Doctoral Dissertation Research: Effects of early language deprivation on sentence processing: Mapping between syntactic and thematic roles in simple sentences

语言剥夺在先天失聪的人中很常见，因为他们无法及早获得手语或口语，这会导致他们最终的语言表现出现缺陷。了解这些习得年龄对句子结构的影响的性质，可以阐明语言发展关键期的潜在机制，并为临床医生和教育工作者提供关于聋生语言剥夺性质的重要信息。目前的研究从基本短语层面考察了早期语言剥夺对语言加工的影响。研究对象是失聪的成年人和青少年，他们经历了最少的早期语言，并在后来开始学习美国手语(ASL)作为他们的第一语言(L1)。研究一通过四个案例考察了基本语序的纵向发展。研究二考察后二语学习者在使用句图验证任务和引出语序产生任务理解和产生简单单句时，是否依赖句法线索或使用替代策略。研究对象为一组听力迟钝的L1学习者(n=10，习得年龄，AOA8岁)和一组聋人母语手语者(n=10)。研究3以聋人为母语手语者(n=10)、早期第一语言习得者(n=10，AOA4-6)和晚期第一语言习得者(AOA8-10)为研究对象，探讨了这些现象。这项研究调查了以下问题：1)儿童期和青春期的第一语言习得对句子处理策略是否有不同的影响；2)当学习较晚的第一语言学习者达到处理基本短语结构的稳定阶段时。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Language deprivation is common among individuals born deaf when they do not have early access to a sign or spoken language, which causes deficits in their ultimate language performance. Understanding the nature of these age of acquisition effects on sentence structure can illuminate the underlying mechanisms of the critical period for language development and provide clinicians and educators with important information about the nature of language deprivation in deaf students. The current proposal examines the effects of early language deprivation on language processing at the basic phrasal level. The participants are deaf adults and adolescents who experienced minimal early language and began to acquire American Sign Language (ASL) as their first language (L1) later in life. Study 1 investigates longitudinal development of basic word order in four case studies. Study 2 investigates whether late L1 learners rely on syntactic cues or use alternative strategies when comprehending and producing simple mono-clausal sentences using a sentence-picture verification task and an elicited word order production task. The participants are a group of deaf late L1 learners (n = 10, Age of Acquisition, AoA 8) and a control group of deaf native signers (n = 10). Study 3 investigates these phenomena with adolescents who are deaf native signers (n = 10) and late L1 learners with early AoA (n = 10, AoA 4-6), as well as adolescents who are late L1 learners (AoA 8-10). This manipulation of AoA investigates the questions of 1) whether childhood vs adolescent L1 AoA has different effects on sentence processing strategies and 2) when late L1 learners reach a stable stage of processing basic phrasal structure.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.