Word order variation and acquisition in American Sign Language

Abstract

Summary of the dissertationThis study examines two crosslinguistic generalizations generated by previous studies of word order: (1) that the word order parameters (i.e. the spec-head and headcomplement parameters) are universally set early, and (2) that word order variation in languages with rich and regular inflection is acquired earlier than in languages with poor or irregular inflection. These generalizations are evaluated using spontaneous production data of four deaf children between the ages of~20-30 months, acquiring ASL as their first language. Results show that both noncanonical and canonical word order are attested during this period. Noncanonical orders are grammatical in adult ASL when derived by various types of syntactic movement. I argue that many of the VS and OV sequences produced by the children exhibit properties of grammatical adult word order variation, and should therefore not be considered as errors. The production of grammatical word order variation alongside canonically ordered sentences is evidence that the word order parameters are set early in ASL, consistent with the first crosslinguistic generalization.ASL has a relatively rich but irregular verbal inflection system. The fact that children acquire word order variation early despite the irregular inflectional system of ASL supports a modified version of the second crosslinguistic generalization: Early acquisition of order variation depends on early acquisition of the morphological cues associated with noncanonical order. Alternatively, noncanonical orders with no morphological cue seem also to be acquired early, provided there are no syntactic restrictions on their application. Two crosslinguistic generalizations regarding word order acquisitionThe first generalization relevant to this thesis, that the word order parameters (i.e. the spec-head and head-complement parameters) are set universally early, is based on observation of children acquiring various spoken languages. English-speaking

First language acquisition differs from second language acquisition in prelingually deaf signers: Evidence from sensitivity to grammaticality judgement in British Sign Language

“…They selected various morphosyntactic structures based on their reported developmental timecourse in ASL acquisition. This included ASL structures which have been claimed to be acquired relatively early (by age 2;6–3;0), such as basic word order with plain verbs (Pichler, 2002) and negation and ‘agreement’ verbs6 (Anderson & Reilly, 1997; Meier, 1987). Boudreault and Mayberry also included structures reportedly acquired later such as wh-questions, relative clauses, and ‘classifier’ constructions 7.…”

Lending a hand to signed language acquisition: Enactment and iconicity enhance sign recall in hearing adult American Sign Language learners

“…Deaf children who learn signed language from birth reach milestones such as babbling, word order acquisition and wh-question production at the same time as hearing children who learn spoken language from birth (Lillo- Martin, 2000;Petitto, Holowka, Sergio, & Ostry, 2001;Pichler, 2001). Moreover, similar brain regions, including the left inferior frontal cortex, superior temporal cortex and planum temporale, are used to comprehend signed and spoken language, despite the fact that initial processing occurs in distinct regions for each language modality (primary and secondary visual and auditory cortices for speech; posterior occipoto-temporal regions for signed language; Corina, Vaid, & Bellugi, 1992;Emmorey et al, 2003;Petitto et al, 2000).…”

Acquisition of Classifier Constructions in HKSL by Bimodal Bilingual Deaf Children of Hearing Parents

“…Recently, Palmer (2015) compared the acquisition of ASL canonical and non-canonical word orders of four bimodal bilinguals, two Kodas and two implanted DDs whose ages ranged from 1;8 to 3;6. While both the Kodas and DDs produced canonical SV and VO orders as early as 23 months, suggesting an early setting of Spec-Head and Head-Complement parameters, they showed little use of non-canonical OV and VS orders when compared with the Deaf controls as reported in Chen Pichler (2001). …”

“…In the early literature on ASL acquisition, canonical SVO and derived word orders are observed to emerge at an early age among DDs (Newport and Meier, 1985; Lillo-Martin, 1999; Chen Pichler, 2001). However, Lillo-Martin and Berk (2003) found that the two DHs in their study, who were not exposed to an accessible language like ASL until after age 5, had no problem acquiring the canonical SVO order but seldom attempted derived word orders that reflected grammatical dependencies and erred more when they did so.…”