TY - JOUR
T1 - Handshape is the hardest path in Portuguese Sign Language acquisition
T2 - towards a universal modality constraint
AU - Carmo, Patrícia do
AU - Mineiro, Ana
AU - Branco, Joana Castelo
AU - Quadros, Ronice Müller de
AU - Castro-Caldas, Alexandre
N1 - Funding Information:
We profoundly thank Roland Pfau and Josep Quer for their valuable comments and insights on earlier versions of this paper. We warmly thank Marc Marschark for his very helpful advices and comments on this paper. We thank Joana Pereira, Ana Margarida Abrantes, and Julian Hanna for helping us with the revision of the English of this paper. We also thank D.C.’s family for their enthusiasm to participate in this study and for allowing us to film and analyze the child’s acquisition over such a long period of time. Part of this research was funded by FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Sign languages have only been acknowledged as true languages in the second half of the 20th century. Studies on their ontogenesis are recent and include mostly comparative approaches to spoken language and sign language acquisition. Studies on sign language acquisition show that of the manual phonological parameters, handshape is the one which is acquired last. This study reports the findings of a first pilot study on Portuguese Sign Language (Língua Gestual Portuguesa - LGP) acquisition, focusing on a Deaf child from 10 months until 24 months of age, and it confirms the pattern previously described for other sign languages. We discuss possible reasons why handshape is harder to acquire, which relate to neuromotor development and perceptual issues, and we suggest that auditory deprivation might delay the acquisition of fine motor skills.
AB - Sign languages have only been acknowledged as true languages in the second half of the 20th century. Studies on their ontogenesis are recent and include mostly comparative approaches to spoken language and sign language acquisition. Studies on sign language acquisition show that of the manual phonological parameters, handshape is the one which is acquired last. This study reports the findings of a first pilot study on Portuguese Sign Language (Língua Gestual Portuguesa - LGP) acquisition, focusing on a Deaf child from 10 months until 24 months of age, and it confirms the pattern previously described for other sign languages. We discuss possible reasons why handshape is harder to acquire, which relate to neuromotor development and perceptual issues, and we suggest that auditory deprivation might delay the acquisition of fine motor skills.
KW - Handshape
KW - Neuromotor development
KW - Portuguese Sign Language
KW - Sign language acquisition
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84880474217
U2 - 10.1075/sll.16.1.03car
DO - 10.1075/sll.16.1.03car
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84880474217
SN - 1387-9316
VL - 16
SP - 75
EP - 90
JO - Sign Language and Linguistics (Online)
JF - Sign Language and Linguistics (Online)
IS - 1
ER -