Doctoral Dissertation Research: The development of numerical cognition and linguistic number use: Insights from sign languages

早期语言缺乏往往是聋儿出生在听力家庭的情况下的特征，这些家庭几乎没有机会使用任何形式的语言，无论是口语还是手语。语言剥夺对认知、教育和生活结果有长期的负面影响。本课题的目的是研究语言剥夺对手语算术习得和数字语言习得的影响，这是一个尚未被充分研究的重要课题。我们的研究可能会丰富人们对语言和数字之间关系的理论理解。这项研究的实际意义在于为聋人教育专家提供更多关于聋生数字认知的优势和劣势的信息，这些学生在晚年经历了语言。在本论文的四项研究中，比较了美国手语(ASL)母语者(L1)和第一语言习得者(LL1)的手语量化，后者是早年无法接触自然手语的先天性聋人。在前两个研究中，我们调查了可能影响手语中数字习得的因素：手语中(特定于通道的)数字标记的潜在复杂性，以及数字系统与同时形态(而不是顺序形态)之间的相互作用。研究一考察世界手语数字系统的象似性和结构特征。研究二考察了美国二语复数标记中象形数字系统与形态音位制约的交互作用。研究3使用数字Stroop测试范式考察了语言符号(ASL符号)和传统数学符号(阿拉伯数字)对数字的自动加工。研究4调查了L1和LL1学习者在选择的量词结构中使用的精选同步形态结构(标记精确复数和非精确复数)的产生和理解情况，并与通过数字进行公开数字标记进行了比较。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。

Early language deprivation too often characterizes the circumstances of deaf children born in hearing families with little access to language in any form, spoken or signed. Language deprivation has long lasting negative effects on cognitive, educational and life outcomes. The goal of our project is to study the effects of language deprivation on the acquisition of numeracy and linguistic number use in sign language: an understudied and important topic. Our research can potentially enrich theoretical understanding of the relationship between language and number. The practical implication of the research is to provide specialists in deaf education with more information on the strengths and weaknesses of number cognition in students who are deaf and experience language at a late age. In the four studies of this dissertation, quantification through sign language in native (L1) signers of American Sign Language (ASL) is compared to that of late first-language learners (LL1), congenitally deaf individuals who had no access to natural sign in early life. In the first two studies, we investigate the factors that may influence number acquisition in signers: the potential complexity of (modality-specific) number marking in sign languages and the interaction between number systems and simultaneous morphology (rather than sequential morphology). Study 1 investigates iconicity and the structural properties of number systems of world’s sign languages. Study 2 investigates the interaction of iconic numeral system and morpho-phonological constraints in plural marking in ASL. Study 3 looks at the automatic processing of number expressed both linguistically (ASL signs) and in conventional mathematic symbols (Arabic digits) using the Number Stroop Test paradigm. Study 4 investigates the production and comprehension of selected simultaneous, morphological constructions used in ASL (that mark exact and non-exact plural) in selected classifier constructions by L1 and LL1 learners in comparison to overt number marking through numerals.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.