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Senghas, A., Kita, S., & Ozyurek, A. (2004). Children creating core properties of language: Evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua. Science, 305(5691), 1779-1782. doi:10.1126/science.1100199.
Abstract
A new sign language has been created by deaf Nicaraguans over the past 25 years, providing an opportunity to observe the inception of universal hallmarks of language. We found that in their initial creation of the language, children analyzed complex events into basic elements and sequenced these elements into hierarchically structured expressions according to principles not observed in gestures accompanying speech in the surrounding language. Successive cohorts of learners extended this procedure, transforming Nicaraguan signing from its early gestural form into a linguistic system. We propose that this early segmentation and recombination reflect mechanisms with which children learn, and thereby perpetuate, language. Thus, children naturally possess learning abilities capable of giving language its fundamental structure. -
Ozyurek, A. (2000). Differences in spatial conceptualization in Turkish and English discourse: Evidence from both speech and gesture. In A. Goksel, & C. Kerslake (
Eds. ), Studies on Turkish and Turkic languages (pp. 263-272). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. -
Ozyurek, A., & Ozcaliskan, S. (2000). How do children learn to conflate manner and path in their speech and gestures? Differences in English and Turkish. In E. V. Clark (
Ed. ), The proceedings of the Thirtieth Child Language Research Forum (pp. 77-85). Stanford: CSLI Publications. -
Ozyurek, A. (2000). The influence of addressee location on spatial language and representational gestures of direction. In D. McNeill (
Ed. ), Language and gesture (pp. 64-83). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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