Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Dev Sci. 2021 Sep;24(5):e13073. doi: 10.1111/desc.13073. Epub 2021 Jan 2.
Limited language experience in childhood is common among deaf individuals, which prior research has shown to lead to low levels of language processing. Although basic structures such as word order have been found to be resilient to conditions of sparse language input in early life, whether they are robust to conditions of extreme language delay is unknown. The sentence comprehension strategies of post-childhood, first-language (L1) learners of American Sign Language (ASL) with at least 9 years of language experience were investigated, in comparison to two control groups of learners with full access to language from birth (deaf native signers and hearing L2 learners who were native English speakers). The results of a sentence-to-picture matching experiment show that event knowledge overrides word order for post-childhood L1 learners, regardless of the animacy of the subject, while both deaf native signers and hearing L2 signers consistently rely on word order to comprehend sentences. Language inaccessibility throughout early childhood impedes the acquisition of even basic word order. Similar to the strategies used by very young children prior to the development of basic sentence structure, post-childhood L1 learners rely more on context and event knowledge to comprehend sentences. Language experience during childhood is critical to the development of basic sentence structure.
儿童时期语言经验有限在聋人群体中很常见，先前的研究表明，这会导致语言处理能力低下。尽管在早期语言输入匮乏的情况下，基本结构（如语序）已被发现具有弹性，但它们是否能抵御极端语言延迟的条件尚不清楚。本研究调查了具有至少 9 年语言经验的成年后第一语言（L1）美国手语（ASL）学习者的句子理解策略，将其与两个具有完整语言输入条件的控制组（从出生起就拥有语言的聋人母语使用者和母语为英语的听力 L2 学习者）进行了比较。句子到图片匹配实验的结果表明，事件知识优先于语序，无论主语是否有生命，而聋人母语使用者和听力 L2 手语使用者则始终依赖语序来理解句子。整个儿童时期的语言不可及性会阻碍基本语序的习得。与在基本句子结构发展之前使用的非常年幼的儿童策略类似，成年后 L1 学习者更多地依赖上下文和事件知识来理解句子。儿童时期的语言经验对于基本句子结构的发展至关重要。
