ERIC Number: EJ1485868
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Sep
Pages: 34
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: EISSN-1469-7602
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Development of Sign Phonology in Kata Kolok
Journal of Child Language, v51 n5 p1016-1049 2024
Much like early speech, early signing is characterised by modifications. Sign language phonology has been analysed on the feature level since the 1980s, yet acquisition studies predominately examine handshape, location, and movement. This study is the first to analyse the acquisition of phonology in the sign language of a Balinese village with a vibrant signing community and applies the same feature analysis to adult and child data. We analyse longitudinal data of four deaf children from the Kata Kolok Child Signing Corpus. The form comparison of child productions and adult targets yields three main findings: i) handshape modifications are most frequent, echoing cross-linguistic patterns; ii) modification rates of other features differ from previous studies, possibly due to differences in methodology or KK's phonology; iii) co-occurrence of modifications within a sign suggest feature interdependencies. We argue that nuanced approaches to child signing are necessary to understand the complexity of early signing.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Sign Language, Phonology, Language Acquisition, Deafness, Rural Areas, Children, Adults
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Indonesia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Birmingham, UK; 2Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Netherlands; 3Tilburg Center for Cognition and Communication, Tilburg University, Netherlands

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