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Temporal reference marking in narrative and expository text written by deaf children and adults: A bimodal bilingual perspective*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2011

LIESBETH M. VAN BEIJSTERVELDT  and
JANET G. VAN HELL
LIESBETH M. VAN BEIJSTERVELDT*
Affiliation:
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
JANET G. VAN HELL*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, USA and Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
*
Address for correspondence: Liesbeth M. van Beijsterveldt, Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioural Science Institute, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, the Netherlandsl.vanbeijsterveldt@pwo.ru.nl or Janet van Hell, Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USAjgv3@psu.edu
Address for correspondence: Liesbeth M. van Beijsterveldt, Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioural Science Institute, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, the Netherlandsl.vanbeijsterveldt@pwo.ru.nl or Janet van Hell, Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USAjgv3@psu.edu
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Abstract

This study examined temporal reference marking in texts written by Dutch deaf children and adults who differed in sign language proficiency. The temporal reference marking systems in Dutch and Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) differ substantially, with Dutch having a wide range of lexical and morphological markers of temporal reference, and SLN relying on lexical marking of temporal reference. The results showed that the youngest proficient signers had difficulties with tense morphology: they avoided the marked past tense form in narratives and omitted verbs, but showed no problems with lexical marking of temporal reference. In the older proficient signing writers, verb morphology emerged, and in proficient signing adults temporal reference marking resembled that of the hearing adults. This study shows that in order to gain more insight into deaf people's writing, it is important to adopt a bilingual perspective and take variations in sign language proficiency into account.

Keywords

bimodal bilingualismtensetext writing
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 128 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

The first author was supported by grant 015-001-036 from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO), awarded to the second author. This research was also supported by a grant from the Mgr. van Overbeekstichting, awarded to the second author. We thank Judith Stofmeel for her help in collecting the data, and we thank anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. The database on hearing participants in this study constitutes part of a large-scale cross-linguistic project supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation, Chicago, Developing Literacy in Different Languages and Different Contexts (Ruth Berman PI; Verhoeven co-PI on Dutch part).

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