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Young children make their gestural communication systems more language-like : segmentation and linearization of semantic elements in motion events

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Clay, Zanna, Pople, Sally, Hood, Bruce and Kita, Sotaro (2014) Young children make their gestural communication systems more language-like : segmentation and linearization of semantic elements in motion events. Psychological Science, Volume 25 (Number 8). pp. 1518-1525. doi:10.1177/0956797614533967 ISSN 0956-7976.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797614533967

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Abstract

Research on Nicaraguan Sign Language, created by deaf children, has suggested that young children use gestures to segment the semantic elements of events and linearize them in ways similar to those used in signed and spoken languages. However, it is unclear whether this is due to children’s learning processes or to a more general effect of iterative learning. We investigated whether typically developing children, without iterative learning, segment and linearize information. Gestures produced in the absence of speech to express a motion event were examined in 4-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults (all native English speakers). We compared the proportions of gestural expressions that segmented semantic elements into linear sequences and that encoded them simultaneously. Compared with adolescents and adults, children reshaped the holistic stimuli by segmenting and recombining their semantic features into linearized sequences. A control task on recognition memory ruled out the possibility that this was due to different event perception or memory. Young children spontaneously bring fundamental properties of language into their communication system.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Language acquisition, Nicaraguan Sign Language, Gesture
Journal or Publication Title: Psychological Science
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN: 0956-7976
Official Date: August 2014
Dates:
DateEvent
August 2014Published
31 March 2014Accepted
12 June 2013Submitted
Volume: Volume 25
Number: Number 8
Number of Pages: 8
Page Range: pp. 1518-1525
DOI: 10.1177/0956797614533967
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit: 28 December 2015
Date of first compliant Open Access: 28 December 2015
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