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Negation, questions, and structure building in a homesign system
Amy Franklin1, Anastasia Giannakidou, Susan Goldin-Meadow
1University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, School of Biomedical Informatics, Center for Cognitive Informatics and Decision Making, Houston, Texas, United States. Amy.Franklin@uth.tmc.edu
Cognition
|May 1, 2013
Summary
Deaf children develop homesign, a gestural language. This study reveals homesign possesses grammatical structures for negation and questions, akin to natural languages, supporting minimal sentential syntax in language creation.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Deaf children with severe hearing loss, not exposed to sign language, develop homesign.
- Homesign exhibits properties of natural languages.
- The study investigates if homesign includes grammatical structures for negation and questions.
Observation:
- Homesign uses distinct gestures for negation (headshake) and questions (manual flip).
- These negation and question markers are placed at the periphery of gesture sentences.
- The question marker extends to exclamatives and locational expressions, similar to wh-forms in natural languages.
Findings:
- Homesign employs systematic, positionally distinct markers for negation and questions.
- These markers function as structure-building operators, modifying sentence propositions.
- The generalization of the question marker suggests a categorical function within homesign.
Implications:
- Homesign demonstrates a minimal sentential syntax, including negation and question formation.
- This supports the view of homesign as a language creation process.
- Findings contribute to understanding fundamental properties of language and language acquisition.
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