Department of Psychology, Harvard University Cambridge, MA, USA ; Department of Psychology, Wellesley College Wellesley, MA, USA.
Department of Psychology, Wellesley College Wellesley, MA, USA.
Front Psychol. 2015 Jan 9;5:1540. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01540. eCollection 2014.
Even the simplest narratives combine multiple strands of information, integrating different characters and their actions by expressing multiple perspectives of events. We examined the emergence of referential shift devices, which indicate changes among these perspectives, in Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL). Sign languages, like spoken languages, mark referential shift grammatically with a shift in deictic perspective. In addition, sign languages can mark the shift with a point or a movement of the body to a specified spatial location in the three-dimensional space in front of the signer, capitalizing on the spatial affordances of the manual modality. We asked whether the use of space to mark referential shift emerges early in a new sign language by comparing the first two age cohorts of deaf signers of NSL. Eight first-cohort signers and 10 second-cohort signers watched video vignettes and described them in NSL. Narratives were coded for lexical (use of words) and spatial (use of signing space) devices. Although the cohorts did not differ significantly in the number of perspectives represented, second-cohort signers used referential shift devices to explicitly mark a shift in perspective in more of their narratives. Furthermore, while there was no significant difference between cohorts in the use of non-spatial, lexical devices, there was a difference in spatial devices, with second-cohort signers using them in significantly more of their narratives. This suggests that spatial devices have only recently increased as systematic markers of referential shift. Spatial referential shift devices may have emerged more slowly because they depend on the establishment of fundamental spatial conventions in the language. While the modality of sign languages can ultimately engender the syntactic use of three-dimensional space, we propose that a language must first develop systematic spatial distinctions before harnessing space for grammatical functions.
即使是最简单的叙述也结合了多条信息，通过表达事件的多个视角来整合不同的角色及其行为。我们研究了指涉转换装置的出现，这些装置表示这些视角之间的变化，这些装置出现在尼加拉瓜手语（NSL）中。与口语一样，手语通过指示性视角的转变在语法上标记指涉转换。此外，手语可以通过将身体指向或移动到签名者面前的三维空间中的指定空间位置来标记转换，利用手动模态的空间功能。我们通过比较 NSL 的两个首批聋人手语使用者年龄组，询问空间是否用于标记指涉转换是否在新的手语中很早就出现。八名第一组手语使用者和十名第二组手语使用者观看了视频小品，并以 NSL 对其进行了描述。叙述被编码为词汇（使用单词）和空间（使用签名空间）设备。尽管两个队列在代表的视角数量上没有显著差异，但第二组手语使用者在更多的叙述中使用指涉转换装置来明确标记视角的转变。此外，虽然队列之间在非空间词汇设备的使用上没有显著差异，但在空间设备的使用上存在差异，第二组手语使用者在其更多的叙述中使用空间设备。这表明空间设备只是最近才作为指涉转换的系统标记增加。空间指涉转换装置的出现可能较慢，因为它们依赖于语言中基本空间约定的建立。虽然手语的模态最终可以产生三维空间的句法使用，但我们认为，一种语言必须首先发展出系统的空间区别，然后才能利用空间来实现语法功能。
