LING 1010 Study Guide - Final Guide: Nicaraguan Sign Language, Spanish Sign Language, Home Sign

• School: UConn
• Department: Linguistics
• Course: LING 1010
• Professor: Akihiko Arano( T A)

Document Summary

Linguistics 1010 final exam study guide: sign languages. There are some misconceptions about sign languages. There are misconceptions that sign language is not as complex as spoken languages. This is wrong because sign languages have all the components (phonology, morphology, syntax) as spoken languages. A bunch of deaf nicaraguan kids got sent to a special school to learn. They all had their own home sign, which is just the simple signs they did with their family for rudimentary communication, which they taught to each other. Compare home sign, the communication system developed by cohort 1, and the communication system developed by cohort 2. By cohort 2 there was a complex morphology, phonology, and syntax in. The communication system developed by cohort 2 has the complexity of the full-fledged human language. The kids were young when they were first exposed to it and so they learned it within the critical period like any other language acquisition.