signlanguage

Signs point to the language instinct
17 Feb 96

                                GESTURES that deaf children invent to communicate with their hearing
                                parents contain the visual equivalent of syllables, one of the marks of
                                a sophisticated language. The finding, announced at the AAAS
                                meeting by researchers from the University of Chicago, suggests that
                                even subtle aspects of language are hard-wired into human brains.

                                Linguists agree that humans are born with many of the important tools
                                of language already in place. However, determining which elements
                                come pre- installed is difficult, because our social environment is also
                                vital to language development. Our vocabulary, for instance, is
                                shaped by our parents, expanded in school, and continually refined as
                                we converse.

                                Psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow and her colleagues knew of one
                                type of communication that is less dependent on the environment. In
                                previous work, they had videotaped families where hearing parents
                                had decided to teach their deaf child to lip-read and speak rather
                                than learn sign language. Even though none of these children were
                                taught a sign language, they developed a system of private gestures
                                that represented nouns and verbs. When the children were between 3
                                and 5 years old, this home-grown communication outpaced their
                                speech development.

                                But were these visual "words" the elements of a sophisticated
                                language? The gestures could have been unrelated to one another
                                and undissectable - the equivalent of a system of spoken words
                                each consisting of only one syllable. However, over the past year, the
                                Chicago researchers have analysed the videos of this toddler-talk and
                                discovered that the words have a complex structure.

                                Each "word" consisted of combinations of simpler elements found in
                                many visual words, just as one syllable may be included in many
                                spoken words. A "syllable" could be a fixed set of hand positions or
                                motions joined together in what the researchers call "meaning pairs".
                                For example, a hand cupped with the palm facing down, and a short
                                twist meant "jar" to one boy. But the cupped hand gesture also
                                appeared in other words representing hand-sized objects. The children
                                in the study generated more than 90 per cent of their vocabulary
                                through manipulation of these simple elements, as do all adult sign
                                languages.

                                The children developed different systems of communication, but all
                                used their visual syllables consistently, nearly always reproducing the
                                same meaning pairs in the same situation. Their parents sometimes
                                responded subconsciously with similar gestures, but they often used
                                their children's syllables wrongly.

                                The children did not use their parents' gestures as cues in designing
                                their visual language. They also failed to adopt rules from the spoken
                                language they were being taught. For example, a boy known as
                                "David" ignored the rules of spoken English in his private language by
                                choosing to form sentences with the objects at the beginning and
                                subjects at the end. The researchers believe this suggests that a
                                desire for some form of syntax is hard-wired into the brain while the
                                precise rules employed are not.

                                Goldin-Meadow concludes that the children's frustration with the
                                speech they were being taught forced them to invent a language
                                more suited to their abilities. She believes that by comparing how the
                                children continue to develop their signs later in life, she can
                                understand the roles individuals play in their own language
                                development. After all, for these private languages there are no
                                teachers or textbooks available. "I think we are looking at the bare
                                bones of what a human mind can do by itself," she says.

                                PHILIP COHEN
                                From New Scientist magazine, vol 149 issue 2017, 17/02/1996, page
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