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MODALITY DOMINANCE: THE TIMING OF EARLY SIGNING AND SPEAKING REVISITED

MODALITY DOMINANCE: THE TIMING OF EARLY SIGNING AND SPEAKING REVISITED. Anne Baker. LANGUAGE GENESIS: Why are sign languages interesting?. Possible that SL’s are forerunners of spoken languages Or Both have their origins in a gestural system. LANGUAGE GENESIS: Theories of language origins.

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MODALITY DOMINANCE: THE TIMING OF EARLY SIGNING AND SPEAKING REVISITED

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  1. MODALITY DOMINANCE: THE TIMING OF EARLY SIGNING AND SPEAKING REVISITED Anne Baker

  2. LANGUAGE GENESIS: Why are sign languages interesting? • Possible that SL’s are forerunners of spoken languages Or • Both have their origins in a gestural system presentation 19-05-06

  3. LANGUAGE GENESIS:Theories of language origins Ding-Dong • The origin of human language in onomatopoeia: imitative sounds that humans make to mimic the sounds of the world around them. Bow-wow • Humans formed their first words by imitating animal sounds. Pooh-pooh • The first words developed from sighs of pleasure, moans of pain, and other semi-involuntary cries These then became the names of the phenomena that made people say them. Uh-oh • human language begins with the use of arbitrary symbols that represent warnings to other members of the human band. presentation 19-05-06

  4. LANGUAGE GENESISTheories (cont.) Yo-he-ho • language arose in rhythmic chants and vocalisms uttered by people engaged in communal labour. Watch the Birdie • human language became elaborated because humans found it advantageous to be able to deceive other humans. Since exclamations and vocalisms can involuntarily reveal your true mental state, humans learned to feign them in order to deceive others for selfish advantage. Ta-ta • According to this, human language represents the use of oral gestures that began in imitation of hand gestures that were already in use for communication. View from: Acquisition of sign languages presentation 19-05-06

  5. BACKGROUND:Sign languages as full languages • Full grammatical system • Not derived from spoken languages • Change as any other languages do • In contact with spoken languages as result of social situation of Deaf people presentation 19-05-06

  6. BACKGROUND:Acquisition of a signed language Same stages as in a spoken language: • Babbling before 1 year • One-sign stage around 1 year • Two-sign stage around 1year 6 months • Multi-sign combinations from 2 years • But variability between signed languages as to when specific structures are learned Some claims that a sign language is learned more quickly presentation 19-05-06

  7. BACKGROUND:Multimodality in languages • Spoken languages use speech but are also accompanied by gesture & facial expression • Sign languages combine manual signs with actions of other body parts: eyebrows eye gaze head movements mouth movements presentation 19-05-06

  8. Video clip of Laura (0;11) and her mother in NGT presentation 19-05-06

  9. Video clip of Mark (2;0) and his mother in NGT presentation 19-05-06

  10. Non-manual actions in sign languages Mouth actions Eyes, brows, head, body... Mouthings derived from spoken language Mouth gestures not derived from spoken language in loans e.g. to disambiguate Echo phonology Adverbials in code blending Enactions presentation 19-05-06

  11. Use of mouth actions in signed languages • Signs with mouth gestures, i.e. not derived from spoken words e.g. “fa” in NGT sign FINALLY UNDERSTOOD “pa” in sign THROW AWAY • Signs with mouthings, i.e. derived from spoken words e.g. “bal” in NGT sign BAL • Latter can be seen as a form of code-blending. presentation 19-05-06

  12. Types of code-blending (1) Dutch Base Language Signed VALLEN Spoken die gaat vallen English that goes fall Translation That [doll] is going to fall (2) NGT Base Language Signed INDEXhij JAS BLAUW Spoken blauw English INDEXhe COAT BLUE Translation He has a blue coat presentation 19-05-06

  13. Types of Code-blending cont’d (3) Mixed Signed POP SPELEN Spoken geel English DOLL PLAY yellow Translation (I want) to play with the yellow doll (4) Full presentation 19-05-06

  14. Amount of code-blending by 3 deaf children and their deaf mothers at 3;0 Mothers considerable amount; children little or none at 3;0. presentation 19-05-06

