Hostname: page-component-5447f9dfdb-lxwkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-29T20:38:31.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The puzzle of negation: How children move from communicative to grammatical negation in ASL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Diane E. Anderson  and
Judy S. Reilly
Diane E. Anderson*
Affiliation:
SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology
Judy S. Reilly
Affiliation:
SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology
*
Diane E. Anderson, Department of Psychology, 6363 Alvarado Court, #221, San Diego, CA 92120
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In American Sign Language (ASL), in addition to manual signs, specific nonmanual behaviors play a crucial role in the grammar of the language. For example, conditionals and relative clauses are signaled by obligatory nonmanual markers. This study focuses on the acquisition of negation in ASL, which is signaled by manual signs as well as an obligatory headshake. In particular, we address the developmental relationship between the communicative and grammatical (or linguistic) headshakes for negation. Study 1 includes naturalistic data from a cross-sectional sample of 51 deaf children, ranging in age from 1: 0 to 4: 11, who are acquiring ASL as their primary language. Study 2 includes longitudinal data from 16 of these children.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 1997 , pp. 411 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Baker, C. (1976). What's not on the other hand in American Sign Language. Chicago Linguistic Society. 12, 24–32.Google Scholar
Baker, C., & Cokely, D. (1980). American Sign Language: A teacher's resource text on grammar and culture. Silver Spring, MD: TJ Publishers.Google Scholar
Baker, C., & Padden, C. (1978). Focusing on the nonmanual components of American Sign Language. In Siple, P. (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research (pp. 27–57). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Baker-Shenk, C. (1983). A microanalysis of the non-manual components of questions in American Sign Language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bellugi, U., & Fischer, S. (1972). A comparison of sign language and spoken language: Rate and grammatical mechanisms. Cognition, 1, 173–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellugi, U., Poizner, H., & Klima, E. (1993). Language, modality and the brain. In Johnson, M. (Ed.), Brain development and cognition (pp. 403–423). London: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corina, D. (1991). Toward an understanding of the syllable: Evidence from linguistic, psychological, and connectionist investigations of syllable structure. Dissertation Abstracts International, 52 (N5-B), 2799.Google Scholar
Corina, D. (1992). Reassessing the role of sonority in syllable structure: Evidence from a visual gestural language. In Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistic Society: Parasession on the syllable in phonetics and phonology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Coulter, G. (1980). American Sign Language typology. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
de Villiers, J., & de Villiers, P. (1986). The acquisition of English. In Slobin, D. (Ed.), The cross linguistic study of language acquisition: Volume 1. The data (pp. 27–140). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. (1972). Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In Cole, J. K. (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1971. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. (1979). About brows: Emotional and conversational signals. In von Cranach, M., Foppa, K., Lepenies, W., & Ploog, D. (Eds.), Human ethology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ellenberger, R., Moores, D., & Hoffmeister, R. (1975). Early stages in the acquisition of negation by a deaf child of deaf parents (Research Report No. 94). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Fenson, L., Dale, P., Reznick, S., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J., Pethick, S., & Reilly, J. (1993). MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories User's Guide and Technical Manual. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Fischer, S. (1974). The ontogenetic development of language. In Straus, E. (Ed.), Language and language disturbances. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.Google Scholar
Humphries, T., Padden, C., & O'Rourke, T. (1980). A basic course in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: TJ Publishers.Google Scholar
Isenhath, J. (1990). The linguistics of American Sign Language. London: McFarland & Company.Google Scholar
Klima, E., & Bellugi, U. (1979). The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lacy, R. (1972). The development of Sonia's negation. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Liddell, S. (1978). Non-manual signals and relative clauses in American Sign Language. In Siple, P. (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research (pp. 59–90). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Liddell, S. (1980). American Sign Language syntax. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier, R. (1991). Language acquisition by deaf children. American Scientist, 79, 60–70.Google Scholar
Newport, E., & Meier, R. (1986). The acquisition of American Sign Language. In Slobin, D. (Ed.), The cross-linguistic study of language acquisition: Volume I. The data (pp. 881–938). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Petitto, L. (1984). From gesture to symbol: The relationship between form and meaning in the acquisition of personal pronouns in American Sign Language. Dissertation Abstracts International, 45 (N4-B), 1304.Google Scholar
Petitto, L. (1987). On the autonomy of language and gesture: Evidence from the acquisition of personal pronouns in American Sign Language. Cognition, 27, 1–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Provine, K., Reilly, J., & Anderson, D. (1993, 11). Language development in deaf children: The CDI for ASL. Poster presented at the American Speech and Hearing Association, Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Reilly, J., & Mclntire, M. (1991). WHERE SHOE: The acquisition of wh-questions in ASL. Papers and Reports in Child Language Development, 30, 104–111.Google Scholar
Reilly, J., Mclntire, M., & Bellugi, U. (1990a). The acquisition of conditionals in American Sign Language: Grammaticized facial expressions. Applied Psycholinguistics, 11, 369–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reilly, J.Mclntire, M., & Bellugi, U. (1990b). Faces: The relationship between language and affect. In Volterra, V. & Erting, C. (Eds.), From gesture to language in hearing and deaf children. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. (Ed.). (1985). The cross-linguistic study of language acquisition (Vols. 1, 3–4). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Stokoe, W. (1960). Sign language structure: An outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf (Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers). University of Buffalo, Department of Anthropology and Linguistics.Google Scholar
Supalla, T., & Newport, E. (1978). How many seats in a chair? The derivation of nouns and verbs in American Sign Language. In Siple, P. (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research (pp. 91–132). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Veinberg, S., & Wilbur, R. (1990). A linguistic analysis of the negative headshake in American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 68, 217–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. (1974). Implication variation in American Sign Language: Negative incorporation. Sign Language Studies, 5, 20–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar