How does sign language compare with gesture, on the one hand, and spoken language on the other? Sign was once viewed as nothing more than a system of pictorial gestures without linguistic structure. More recently, researchers have argued that sign is no different from spoken language, with all of the same linguistic structures. The pendulum is currently swinging back toward the view that sign is gestural, or at least has gestural components. The goal of this review is to elucidate the relationships among sign language, gesture, and spoken language. We do so by taking a close look not only at how sign has been studied over the past 50 years, but also at how the spontaneous gestures that accompany speech have been studied. We conclude that signers gesture just as speakers do. Both produce imagistic gestures along with more categorical signs or words. Because at present it is difficult to tell where sign stops and gesture begins, we suggest that sign should not be compared with speech alone but should be compared with speech-plus-gesture. Although it might be easier (and, in some cases, preferable) to blur the distinction between sign and gesture, we argue that distinguishing between sign (or speech) and gesture is essential to predict certain types of learning and allows us to understand the conditions under which gesture takes on properties of sign, and speech takes on properties of gesture. We end by calling for new technology that may help us better calibrate the borders between sign and gesture.

/pdf/gesture-sign-and-language-the-coming-of-age-of-sign-language-498fvr3mn0.pdf

Gesture, sign and language: The coming of age of sign language and gesture studies

Purpose We advanced a multifactorial, dynamic account of the complex, nonlinear interactions of motor, linguistic, and emotional factors contributing to the development of stuttering. Our purpose h...

/pdf/how-stuttering-develops-the-multifactorial-dynamic-pathways-4blv2v015o.pdf

How Stuttering Develops: The Multifactorial Dynamic Pathways Theory

Purpose The purpose of this meta-analytic study was to identify clinical characteristics, defined as child factors that can be assessed by a speech-language pathologist as part of a routine speech-language evaluation that may differentiate children who persist in stuttering from children who eventually recover from stuttering. Clinical characteristics explored included sex, age at onset, family history of stuttering, stuttering frequency and severity, speech-language skills, and temperament. Method Studies were identified through electronic databases, journals, and reference lists of relevant reports (e.g., research articles). Eligible studies followed young children who stutter (i.e., under 6 years old) for at least 24 months, assessed a potential clinical marker at study entry, and determined talker group classification (i.e., persistent or recovered) at study completion. Sex and family history differences were estimated using risk ratios; all other differences were estimated using Hedges's g. Heterogeneity and methodological differences among studies were evaluated. Results Eleven studies (41 reports) met eligibility criteria. Persistent children were older at stuttering onset and exhibited higher frequencies of stuttering-like disfluencies, lower speech sound accuracy, and lower expressive and receptive language skills than recovered children. Males and children with a family history of stuttering were also more likely to persist. Conclusions Clinical characteristics were identified that are associated with increased risk for stuttering persistence. Future studies have the potential to translate these clinical characteristics into prognostic markers for stuttering persistence risk.

Clinical Characteristics Associated With Stuttering Persistence: A Meta-Analysis

This study explores the L2M2 acquisition of Norwegian Sign Language by hearing adults, with a focus on the production and use of depicting signs. A group of students and their instructors were asked to respond to prompt questions about directions and locations in Norwegian Sign Language, and their responses were then compared. An examination of the students’ depicting signs shows that they struggled more with the phonological parameters orientation and movement, rather than with handshape. In addition, they used fewer depicting signs than their instructors, and instead relied more on lexical signs. Finally, students were found to struggle with the coordination of depicting signs within the signing space and in relation to their own bodies. It is hoped that the findings from this study can be used to inform future research as well as curricula development and pedagogy.

Describing spatial layouts as an M2 signed language learner

In the present study we aimed to investigate phonological substitution errors made by hearing second language (M2L2) learners of American Sign Language (ASL) during a sentence translation task. Learners saw sentences in ASL that were signed by either a native signer or a M2L2 learner. Learners were to simply translate the sentence from ASL to English. Learners’ responses were analysed for lexical translation errors that were caused by phonological parameter substitutions. Unlike previous related studies, tracking phonological substitution errors during sentence translation allows for the characterization of uncontrolled and naturalistic perception errors. Results indicated that learners made mostly movement errors followed by handshape and location errors. Learners made more movement errors for sentences signed by the M2L2 learner relative to those by the native signer. Additionally, high proficiency learners made more handshape errors than low proficiency learners. Taken together, this pattern of results...

Phonological substitution errors in L2 ASL sentence processing by hearing M2L2 learners

A study was conducted to examine production variability in American Sign Language (ASL) in order to gain insight into the development of motor control in a language produced in another modality. Pr...

Second language acquisition across modalities: Production variability in adult L2 learners of American Sign Language

Purpose Stuttering involves a breakdown in the speech motor system. We address whether stuttering in its early stage is specific to the speech motor system or whether its impact is observable across motor systems. Method As an extension of Olander, Smith, and Zelaznik (2010), we measured bimanual motor timing performance in 115 children: 70 children who stutter (CWS) and 45 children who do not stutter (CWNS). The children repeated the clapping task yearly for up to 5 years. We used a synchronization-continuation rhythmic timing paradigm. Two analyses were completed: a cross-sectional analysis of data from the children in the initial year of the study (ages 4;0 [years;months] to 5;11) compared clapping performance between CWS and CWNS. A second, multiyear analysis assessed clapping behavior across the ages 3;5–9;5 to examine any potential relationship between clapping performance and eventual persistence or recovery of stuttering. Results Preschool CWS were not different from CWNS on rates of clapping or v...

/pdf/evidence-that-bimanual-motor-timing-performance-is-not-a-3ut9o44c9p.pdf

Evidence That Bimanual Motor Timing Performance Is Not a Significant Factor in Developmental Stuttering

Purpose In this study, we investigated how the direction and timing of a perturbation in voice pitch auditory feedback during phrasal production modulated the magnitude and latency of the pitch-shi

Allison I. Hilger

Papers

Second language acquisition across modalities: Production variability in adult L2 learners of American Sign Language

Evidence That Bimanual Motor Timing Performance Is Not a Significant Factor in Developmental Stuttering

The Effect of Pitch Auditory Feedback Perturbations on the Production of Anticipatory Phrasal Prominence and Boundary

Auditory-Motor Control of Fundamental Frequency in Vocal Vibrato

The Effect of Pitch and Loudness Auditory Feedback Perturbations on Vocal Quality During Sustained Phonation.