Title :

A functional approach to self-pointsand self-reference in a deaf signing childand the (dis)continuity issue in child language

Author(s) :

Caët, Stéphanie [Auteur]
Université de Lille
Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163 [STL]
Limousin, Fanny [Auteur]
Langues des Signes
Morgenstern, Aliyah [Auteur]
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3
PRISMES - Langues, Textes, Arts et Cultures du Monde Anglophone - EA 4398 [PRISMES]

Journal title :

Langage, Interaction et Acquisition / Language, Interaction and Acquisition

Pages :

117-140

Publisher :

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Publication date :

2017

ISSN :

1879-7865

English keyword(s) :

continuity
French Sign Language
language acquisition
pointing and self-reference

HAL domain(s) :

Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Linguistique

English abstract : [en]

Based on her observation of two deaf children acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) who stopped pointing to persons at around 12 months and then produced reversal errors, Petitto (1987) argued that the discontinuous ...
Show more >Based on her observation of two deaf children acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) who stopped pointing to persons at around 12 months and then produced reversal errors, Petitto (1987) argued that the discontinuous development of gestures and signs gives support to the hypothesis that language does not arise from general cognitive processes. However, since then, a large amount of studies on hearing children have suggested that early pointing was strongly related to later language abilities. In this paper, we follow up on these socio-cognitive approaches, with a dataset comparable to Petitto’s. We study the development of pointing and self-reference in a deaf child acquiring French Sign Language (LSF). We focus on self-reference rather than self-points, and suggest that, despite the apparent discontinuity in the production of self-points, there is continuity in the establishment of self-reference. In our data, the child produces self-points early on. She then uses predicates without overt subject before entering more complex syntax by combining predicates and self-points. The deaf signing child constructs self-reference similarly to speaking children and uses specific forms provided by her linguistic environment according to her cognitive, social and linguistic development.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Popular science :

Non

Collections :

• Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163

Source :

Harvested from HAL