When do gestures become linguistic? Understanding the gesture-language interface through a corpusbased study of pointing signs in signed languages. This project will use corpus-based and experimental studies to compare pointing signs in three sign languages with pointing gestures used by hearing non-signers in order to answer the question: What relationship do gestures have to language? It will help us understand how pointing works as part of a sign language system, and how it is used as co-spee ....When do gestures become linguistic? Understanding the gesture-language interface through a corpusbased study of pointing signs in signed languages. This project will use corpus-based and experimental studies to compare pointing signs in three sign languages with pointing gestures used by hearing non-signers in order to answer the question: What relationship do gestures have to language? It will help us understand how pointing works as part of a sign language system, and how it is used as co-speech gesture. Both spoken languages and sign languages make use of pointing, and thus it represents a unique case study for the investigation of the relationship between gesture and language. This project will provide a distinctive contribution to our knowledge about the relationship between language and other aspects of human communication. Read moreRead less
Learning to talk whitefella way. Many Indigenous children speak Aboriginal English or 'Kriol', which often sounds very different to Standard Australian English. Understanding the differences between these languages, and how 'Kriol' affects the learning of English, will help us to better assist Indigenous children to learn English and likely improve their educational outcomes.
From little things, big things grow: how children learn a morphologically complex Australian indigenous language. This project investigates the acquisition of Murrinh-Patha, one of a small number of Australian indigenous languages still being learned by children. The results of this research will inform our understanding of the ways in which children learn grammatically complex languages, and facilitate the maintenance of this and other indigenous languages.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100399
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
He's not heavy, he's my brother: the acquisition of kinship terminology in a morphologically complex Australian language. Murrinh-Patha is one of the few Australian indigenous languages still being acquired by children. This project investigates how children acquire the grammar and lexicon of kinship. It will inform our understanding of how children gain social competence and learn complex kin-based grammars. It will help to maintain this and other indigenous languages.