Linguistic Structures and Acquisition in Sign Languages

Sign languages are fully fledged natural languages that employ the visual-gestural modality to express phonological, morphological and syntactic structures. At the phonological level, signs are built from manual parameters—handshape, movement and location—together with non-manual markers such as facial expression and head position. Morphological processes include the use of classifier or depicting constructions, which combine conventional handshapes with spatial placement to convey semantic information about objects, agents and actions. Syntactic organisation in sign languages exhibits both universal patterns—such as subject–verb–object or subject–object–verb orders—and modality-specific effects arising from the affordances of space, such as the grammaticalisation of pointing signs as pronouns and the rich system of agreement marking realised through directional movement. Discourse strategies, notably constructed action, deploy the signer’s body to enact characters’ utterances or attitudes, weaving gesture and lexical sign into continuous narrative flow. Acquisition studies reveal that deaf children exposed to sign from birth follow developmental trajectories akin to spoken-language learners, though the visual modality influences the timing and sequence of particular structures. For children acquiring sign later in life, critical-period constraints interact with visuospatial memory and gesture skills. Worldwide variation among over 200 documented sign languages underscores both the universality of human language capacity and the impact of community, culture and modality. Practical applications span education—where insights guide curriculum design for deaf learners—and technology, informing the development of sign recognition, avatar animation and accessible communication platforms.

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Linguistic Structures and Acquisition in Sign Languages publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in linguistic structures and acquisition in sign languages across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Classifier (depicting) construction: A morphological device combining conventional handshapes with spatial placement to iconically represent objects, agents or actions.

Constructed action: A discourse strategy in which the signer uses body posture, facial expression and manual signs to enact a referent’s actions or utterances.

Pointing sign: A manual gesture directed toward spatial loci that functions as a pronominal or deixis marker within sign grammar.

Agreement (in sign languages): A system whereby certain verbs incorporate spatial movement to mark subject and object features, paralleling agreement in spoken languages.

Prosody (in sign languages): The use of manual timing, movement patterns and non-manual markers to organise phrasing, focus and discourse structure.

References

1. Lexicalisation and de-lexicalisation processes in sign languages: Comparing depicting constructions and viewpoint gestures. Language & Communication (2012).
2. Order of the major constituents in sign languages: implications for all language. Frontiers in Psychology (2014).
3. Pronouns and pointing in sign languages. Lingua (2013).
4. Comparing sign language and gesture: Insights from pointing. Glossa a journal of general linguistics (2019).
5. Framing constructed action in British Sign Language narratives. Journal of Pragmatics (2013).
6. The semiotic diversity of doing reference in a deaf signed language. Journal of Pragmatics (2019).
7. The syntax of sign language agreement: Common ingredients, but unusual recipe. Glossa a journal of general linguistics (2018).