Abstract
A pilot study is reported of the recognition of morphological and syntactic structures by prelingually totally deaf readers. The reading process is of importance because language acquisition takes place, among other things, through writing. The study was prompted by the question posed by Hung, Tzeng en Warren (1981): Why is it so difficult for deaf subjects to develop automaticity in recognizing printed English letters and words? This question was paraphrased as follows: How unambiguously are syntactic and morphological structures reflected in writing? In the theoretical part of the study it is argued that the -er suffix can be considered ambiguous. In the experimental part of the study the question was if, and to what extent, this ambiguity has psychological reality during the reading process of deaf subjects. Three questions were studied: 1. Is the subject able to recognise the suffix? 2. Is he able to affix correct connotations to it? 3. Is he able to give correct grammatical judgements about it? The results, based on an analysis of response delays and true/ false decisions, indicate that the deaf subjects do automatize, but in such a way that they systematically produce incorrect responses in certain spelling matters.
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