Cover not available

In:Acquisition of Korean: The state of the art
Edited by Soonja Choi
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 36] 2026
► pp. 410–451

Chapter 13
Korean sign language acquisition in young Deaf twins

A longitudinal study

 | Korea Maritime & Ocean University
 | Korea Nazarene University
 | Chosun University
 | Silla University
 | Pukyong National University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This longitudinal study followed two Deaf twins from Deaf parents, observing their Korean Sign Language (KSL) acquisition from 6 to 36 months during naturalistic spontaneous communication, book reading and play. The twins produced 165 unique signs during the study period. Each sign was coded by handshape, location, and movement. Handshape and location errors decreased over time, while movement and combined parameter errors persisted or increased, indicating ongoing motor and phonological integration challenges. Early word production consisted predominantly of pantomimic and iconic signs, while perceptual and arbitrary (non-iconic) signs emerged gradually with increased exposure. Comparison of the twins’ word forms with those of adult KSL users reveals that the children show a strong reliance on pantomimic signs at an early stage. These findings offer comprehensive insights into the trajectories of KSL development, highlighting the diagnostic relevance of articulatory errors and the interaction of universal developmental patterns and culture-specific influences in early sign language learning.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous research
    • 2.1Basic components of sign language
    • 2.2Universal mechanisms in sign language acquisition
    • 2.3Iconicity and early vocabulary development
    • 2.4Articulatory constraints in early sign language development
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Development of manual babbling and early gestures
      • 4.1.1First sign production: From babbling to gesture in KSL
      • 4.1.2Developmental stages of KSL early vocabulary acquisition
    • 4.2Articulatory development and error patterns
      • 4.2.1Handshape errors
      • 4.2.2Movement errors
      • 4.2.3Location errors
      • 4.2.4Error patterns across parameters
    • 4.3The role of iconicity in the acquisition of word forms
      • 4.3.1Comparison between adults and children by iconicity type
      • 4.3.2Developmental changes in the distribution of iconicity types from 0;6 to 3;0
    • 4.4Correlation between articulatory errors and iconicity
    • 4.5Summary of findings
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (49)
References
Anderson, D., & Reilly, J. (2002). The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Normative data for American Sign Language. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 7(2), 83–119. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, C., Bjorkman, B., Denis, D., Doner, J., Grant, M., Sanders, N., & Taniguchi, A. (2022). Essentials of linguistics (2nd ed., pp. 134–144). eCampusOntario. [URL]
Bosworth, R. G., & Emmorey, K. (2010). Effects of iconicity and semantic relatedness on lexical access in American Sign Language. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(6), 1573–1581. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brentari, D. (1998). A prosodic model of sign language phonology. The MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Handshape in sign language phonology. In M. van Oostendorp, C. Ewen, E. Hume, & K. Rice (Eds.), Companion to phonology (pp.195–222). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caselli, N. K., & Pyers, J. E. (2020). Degree and not type of iconicity affects sign language vocabulary acquisition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46(1), 127. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheek, A., Cormier, K., Repp, A., & Meier, R. P. (2001). Prelinguistic gesture predicts mastery and error in the production of early signs. Language, 77, 292–323. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Conlin, K. E., Mirus, G. R., Mauk, C., & Meier, R. P. (2000). The acquisition of first signs: Place, handshape, and movement. In C. Chamberlain, J. Morford, & R. Mayberry (Eds.), Language acquisition by eye (pp. 51–69). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cormier, K., Schembri, A. & Woll, B. (2013). Pronouns and pointing in sign languages. Lingua, 137, 230–247. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eccarius, P., & Brentari, D. (2007). Symmetry and dominance: A cross-linguistic study of signs and classifier constructions. Lingua, 117(7), 1169–1201. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Emmorey, K. (1999). Do signers gesture? In L. Messing & R. Campbell (Eds.), Gesture, speech, and sign (pp. 133–159). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005). The resilience of language: What gesture creation in deaf children can tell us about how all children learn language. Psychology Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., & Brentari, D. (2017). Gesture, sign, and language: The coming of age of sign language and gesture studies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, e46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herman, J. L., Stevens, M. J., Bird, A., Mendenhall, M., & Oddou, G. (2010). The tolerance for ambiguity scale: Towards a more refined measure for international management research. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 34, 58–65. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Imai, M., & Kita, S. (2014). The sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis for language acquisition and language evolution. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B 369, 20130298. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jhang, S. (2024). Distinguishing gestures from signs: A focus on personal pronouns in Korean Sign Language. