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Young Children Make Their Gestural Communication Systems More Language-Like: Segmentation and Linearization of Semantic Elements in Motion Events

Clay, Zanna; Pople, Sally; Hood, Bruce; Kita, Sotaro

Young Children Make Their Gestural Communication Systems More Language-Like: Segmentation and Linearization of Semantic Elements in Motion Events Thumbnail


Authors

Sally Pople

Bruce Hood

Sotaro Kita



Abstract

Research on Nicaraguan Sign Language, created by deaf children, has suggested that young children use gestures to segment the semantic elements of events and linearize them in ways similar to those used in signed and spoken languages. However, it is unclear whether this is due to children’s learning processes or to a more general effect of iterative learning. We investigated whether typically developing children, without iterative learning, segment and linearize information. Gestures produced in the absence of speech to express a motion event were examined in 4-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults (all native English speakers). We compared the proportions of gestural expressions that segmented semantic elements into linear sequences and that encoded them simultaneously. Compared with adolescents and adults, children reshaped the holistic stimuli by segmenting and recombining their semantic features into linearized sequences. A control task on recognition memory ruled out the possibility that this was due to different event perception or memory. Young children spontaneously bring fundamental properties of language into their communication system.

Citation

Clay, Z., Pople, S., Hood, B., & Kita, S. (2014). Young Children Make Their Gestural Communication Systems More Language-Like: Segmentation and Linearization of Semantic Elements in Motion Events. Psychological Science, 25(8), 1518-1525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614533967

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 31, 2014
Online Publication Date Jun 4, 2014
Publication Date Aug 1, 2014
Deposit Date Apr 19, 2017
Publicly Available Date Sep 20, 2017
Journal Psychological Science
Print ISSN 0956-7976
Electronic ISSN 1467-9280
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 25
Issue 8
Pages 1518-1525
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614533967
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1380975

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Accepted Journal Article (849 Kb)
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Copyright Statement
Clay, Zanna and Pople, Sally and Hood, Bruce and Kita, Sotaro (2014) 'Young children make their gestural communication systems more language-like : segmentation and linearization of semantic elements in motion events.', Psychological science., 25 (8). pp. 1518-1525. © 2014 The Author(s). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.






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