AQUI_LGP Corpus: a longitudinal corpus of Portuguese Sign Language
acquisition
Acquisition studies demonstrate that in general the path of language acquisition is
comparable for sign and spoken languages (Lillo-Martin, 1999; Van der Bogaerde,
2000), even if their visual modality differs from the auditive modality of spoken
languages. Few researches claimed that babbling is a similar stage on the language
acquisition among children from different linguistic modalities (Petitto, 2000),
however, several studies reported that there are modality effects on the phonological
and articulatory development, with sign advantage on first words (Meier & Newport,
1990). What if they are bilingual children with different linguistic modalities? Are the
two languages affected with code-blending or in code-switching? Will there be
grammatical interferences in both linguistic modalities?
Current researches on bimodal bilingualism have attempted to answer these questions
based on bimodal bilingual production of coda adults (e.g. Emmorey et al., 2008) and
children (e.g. Johnson et al., 1992; Lillo-Martin et al., 2010). Studies have shown that
performances of bimodal bilingual children exhibit cross-linguistic influence and
code-blending/switching, establishing that these phenomena resulted from two
phonological and syntactic available systems (Lillo-Martin et al., 2010), instead of the
existence of a ‘third grammar’ or ‘language dominance’ (Hulk & Müller, 2000).
Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) has been studied as a complex structural natural
linguistic system since the 1980s, and although some important linguistic studies were
carried out and a number of limited sign vocabularies have been created, only recently
acquisition of LGP has began to be studied (Carmo et al., in press).
In order to fill this gap, a longitudinal corpus of Portuguese Sign Language
acquisition
has
been
developed,
the
AQUI_LGP
Corpus,
reference
PTDC/LIN/111889/2009. The main goal of this project is to establish research
concerning early acquisition of LGP in both monolingual and bilingual children. The
project allows not only the study of language acquisition and development but also
the creation of a corpus that enables the study of LGP. We also aim at comparing
bimodal bilingualism results with what is reported about unimodal and bimodal
bilingualism.
The corpus comprises naturalistic recordings (and their transcriptions) of 13 male and
female children acquiring language for a period of two years. The sample comprises
hearing bimodal children (LGP/Portuguese), deaf children with early sign language
acquisition, children with cochlear implants, and hearing children with early
Portuguese acquisition. The children’s age onset varies from 10 months to 4 years of
age. They were video-recorded individually every other week if monolingual and
every week if bilingual. The transcriptions are being made using ELAN (EUDICO
Linguistic Annotator).
Currently there are several studies being carried out based on the corpus: an analysis
and comparison of language acquisition and development of monolingual and
bilingual children both in LGP and Portuguese; a study of Mean Length of Utterance
(MLU) of children with cochlear implants in both LGP and Portuguese; an
assessment of vocabulary of bilingual children in both languages.
References:
Carmo, P., Mineiro, A., Branco, J. C., Müller de Quadro, R., Castro-Caldas, A. (in
press). Handshape is the hardest path in Portuguese Sign Language acquisition:
towards a universal modality constraint. Sign Language and Linguistics. John
Benjamin’s, Amesterdam/Philadelphia, 16 (2).
Johnson, J. M., Watkins, R. V. & Rice, M.L. (1992). Bimodal bilingual language
development in a hearing child of deaf parents. Applied psycholinguistics, 13(1), 31–
52.
Hulk, A., & Müller, N. (2000) Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface
between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: L&C 3, 227–244.
Lillo-Martin, Diane, Quadros, Ronice Müller de, Koulidobrova, Helen and Chen
Pichler, Deborah (2010). Bimodal bilingual cross-language influence in unexpected
domains. In João Costa, Ana Castro, Maria Lobo & Fernanda Pratas (Eds.), Language
Acquisition and Development: Proceedings of GALA 2009, 264-275. Newcastle upon
Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Lillo-Martin, D. (1999). Modality Effects and Modularity in Language Acquisition:
The Acquisition of American Sign Language. In W. C. Ritchie & T. K. Bhatia (Eds.),
Handbook of Language Acquisition (pp. 531-567). San Diego, CA: Academic Press
Meier, R. P., & Newport, E. L. (1990). Out of the Hands of Babes: On a Possible Sign
Advantage in Language Acquisition. Language, 66, 1-23.
Petitto, L. A., Katerelos, M., Levi, B., Gauna, K., Tetrault, K. & Ferraro, V. (2001).
Bilingual signed and spoken language acquisition from birth: Implications for the
mechanisms underlying early bilingual language acquisition. Journal of child
language, 28(2), 453–496.
Petitto, L.A. (2000). On The Biological Foundations of Human Language. In K.
Emmorey and H. Lane (Eds.) The signs of language revisted: An anthology in honor
of Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima. Mahway, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. Inc.