Argues that a 1997 study of WH-movement in American Sign Language (ASL) proposing leftward syntactic movement uses incorrect interpretations of the data and can not account for the facts of the language. A previously-proposed position that ASL WH-phrases move rightward, and that universal grammar must allow the option of rightward movement, is…

Discusses recent research that has examined the early stages of language development in signed and spoken languages as well as suggestions that there is an advantage for the acquisition of signed languages. Specific attention is focused on whether or not a single timing mechanism underlies early milestones in the acquisition of both vocabulary and…

Argues that WH-Movement in American Sign Language (ASL) is a leftward specifier of CP. Also argues that the occurrence of rightward WH-elements derives from independently motivated syntactic and discourse factors leading to the appearance of WH-elements in a sentence- or discourse-final positions--not by rightward WH-movement. This analysis…

Conventional sign language used by a community of signers over generations was compared with gestures invented by a deaf child over a period of years and with gestures invented by nonsigning hearing individuals on the spot. Findings suggest that an individual can introduce standards of well-formedness, but construction of standards requires…

Explores the predictors of early mastery versus error in children's acquisition of American Sign Language. Hypothesizes that the most frequent values for a particular parameter in prelinguistic gesture will be the most frequent in early signs and the most likely sources of substitution when children make errors. (Author/VWL)