  15. Amount of code-blending by 3 hearing children and their deaf mothers at 3;0 Mothers more than with deaf children; children also a considerable amount. presentation 19-05-06

  16. How to explain the differences between the deaf and hearing children at age 3;0? • Level of acquisition in the two languages • Input • Own language choice presentation 19-05-06

  17. Windows project question At 3 years of age deaf and hearing children are behaving differently in their acquisition: • Amount of code-blending is different • Base language is different • Spoken language seems to be “driving” the hearing children and sign language “driving” the deaf children at this age. How did they get there? What was the starting point? presentation 19-05-06

  18. What is happening in the earliest period of acquisition? How are the two modalities combined from the beginning? 1. mouth actions + hand actions 2. mouth actions + signs (echo phonology?) 3. words + hand actions (incl. sign onset) 4. words + signs What is the timing in these combinations? do mouth actions / words start earlier than hand actions / signs or vice-versa? Is one “driving” the other? presentation 19-05-06

  19. Method Analyze all hand and mouth actions: • 3 deaf children (11-13 months to 2 years) • 3 hearing children (9-13 months to 2 years) Analyze: • Frequency of combined productions • Frequency of types of combinations (types 1-4) • Timing of manual and oral parts – 1. simultaneous beginning 2. manual action later than mouth action 3. manual action earlier than mouth action presentation 19-05-06

  20. Example of analysis Transcript from Sander (2;0) Mother: Manual: AV_____/ onset_____POES Oral: waar__/ is____________/poes 1st combination: type 4, simultaneous 2nd comb.: type 3, manual later 3rd comb.: type 4, manual earlier presentation 19-05-06

  21. Tools Developed by the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen with the aim of managing data and metadata files • ELAN annotation software • The IMDI (ISLE Metadata Initiative) Editor & Browser • NWO project Visibase • NWO infrastructure project just awarded to Nijmegen & UvA presentation 19-05-06

  22. Example of ELAN coding

  23. Argumentation If hearing children and deaf children are different in this very early period, then hearing status is clearly important and there is no universal pattern that could point to the original relationship between the modalities. If they are similar, this might indicate that there is a universal pattern that suggests the origins of language. presentation 19-05-06

  24. RESULTS:Frequency of combinations of mouth and hand actions in children Deaf children have mainly hand actions overall incl. manual babbling, at 24 months more mouth movements Hearing children equal spread across manual and mouth actions presentation 19-05-06

  25. RESULTS:Frequency of combinations of mouth and hand actions in children and mothers The mothers have far more combinations than their children. This appears to be learned behaviour. The Deaf mothers of the Deaf children have far more combinations compared to the mothers of the hearing children. There is an increase at 24 months. presentation 19-05-06

  26. RESULTS:Main types of combinations of mouth and hand actions in children Deaf children have mainly hand+mouth actions and sign+mouth actions Hearing children have no sign+mouth actions. presentation 19-05-06

  27. RESULTS:Examples of children’s combinations Transcript from Laura (0;11) Manual: hands moved up and down Oral: mouth open and shut Type 1 Transcript from Carla (2;0) Manual: SAMEN Oral: lips smacking Type 2 presentation 19-05-06

  28. RESULTS:Main types of combinations of mouth and hand actions in children and mothers Deaf mothers all have mainly sign+mouth actions and sign+word combinations presentation 19-05-06

  29. RESULTS:Timing of combinations of mouth and hand actions in children and mothers Children: There is no clear pattern. The manual actions in combination with a mouth action do not begin consistently earlier or late. The deaf and hearing children are not different in this respect. Mothers: The mothers do have the tendency to produce word+sign combinations with identical semantic content with a simultaneous beginning. presentation 19-05-06

  30. Interpretation Hearing children and deaf children are producing relatively few combined utterances in the early months but the proportion increases. The hearing children are different from the deaf children in having more combined utterances. The type patterns seem to be different. The timing is not clearly indicative of one modality driving the other. Conclusion: there seems to be no universal pattern that could point to the original relationship between the modalities. The patterns found seem more related to hearing status and input patterns. presentation 19-05-06

  31. Collaborators on the Acquisition project Universiteit van Amsterdam Beppie van den Bogaerde, Roland Pfau, Marijke Scheffener, Joni Oyserman And all the families.

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