Potentially recursive structures emerge quickly when a new language community forms

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Cognitive Science
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Human languages exhibit recursion, enabling infinite expression from finite elements.
• Nicaraguan Sign Language (LSN) is a recently emerged language, offering insights into language genesis.
• Homesign systems, predating LSN, represent individual gestural communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the origins of syntactic recursion in language.
• To examine the development of recursive structures in Nicaraguan Sign Language (LSN).
• To compare recursive embedding in LSN signers and homesigners.

Main Methods:

• Studied four groups: homesigners and three generations of LSN signers.
• Employed a task eliciting sentences with relative clauses (recursive embedding).
• Analyzed the production of embedded predicates and verb forms.

Main Results:

• LSN signers consistently produced embedded predicates functioning as relative clauses.
• Embedded verbs in LSN were shorter than unembedded verbs.
• Homesigners did not show systematic embedding or verb reduction in embedded contexts.

Conclusions:

• Potentially recursive syntactic embedding can emerge early in a new language.
• Homesign systems may lack widespread or systematically marked embedded predicates.
• Language community interaction might be a key factor in the emergence of recursive linguistic structures.