In or Out?: Spatial Scale and Enactment in Narratives of Native and Nonnative Signing Deaf Children Acquiring British Sign Language

Abstract

In this study we investigate the use of spatial scale and enactment (via constructed action, or CA) in British Sign Language (BSL) narratives of deaf native and nonnative signing children aged eight to ten. We find that the two types of prototypically aligned uses of spatial scale and enactment as described in the sign language literature (i.e. use of character scale with CA, and use of observer scale without CA) occur in both the native and nonnative signing children. We find that observer scale with CA is used by the non-native signing children but not the native signing children, and the opposite pattern with character scale without CA. These findings suggest that cognitive abilities such as perspective taking and the use of spatial scale should be considered along with linguistic abilities when looking at age of acquisition effects.