Early acquisition of sign language - the role of eyebrow position in the grammar of Croatian Sign Language

Znakovni jezik prirodni je sustav komunikacije zajednice gluhih koji ima sve sastavnice humanog jezika te gramatička pravila potpuno neovisna od govorenog jezika. Zbog potrebe uvođenja znakovnog jezika u ranu intervenciju i (re)habilitacijske programe usmjerene na obitelj gluhe i nagluhe djece, sve više raste potreba za sustavnim i sveobuhvatnim opisom gramatike hrvatskog znakovnog jezika (HZJ). Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati ulogu položaja obrva u gramatici HZJ-a te ispitati razlikuje li se od uloge položaja obrva u hrvatskom govorenom jeziku (HJ). Za potrebe ovog istraživanja, korišteni su video materijali ranije prikupljeni za potrebe istraživanja HZJ-a (korpus) te ciljano prikupljeni materijali za usporedbu s HJ-om. Za analizu podataka koristio se specijalizirani program za lingvističku analizu ELAN te Microsoft Office Excel program. Podatci su obrađeni deskriptivnom analizom. Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da položaj obrva ima važnu ulogu u gramatici HZJ-a i to u razlikovanju vrsta rečenica, kao što su niječne, pogodbene i upitne rečenice, zatim teme, fokusa i kontrastnog fokusa u rečenici, intenzifikacije, ali i u pragmatici i prozodiji. Dobiveni rezultati usporedivi su s istraživanjima u drugim znakovnim jezicima te doprinose opisu gramatike HZJ-a, što će pospješiti razvoj programa rane intervencije usmjerenih na obitelj te razvoj odnosa i komunikacije između gluhe djece i čujućih roditelja te drugih osoba iz djetetove okoline.Sign language is a natural communication system of the Deaf community that has all components of human language and grammar rules that are completely independent of the spoken language. Due to the need for introducing sign language in family centered early intervention and (re)habilitation programs for deaf and hard of hearing children, there is a growing need for a systematic and comprehensive description of Croatian Sign Language (HZJ) grammar. The aim of this study was to determine the role of eyebrow position in HZJ grammar, and to determine whether it differs from the eyebrow position in Croatian spoken language (HJ). Video materials used in this research were a part of the database previously collected for the purpouse of HZJ research (corpus), and video materials collected for comparison with HJ. For data analysis, a specialized program for linguistic analysis ELAN and Microsoft Office Excel program were used. Data were processed by descriptive analysis. The results have showen that the position of the eyebrows have an important role in the grammar of HZJ, in distinguishing various types of sentences, such as negative, conditional and interrogative sentences, then topics, focus and contrasting focus in the sentence, intensification, but also has a role in pragmatics, and prosody. The results are comparable to research in other sign languages, and contribute to the description of HZJ grammar, which will promote the development of family centered early intervention programs, and the development of relationship and communication between deaf children and their hearing parents, as well as other members of the child's environment