Children’s encoding of simultaneity in British Sign Language narratives

Abstract

This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Children's encoding of simultaneity in British Sign Language narratives Permanent Gary MorganLanguage and Communication Science, City University, London AbstractNarrative discourse in BSL is first analyzed in an adult signer by describing how fixed and shifted sign space is used for reference and the encoding of simultaneity.Although children as young as 4 years old use parts of these sign spaces in isolation their combined use in encoding simultaneity in narrative is a major hurdle to achieving full mastery of British Sign Language (BSL). The paper describes the developmental trends in encoding simultaneity in BSL 'frog story' narratives from a group of 12 signing children, aged 4; 3 to 13; 4. We focus on the gradual control of reference in sign space. A transcription framework for recording this aspect of sign discourse is also outlined. The results point away from the role of iconicity and instead toward general patterns in narrative development as driving the organization of sign space and reference.

In or Out?: Spatial Scale and Enactment in Narratives of Native and Nonnative Signing Deaf Children Acquiring British Sign Language

“…Additionally, as noted above, DH1 mimed the entire narrative so in a sense there was no real narration at all. These patterns contrast with Morgan's (2002Morgan's ( , 2006) studies on BSL narratives in native signing / early learning deaf children who use BSL both at school and at home. As noted in §2.4, these children at ages 7-10 were able to include relevant information about characters.…”

Narrative structure and narrative development in deaf children

“…Morgan (2002) and Morgan and Woll (2003) investigated BSL narratives and proposed some general milestones. Deaf 3 year olds' use of reference is unclear and they are unable to use sign space to clarify characters or actions.…”

“…Again, a common problem between hearing and deaf children, at this stage in narrative development, is that in events where more than one character is involved children still describe different characters' actions sequentially rather than switching between overlapped events. Across signed and spoken languages full mastery of narrative devices is timed to occur through 11-13 years (Morgan, 2002;Morgan and Woll, 2003).…”

Transcription of child sign language

“…The encoding of simultaneity in discourse (when two events happen at the same time) by children reveals the complexity of using sign space (see Morgan, 2002). In Morgan (1999) I described adults' use of sign space for retelling 'frog story' narratives.…”

“…Within the narrative, there is a plot line represented by the direction of the arrow. The two uses of sign space, the Fixed referential space and the Shifted referential space (FRS and SRS) can be placed in a direct mapping of how the signer used these sign spaces (for a full description of SRS and FRS see Morgan, 1999Morgan, , 2002. Individual reference forms can be placed within these two spaces.…”