs explore the question of whether attitudes toward deafness and sign language have allowed more complex features to develop in these two home sign systems than in previously reported home sign systems. Primary research goals are to establish the level of conventionalization that has taken place within the home sign systems of RCM and ST, to identify any linguistic relationship between their two systems, and to probe the degree to which hearing community members adhere to their systems of communication.