Children creating core properties of language : evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua

A new sign language has been created by deaf Nicaraguans over the past 35 years, providing an opportunity to observe the inception of universal hallmarks of language. The present study shows that children initially creating the language began analyzing complex events into basic elements, and sequencing these elements into hierarchically structured expressions, following principles not observed in gestures accompanying speech in the surrounding language. Successive cohorts of learners extended this procedure, transforming Nicaraguan signing from its early gestural form into a linguistic system. We propose that this early segmentation and recombination reflect mechanisms with which children learn, and thereby perpetuate, language. Thus, children naturally possess learning abilities capable of giving language its fundamental structure