No effects of modality in development of locative expressions of space in signing and speaking children.

Beyza Sümer,Aslı Özyürek

doi:10.1017/s0305000919000928

Abstract

Linguistic expressions of locative spatial relations in sign languages are mostly visually motivated representations of space involving mapping of entities and spatial relations between them onto the hands and the signing space. These are also morphologically complex forms. It is debated whether modality-specific aspects of spatial expressions modulate spatial language development differently in signing compared to speaking children. In a picture description task, we compared the use of locative expressions for containment, support, and occlusion relations by deaf children acquiring Turkish Sign Language and hearing children acquiring Turkish (age 3;5-9;11). Unlike previous reports suggesting a boosting effect of iconicity, and/or a hindering effect of morphological complexity of the locative forms in sign languages, our results show similar developmental patterns for signing and speaking children's acquisition of these forms. Our results suggest the primacy of cognitive development guiding the acquisition of locative expressions by speaking and signing children.

Highlights

Humans can perceive as well as talk about various aspects of the spatial world around them
This paper investigates how children acquiring a sign (Turkish Sign Language; TİD) versus a spoken language (Turkish) tune into the language-specific encodings of their respective languages and whether this is modulated by the modality of the language being acquired
This study investigated the possible effects of language modality on the acquisition of containment, support/contact, and occlusion in a sign (TİD) and a spoken language (Turkish)

Summary

Introduction

Humans can perceive as well as talk about various aspects of the spatial world around them. Learning to talk about spatial relations is a pivotal milestone of language development as children early on need to communicate about the relations between the entities in their physical surroundings with their caregivers (e.g., to ask for a cookie on the table; a toy in the basket, etc.). Children need to figure out the appropriate spatial linguistic forms available in their languages. Which aspects of the language map onto what type of spatial relations and in what ways (e.g., lexical, grammatical) vary across spoken languages and between. This paper investigates how children acquiring a sign (Turkish Sign Language; TİD) versus a spoken language (Turkish) tune into the language-specific encodings of their respective languages and whether this is modulated by the modality of the language being acquired (visual/spatial vs auditory/vocal)

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