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 49(2), 231–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jusczyk, P. W., Smolensky, P., & Allocco, T. (2002). How English-learning infants respond to markedness and faithfulness constraints. Language Acquisition, 10, 31–73. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laing, C. E. (2014). A phonological analysis of onomatopoeia in early word production. First Language, 34(5), 387–405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lenneberg, E. H. (1967). Biological foundations of language. John Wiley. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lillo-Martin, D. (1986). Two kinds of argument in American Sign Language. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 4(4), 415–444. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, C., & Jhang, S. (2024). A bibliometric analysis of language acquisition research: A comparative study of spoken and sign languages. Manuscript presented at the 2nd Workshop on Interdisciplinary Research on Acquisition of the Korean Sign Language, Chungnam National University, 13 December, 2024.
Macedonia, M., Müller, K., & Friederici, A. D. (2011). The impact of iconic gestures on foreign language word learning and its neural substrate. Human Brain Mapping, 32(6), 982–998. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Magid, R. W., & Pyers, J. E. (2017). “I use it when I see it”: The role of development and experience in deaf and hearing children’s understanding of iconic gesture. Cognition, 162, 73–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marentette, P. F. (1989). Babbling in sign language: Implications for maturational processes of language in the developing brain (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). McGill University.
Marentette, P. F., & Mayberry, R. I. (2000). Principles for an emerging phonological system: A case study of acquisition of American Sign Language. In C. Chamberlain, J. Morford, & R. Mayberry (Eds.), Language acquisition by eye (pp. 71–90). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, D. (2012). How language began: Gesture and speech in human evolution. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meier, R. P. (2006). The form of early signs: Explaining signing children’s articulatory development. In B. Woll & G. Morgan (Eds.), Directions in sign language acquisition (pp. 121–140). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meier, R. P., Mauk, C. E., Cheek, A., & Moreland, C. J. (2008). The form of children’s early signs: Iconic or motoric determinants? Language learning and development, 4(1), 63–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mineiro, A., Báez-Montero, I. C., Moita, M., Galhano-Rodrigues, I., & Castro-Caldas, A. (2021). Disentangling pantomime from early sign in a new sign language: Window into language evolution research. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 640057. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, G. (2014). On language acquisition in speech and sign: Development of combinatorial structure in both modalities. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, G., Herman, R., & Woll, B. (2007). The first signs of language: Phonological development in British Sign Language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28(1), 3–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, G., Herman, R., Barriere, I., & Woll, B. (2008). The onset and mastery of spatial language in children acquiring British Sign Language. Cognitive Development, 23(1), 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Newport, E. L., & Meier, R. P. (1985). The acquisition of American sign language. In D. Slobin (Ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition. Vol. 1: The Data (pp. 881–938). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orlansky, M. D., & Bonvillian, J. D. (1984). The role of iconicity in early sign language acquisition. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 49(3), 287–292. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ortega, G., Sümer, B., & Özyürek, A. (2017). Type of iconicity matters in the vocabulary development of signing children. Developmental Psychology, 53(1), 89–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Petitto, L. A., & Marentette, P. F. (1991). Babbling in the manual mode: Evidence for the ontogeny of language. Science, 251(5000), 1493–1496. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pfau, R., & Steinbach, M. (2011). Grammaticalization in sign languages. In H. Narrog & B. Heine (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization (pp. 683–695). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pichler, D. C. (2011). Sign language acquisition. Sign Language Studies, 11(4), 637–646. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandler, W. (2009). Symbiotic symbolization by hand and mouth in sign language. Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, 174, 241–275. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandler, W., & Lillo-Martin, D. (2006). Sign language and linguistic universals. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stokoe, W. C. (1960). Sign language structure: An outline of the visual communication system of the American deaf. Studies in linguistics, Occasional Papers, 8. University of Buffalo. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, R., & Woll, B. (1999). The linguistics of British Sign Language: An introduction. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tennant, R. A., & Brown, M. G. (1998). The American sign language handshape dictionary. Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, R. L., Vinson, D. P., Woll, B., & Vigliocco, G. (2012). The road to language learning is iconic: Evidence from British Sign Language. Psychological Science, 23(12), 1443–1448. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woolfe, T., Herman, R., Roy, P., & Woll, B. (2010). Early vocabulary development in native deaf signers: A BSL adaptation of the communicative development inventories. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51(3), 322–331. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue