The Present State and Future Prospects of Sign Language Studies: How Sign Language Studies Contribute to Research of Language Acquisition

DOI Web Site 40 References
  • Takei Wataru
    Kanazawa University, College of Human and Social Science, School of Teacher Education

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 手話研究の現状と展望－手話研究が言語獲得研究に貢献できること－
  • シュワ ケンキュウ ノ ゲンジョウ ト テンボウ シュワ ケンキュウ ガ ゲンゴ カクトク ケンキュウ ニ コウケンデキル コト

Search this article

Abstract

Many linguistic studies reveal that sign language is a fully-grammaticized language, not a pantomimic communication system. This paper reviews the results of investigation for sign language acquisition and examines how sign language studies contribute towards explaining the human capacity for language and the limits of language learning. First, the human capacity of language creation was discussed by reviewing the researches of deaf people with no or inconsistent language input. Second, this paper discussed whether the late language acquisition affects the ability to produce and comprehend a number of syntactic and morphological structures, by assessing sign language abilities of Deaf people who has various language environments. The results showed that the outcome of the sign language was sensitive not about the timing to expose to sign language learning but about the timing of the first language acquisition. Finally, sign language acquisition process in Deaf children was compared to spoken language acquisition process in hearing children. Language modality plays a very minor role in how children acquire language because the developmental course of language is very similar in two modalities. The above teaches us about the nature of human language and cognition.

Journal

References(40)*help

See more

Related Projects

See more

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top