American Sign Language basic clause comprehension strategies used by late first-language learners: Plausibility,...

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Deaf Studies

Background:

• Early language experience significantly impacts syntactic development.
• Understanding language acquisition in deaf individuals with delayed first language (L1) onset offers insights into critical language learning periods.
• The study focuses on deaf late first language (L1) signers of American Sign Language (ASL).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how deaf late L1 signers of ASL utilize linguistic versus extra-linguistic cues (plausibility, animacy) in basic clausal structures.
• To compare the comprehension strategies of deaf late L1 signers with those of young children acquiring language immersively.

Main Methods:

• Nine deaf late L1 ASL signers participated.
• A sentence-picture matching task was employed.
• Sentences varied in linguistic structure, plausibility, and noun animacy.

Main Results:

• Late L1 signers generally favored linguistic cues, even with implausible sentences.
• In transitive sentences, word order use was resilient but fragile, especially when animacy conflicted.
• Comprehension patterns mirrored those of young children relying on a mix of cues.

Conclusions:

• Deaf late L1 signers demonstrate a graded representation of syntactic structures.
• These findings underscore the critical role of early language exposure for robust syntactic development.
• The study highlights the importance of linguistic input during sensitive periods for language acquisition.