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1. Conventionalization of Iconic Handshape Preferences in Family Homesign Systems

   https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030156  

   Quam, Madeline; Brentari, Diane; Coppola, Maire (June 2022, Languages)

   Sandler, W.; Aronoff, M.; Padden C. (Ed.)

   Variation in the linguistic use of handshapes exists across sign languages, but it is unclear how these iconic handshape preferences arise and become conventionalized. In order to understand the factors that shape such handshape preferences in the earliest stages of language emergence, we examined communication within family homesign systems. Homesigners are deaf individuals who have not acquired a signed or spoken language and who innovate unique gesture systems to communicate with hearing friends and family (“communication partners”). We analyzed how characteristics of participants and stimulus items influence handshape preferences and conventionalization. Participants included 11 deaf homesigners, 24 hearing communication partners (CPs), and 8 hearing non-signing adults from Nicaragua. Participants were asked to label items using gestures or signs. 

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2. Homesign Research, Gesture Studies, and Sign Language Linguistics: The Bigger Picture of Homesign and Homesigners

   https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12766  

   Coppola, Marie (July 2025, Topics in Cognitive Science)

   Abstract Studies of homesigns have shed light on the human capacity for language and on the challenging problem of language acquisition. The study of homesign has evolved from a perspective grounded in gesture studies and child development to include sign language linguistics and the role of homesigns in language emergence at the community level. One overarching finding is that homesigns more closely resemble sign languages used by linguistic communities than they resemble the gestures produced by hearing people along with spoken language. Homesigns may not exhibit all of the linguistic properties of community languages, but the properties they do exhibit are language properties, and for the people who use them, homesigns are their language. Further, the linguistic structures in homesigns are innovated by the deaf people who use them and are imperfectly learned by their hearing communication partners. I close with a call to action: We cannot celebrate discoveries about the mind made possible by studies of homesigns and emerging languages while ignoring the pervasiveness of language deprivation among deaf people, and the relative lack of deaf participation in science, even in studies of sign languages. While the scientific community learns much from studying homesigns and sign languages, we also have a responsibility to work toward ensuring that every deaf person has access to language, communication, and education. 

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3. Pragmatic Usage and Event Representation in Nicaraguan Homesign Systems

   Quam, Madeline (July 2024, UConn Electronic Theses & Dissertations Collection)

   Language plays a large role in our lives and influences many mental processes. But does every mental process require language? This dissertation investigates how language experience influences the development of thematic roles and pragmatic knowledge, specifically looking at deaf homesigners who have limited to no exposure to spoken or signed language and innovate their own homesign language systems in order to communicate with the people around them. I address methodological questions such as Will these novel tasks work with homesigners? as well as theoretical questions such as Is language required to develop concepts of agents and patients? and Can pragmatic knowledge exist without exposure to typical discourse? I used novel tasks (i.e., referential communication pragmatics tasks and an eye tracking paradigm) in order to investigate homesigners’ pragmatic knowledge and event representation. I found that homesigners will often use pragmatic knowledge and produce necessary relevant information (e.g., modifiers with nouns, or agents and patients with actions). Regarding event representation, homesigners did not appear to use systematic conventionalized strategies (e.g., word order, use of space) to distinguish between agents and patients, although I did observe some preliminary strategies. I also did not find evidence that homesigners used nonlinguistic agent-patient concepts on the eye tracking task. The findings of this dissertation suggest that basic pragmatic knowledge may not require full access to language, but concepts of agent and patient may require more language to fully develop than previously expected. In the absence of early language exposure, lifelong communicative experience may help homesigners to develop pragmatic skills, which then might guide later linguistic structure formation. 

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4. Conceptual categories scaffold verbal semantic structure: A cross-cultural study of child homesign

   https://doi.org/10.12775/3991-1.097  

   Rissman, Lilia; Horton, Laura; Goldin-Meadow, Susan (April 2018, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Evolution of Language)

   In language evolution, formation of conceptual categories preceded formation of linguistic semantic categories (Hurford, 2007). The mapping from concepts to semantics is non-isomorphic, however, as particular languages categorize conceptual space in divergent ways (e.g. English put in is acceptable for both tight-fit and loose-fit relations, while Korean kkita encodes tight-fit relationships only; Choi & Bowerman, 1991). Despite this variation, are there crosslinguistic patterns in how words lexicalize conceptual space? We address this question analyzing how child homesigners from four different cultures describe instrumental events (e.g. cutting bread with a knife). Homesigners are congenitally deaf individuals who have not been taught a signed language. Despite growing up without structured linguistic input, these individuals use a gestural system ("homesign") to communicate (Goldin-Meadow, 2003). We find that homesign descriptions of instrumental events reflect categories present in adult English, Spanish and Mandarin, suggesting crosslinguistic biases for how verbs encode the conceptual space of events, biases which may have been present over the course of language evolution. 

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5. Customizing Generated Signs and Voices of AI Avatars: Deaf-Centric Mixed-Reality Design for Deaf-Hearing Communication

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3710953  

   Chen, Si; Cheng, Haocong; Su, Suzy; Patterson, Stephanie; Kushalnagar, Raja; Huang, Yun; Wang, Qi (May 2025, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   This study investigates innovative interaction designs for communication and collaborative learning between learners of mixed hearing and signing abilities, leveraging advancements in mixed reality technologies like Apple Vision Pro and generative AI for animated avatars. Adopting a participatory design approach, we engaged 15 d/Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students to brainstorm ideas for an AI avatar with interpreting ability (sign language to English and English to sign language) that would facilitate their face-to-face communication with hearing peers. Participants envisioned the AI avatars to address some issues with human interpreters, such as lack of availability, and provide affordable options to expensive personalized interpreting services. Our findings indicate a range of preferences for integrating the AI avatars with actual human figures of both DHH and hearing communication partners. The participants highlighted the importance of having control over customizing the AI avatar, such as AI-generated signs, voices, facial expressions, and their synchronization for enhanced emotional display in communication. Based on our findings, we propose a suite of design recommendations that balance respecting sign language norms with adherence to hearing social norms. Our study offers insights into improving the authenticity of generative AI in scenarios involving specific and sometimes unfamiliar social norms. 

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