Full Description
As the first book of its kind, this volume with contributions from many well known scholars brings together some of the most recent original work on sign language acquisition in children learning a variety of different signed languages (i.e., Brazilian Sign Language, American SL, SL of the Netherlands, British SL, SL of Nicaragua, and Italian SL). In addition, the volume addresses methodological and theoretical issues in both sign language research and child language development in general. The book includes both overview chapters addressing matters of general concern in the study of sign language acquisition and chapters related to more specific topics such as sign language phonology, complex sentence structure and verb phrase development. This book will be of interest to sign language researchers, child language specialists and communication disorders professionals alike. The material is presented in such a way that also novices to the area of sign language study will find the text accessible.
Contents
1. Series editors' preface; 2. Preface; 3. Introduction (by Morgan, Gary); 4. Foundations of communication and the emergence of language in deaf children (by Marschark, Marc C.); 5. Phonology acquisition in Brazilian Sign Language (by Karnopp, Lodenir Becker); 6. Transcription as a tool for understanding: The Berkeley Transcription System for sign language research (BTS) (by Hoiting, Nini); 7. The development of Italian Sign Language (LIS) in deaf preschoolers (by Antinoro Pizzuto, Elena); 8. The acquisition of verb agreement: Pointing out arguments for the linguistic status of agreement in signed languages (by Meier, Richard P.); 9. The expression of grammatical relations by deaf toddlers learning ASL (by Schick, Brenda); 10. FACES: The acquisition of non-manual morphology in ASL (by Reilly, Judy); 11. Are young deaf children bilingual? (by Bogaerde, Beppie van den); 12. Language emergence in a language-ready brain: Acquisition (by Kegl, Judy A.); 13. The development of complex sentences in British Sign Language (by Morgan, Gary); 14. Afterword: A view from research on spoken language development (by Lieven, Elena); 15. Conclusions and directions for future research (by Woll, Bencie); 16. Glossary; 17. Bibliography; 18. Index
