The Acquisition of Classifiers in Verbs of Motion and Verbs of Location in Brazilian Sign Language

Abstract

This dissertation explores the relationship between the language model to which children are exposed and their resulting language acquisition. Bickerton (1981) and others claim that children can become proficient in a language even whether a particular threshold of proficiency in the input is required for complete acquisition in the child. The acquisition of Brazilian Sign Language (LSB) is an ideal testing ground to assess the limits of Bickerton’s claim. Most deaf children in Brazil are born to hearing parents and learn LSB at schools from teachers who are not proficient signers. This dissertation explores the effect of the variation of proficiency of LSB input on the acquisition of one linguistic structure, in 61 children ages 4;6 to 11;10. Two other variables are examined as controls: length of exposure to LSB and chronological age. The structure under study is the classifier. In signed languages, classifiers are used with verbs to indicate properties of the Theme including visual and geometric characteristics, abstract semantic category, and instrumental function. This study assesses the effect of the earlier mentioned variables on the age of onset of production of classifier handshapes, the relative difficulty of production of different handshapes, and errors produced indicating the sequence of classifier acquisition. Four hypotheses were tested and confirmed in this study: The first hypothesis stated that quality of exposure is a significant factor in determining output. The results showed that the children of deaf parents, who are exposed to a natural signed language in the normal process, benefit from this input in the acquisition process. The second hypothesis stated that the quantity of exposure has a significant effect in determining output, but it cannot fully compensate for quality of exposure. The results have shown that the deaf children of hearing parents who have longer exposure to a signed language performed better than the other children who have less exposure time; however, their mean proportion of correctness does not equal their peers who have deaf parents. The third hypothesis stated that age has a significant effect in the