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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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The role of language in building one and two-place predicates: Event imitation in homesigners
A key question in developmental psychology and linguistics is whether language merely expresses pre-existing concepts or provides new cognitive tools. De Villiers and colleagues suggest that abstract transitive relationships can only be reliably encoded via language, supporting this claim with evidence that infants and adults struggle with transitive role differentiation without language. This study examines adult Nicaraguan homesigners, an ideal case study because they lack conventional language but create personal communication systems. Homesigners and English-speaking five-year-olds were tested in an imitation task, revealing that both groups could accurately encode transitive relationships, with no significant differences between groups or event types. In the critical two-participant condition, performance was well above chance for both groups. These results suggest that the ability to encode and generalize transitive relationships exists independently of conventional language.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2116180
- PAR ID:
- 10663217
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Homesign Nicaragua Language emergence Predicates Acquisition Transitivity Children
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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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.more » « less
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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. The handshape type (Handling, Object, or combined Handling+Object) was then coded. The participants and groups showed variability in iconic handshape preferences. Adult homesigners’ families demonstrated more conventionalization than did child homesigners’ families. Adult homesigners also used a combined Handling + Object form more than other participants. Younger CPs and those with fewer years of experience using a homesign system showed greater conventionalization. Items that elicited a reliable handshape preference were more likely to elicit Handling rather than Object handshapes. These findings suggest that similarity in terms of handshape type varies even within families, including hearing gesturers in the same culture. Although adult homesigners’ families were more conventionalized than child homesigners’ families, full conventionalization of these handshape preferences do not seem to appear reliably within two to three decades of use in a family when only one deaf homesigner uses it as a primary system.more » « less
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One structural dimension that varies across languages is the simultaneous or sequential expression of meaning. Complex predicates can layer meanings together simultaneously in a single-verb predicate (SVP) or distribute them sequentially in a multiple-verb predicate (MVP). We ask whether typological variability in this dimension might be a consequence of systematic patterns of diachronic change. We examine the distribution of markers of agency and number within the verb phrase (the predicate) in the earliest stages of a young, emerging sign language in Nicaragua, Lengua de Señas Nicaragüense (LSN), beginning with homesign systems like those from which LSN originated, and progressing through two decades of transmission to new learners. We find that: (i) LSN2 signers are more likely to produce MVPs than homesigners or LSN1 signers; (ii) in the MVPs they do produce, homesigners and LSN1 signers are more likely to produce predicates that mark both agency and number simultaneously on at least one of the verbs; LSN2 signers are just as likely to produce sequences with verbs that mark agency and number in sequentially separate verbs. We discuss how language acquisition, modality, and structure, as well as specific social factors associated with each of the groups, play a role in driving these changes, and how, over time, these patterns of change might yield the diversity of forms observed across spoken and signed languages today.more » « less
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