Kocab Annemarie, Senghas Ann, Pyers Jennie
Departments of Psychology and Linguistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Department of Psychology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Languages (Basel). 2022 Jun;7(2). doi: 10.3390/languages7020137. Epub 2022 May 30.
At a language's inception, what determines which elements are taken up to build a grammar? How is the initial raw material reshaped through intergenerational language learning? We approached this question by focusing on the emergence of non-manual wh-question markers in Nicaraguan Sign Language (LSN), a young sign language. We asked whether the seeds of non-manual markers originate in the facial gestures of the hearing Nicaraguan community, and we explored the iterated process by which a form becomes selected and then systematized through generational transmission. We identified six non-manual facial and body movements produced with questions by 34 deaf LSN signers, representing three sequential age cohorts of learners, and compared them to those produced by 16 non-signing Spanish speakers. We examined the frequency and duration of each non-manual, and its temporal overlap with a question word. One non-manual, the brow furrow, was overwhelmingly represented among LSN signers, despite appearing rarely among non-signers and not being initially favored in duration or temporal overlap. With the second and third cohorts, the brow furrow emerges as a frequent and systematic marker. With each cycle of child learners, variable input was transformed into a more constrained set of grammatical forms.
在一种语言诞生之初，是什么决定了哪些元素会被纳入以构建语法体系？最初的原始素材是如何通过代际语言学习而重塑的？我们通过聚焦尼加拉瓜手语（LSN）中出现的非手势性特殊疑问句标记来探讨这个问题，尼加拉瓜手语是一种年轻的手语。我们研究了非手势性标记的根源是否源自尼加拉瓜听力正常群体的面部手势，并探究了一种形式如何被选中，然后通过代际传承而系统化的反复过程。我们识别出34名尼加拉瓜聋人手语使用者在提问时做出的六种非手势性面部和身体动作，这些使用者代表了三个连续年龄段的学习者群体，并将其与16名不会手语的西班牙语使用者做出的动作进行比较。我们研究了每种非手势动作的频率和时长，以及它与疑问词的时间重叠情况。有一种非手势动作，即皱眉，在尼加拉瓜手语使用者中占压倒性比例，尽管在非手语使用者中很少出现，而且在时长或时间重叠方面最初也不占优势。在第二和第三群体中，皱眉逐渐成为一种频繁且系统的标记。随着每一代儿童学习者的循环，多变的输入被转化为一套更具约束性的语法形式。
