As the first book of its kind, this volume with contributions from many well known scholars brings together some of the most recent original work on sign language acquisition in children learning a variety of different signed languages (i.e., Brazilian Sign Language, American SL, SL of the Netherlands, British SL, SL of Nicaragua, and Italian SL). In addition, the volume addresses methodological and theoretical issues in both sign language research and child language development in general. The book includes both overview chapters addressing matters of general concern in the study of sign language acquisition and chapters related to more specific topics such as sign language phonology, complex sentence structure and verb phrase development. This book will be of interest to sign language researchers, child language specialists and communication disorders professionals alike. The material is presented in such a way that also novices to the area of sign language study will find the text accessible.

Table of Contents

Series editors’ preface vii Preface ix Introduction Gary Morgan and Bencie Woll xi•xx Foundations of communication and the emergence of language in deaf children Mark Marschark 1•28 Phonology acquisition in Brazilian Sign Language Lodenir Becker Karnopp 29•53 Transcription as a tool for understanding: The Berkeley Transcription System for sign language research (BTS) Nini Hoiting and Dan I. Slobin 55•75 The development of Italian Sign Language (LIS) in deaf preschoolers Elena Pizzuto 77•114 The acquisition of verb agreement: Pointing out arguments for the linguistic status of agreement in signed languages Richard P. Meier 115•141 The expression of grammatical relations by deaf toddlers learning ASL Brenda Schick 143•158 FACES: The acquisition of non-manual morphology in ASL Judy S. Reilly and Diane Anderson 159•181 Are young deaf children bilingual? Beppie van den Bogaerde and Anne Baker 183•206 Language emergence in a language-ready brain: Acquisition Judy Kegl 207•254 The development of complex sentences in British Sign Language Gary Morgan and Bencie Woll 255•275 Afterword: A view from research on spoken language development Elena V. M. Lieven 277•290 Conclusions and directions for future research Bencie Woll and Gary Morgan 291•299 Glossary 301•303 Bibliography 305•334 Index 335•340