Am Ann Deaf. 2020;165(4):418-435. doi: 10.1353/aad.2020.0028.
The study asked whether Deaf mothers seek to exploit the iconicity in signed languages to facilitate their infants' word learning. Two longitudinal case studies followed modifications that 2 Deaf mothers applied to their input while interacting with their hearing infants. Both mothers were sensitive to the communicative abilities of their infants in different periods of language acquisition, and adapted their inputs accordingly. In the prelinguistic period, infant-directed input was characterized by repetitiveness to facilitate the infant's visual perception. During the mid-one-word period, the mothers used exaggerated iconic productions to promote form-meaning mapping. During early syntax development they used adultlike directed signing, applying phonetic reduction modifications to ease and speed up signing. The results support the hypothesis that iconicity plays a role in signed language development and that, in general, modifications act as scaffolding for language learning.
这项研究探讨了聋人母亲是否试图利用手语的象似性来促进婴儿的单词学习。该研究通过两个纵向案例研究，跟踪了 2 位聋人母亲在与听力正常的婴儿互动时对输入内容所做的修改。两位母亲都能敏锐地察觉到婴儿在不同语言习得阶段的交际能力，并相应地调整了输入内容。在语言前期，婴儿指向性输入的特点是重复，以促进婴儿的视觉感知。在单词语期，母亲使用夸张的象似性表达来促进形式与意义的映射。在早期句法发展阶段，她们使用成人般的指向性手语，采用语音简化修改来简化和加快手语的表达。研究结果支持了象似性在手语发展中起作用的假设，并且通常来说，这些修改起到了语言学习支架的作用。
