Grammatical relations in illocutionary sentences: language rules in deaf children

Abstract

Abstract Cognitive experiments with the deaf designed to establish the independence of thought and language have usually disregarded their subjects’ exposure to special programs of instruction in English at School. This might be justified by assuming that language instruction produces isolated, esoteric knowledge which remains unintegrated into the child's functioning. The present experiment sought evidence of language knowledge in deaf children extending beyond formal instruction, and consequently suggestive of a functional, generative language system. It was found that deaf children had made considerable progress in assigning grammatical relationships according to Chomsky's (1969) Minimal Distance Principle (MDP) in complex sentences with regular illocutionary verbs. There was also some evidence of progress with the exceptional verb promise which disposes relationships in violation of the MDP. These findings cast doubt on the validity of testing the thought: language relationship by indiscriminate use o...