We report an experiment addressing the comprehension of LIS interrogatives in three adult populations with different times of exposure to sign language: native signers, early signers, and late signers. We investigate whether delayed exposure to language affects comprehension of interrogatives and whether there is an advantage for subject dependencies over object dependencies, as systematically reported for spoken languages. The answer to the first question is positive: there is evidence that natives outperform nonnative signers, confirming permanent effects of delayed exposure to sign language even decades after childhood. However, the performance in subject interrogatives was lower than in object interrogatives in all groups of participants. We discuss several possible reasons for this unexpected finding.

Cecchetto, C., Checchetto, A., Giustolisi, B., Santoro, M. (2022). Age of exposure and subject/object asymmetries when wh-movement goes rightward. SIGN LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS, 25(1), 1-29 [10.1075/sll.20015.cec].

Age of exposure and subject/object asymmetries when wh-movement goes rightward

Cecchetto, Carlo;Checchetto, Alessandra;Giustolisi, Beatrice;
2022

Abstract

We report an experiment addressing the comprehension of LIS interrogatives in three adult populations with different times of exposure to sign language: native signers, early signers, and late signers. We investigate whether delayed exposure to language affects comprehension of interrogatives and whether there is an advantage for subject dependencies over object dependencies, as systematically reported for spoken languages. The answer to the first question is positive: there is evidence that natives outperform nonnative signers, confirming permanent effects of delayed exposure to sign language even decades after childhood. However, the performance in subject interrogatives was lower than in object interrogatives in all groups of participants. We discuss several possible reasons for this unexpected finding.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
Age of exposure effects; Interrogatives; LIS; Wh-dependency;
English
6-dic-2021
2022
25
1
1
29
none
Cecchetto, C., Checchetto, A., Giustolisi, B., Santoro, M. (2022). Age of exposure and subject/object asymmetries when wh-movement goes rightward. SIGN LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS, 25(1), 1-29 [10.1075/sll.20015.cec].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/339605
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