Cover not available
Part of
Sources of Variation in First Language Acquisition: Languages, contexts, and learners
Edited by Maya Hickmann †, Edy Veneziano and Harriet Jisa
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 22] 2018
► pp. 339–364

Chapter 16
The blossoming of negation in gesture, sign and oral productions

| Laboratoire Langues, Textes, Arts et Cultures du Monde Anglophone, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3
| Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage, CNRS & Université Paris 8
| Laboratoire Langues, Textes, Arts et Cultures du Monde Anglophone Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3
| Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage, CNRS & Université de Paris 8
| Dynamique du Langage in Situ, Université de Rouen Normandie
| Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon
| Sign Language Research Laboratory, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

Negation constructions in longitudinal adult-child data are an excellent source for the study of multimodality in language acquisition. First negative constructions seem to take over from early forms of rejection and avoidance, but tracing the transitions between actions and gestures, and between gestures and signed or spoken expressions in young children is quite complex. We focus on multimodal analysis of negation in the productions of five children between the ages of 0;10 and 3;6 interacting with their parents in various linguistic environments (monolingual French, monolingual English, monolingual LSF, bilingual French/LSF, bilingual French/Italian). We present the individual multimodal path of each child, illustrate the continuum between actions, gestures and signed/spoken constructions and analyze the common trend that leads children into symbolic communication through multi-semiotic means of expression.

Keywords: negation, multimodality, gestures, sign language, language acquisition
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Literature review and research issues
    • 1.1Negation and language acquisition
    • 1.2The action-gesture-word relation
    • 1.3Gestures of negation and signs
    • 1.4First expressions of negation: The role of actions
  • 2.Data and method
    • 2.1Data
    • 2.2Method
  • 3.Results per child
    • 3.1Ellie’s longitudinal data (monolingual English)
    • 3.2Madeleine’s longitudinal data (monolingual French)
    • 3.3Charlotte’s longitudinal data (monolingual LSF)
    • 3.4Illana’s longitudinal data (bilingual bimodal LSF/French)
    • 3.5Antoine’s pathway (bilingual French/Italian)
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 February 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.22.17mor
References

References

Acredolo, L. & Goodwyn S.
1988 Symbolic gesturing in normal infants. Child Development 59(2): 450–466. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anderson, D. & Reilly, J.
1997 The puzzle of negation : How children move from communicative to grammatical negation in ASL., Journal of Child Language 18(4): 411–429.Google Scholar
Arbib, M. A.
2012 How the Brain Got Language: The Mirror System Hypothesis. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bates, E., Benigni, L., Bretherton, I., Camaioni, L. & Volterra, V.
1979 The Emergence of Symbols: Cognition and Communication in Infancy. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Beaupoil-Hourdel, P.
2015 Acquisition et expression multimodale de la négation. Etude d’un corpus vidéo et longitudinal de dyades mère-enfant francophone et anglophone. PhD dissertation, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3.Google Scholar
Beaupoil-Hourdel, P., Boutet, D. & Morgenstern, A.
2015 A child’s multimodal negations from 1 to 4: The interplay between modalities. In Negation and Polarity: Experimental Perspectives, Language, Cognition, and Mind, P. Larrivée & C. Lee (eds), 95–123. Bern: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bellugi, U.
1967 A Transformational Analysis of the Development of Negation. PhD dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Benazzo, S. & Morgenstern, A.
2014 A bilingual child’s multimodal path into negation. Gesture 14(2): 171–202. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blondel, M.
2009 Acquisition bilingue LSF-français. L'enfant qui grandit avec deux langues et dans deux modalités. In Au croisement de différents types d'acquisition: Pourquoi et comment comparer?, S. Benazzo (ed.). AILE…LIA 1: 169–194.Google Scholar
Bloom, L.
1970 Language Development: Form and Function in Emerging Grammars. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
1991 Language Development from Two to Three. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Butcher, C. & Goldin-Meadow, S.
2000 Gesture and the transition from one- to two-word speech: When hand and mouth come together. In Language and Gesture, D. McNeill (ed.), 235–257. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caët, S.
2013 Référence à soi et à l’interlocuteur chez des enfants francophones et anglophones et leurs parents. PhD dissertation, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3.Google Scholar
Calbris, G.
2005 La négation: Son symbolisme physique. Interacting Bodies – Corps en Interaction. Second Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies, Lyon: France.Google Scholar
Cameron-Faulkner, T., Lieven, E. & Theakston, A. L.
2007 What part of no do children not understand? A usage-based account of multiword negation. Journal of Child Language 33: 251–282. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Capirci O., Iverson, J. M., Pizzuto, E. & Volterra, V.
1996 Gestures and words during the transition to two-word speech. Journal of Child Language 23(03): 645–673. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Choi, S.
1988 The semantic development of negation: A cross-linguistic study. Journal of Child Language 15: 517–532. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V.
1978 From gesture to word, on the natural history of deixis in language acquisition. In Human Growth and Development: Wolfson College Lectures 1976, J. S. Bruner & A. Garton (eds), 85–120. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. & Clark, E. V.
1977 Psychology of Language: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. New York NY: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Darwin, C.
1872 The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London: John Murray. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dodane, C. & Massini-Cagliari, G.
2010 La prosodie dans l’acquisition de la négation : étude de cas d’une enfant monolingue française. ALFA: Revista de Linguística, 54(2).Google Scholar
Ekman, P. & Friesen, W.V.
1969 The repertoire or nonverbal behavior: categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica 1: 49–98.Google Scholar
Emmorey, K.
2002 Language, Cognition, and the Brain: Insights from SIGN Language Research. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Guidetti, M.
2005 Yes or no? How do young children combine gestures and words to agree and refuse? Journal of child language 32: 911–924. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harrison, S.
2010 Evidence for node and scope of negation in coverbal gesture. Gesture 10(1): 29–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Horn, L. R.
2001 A Natural History of Negation. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Kanto, L., Lassako, M., Huttunen, K.
2015 Differentiation in language and gesture use during early bilingual development of hearing children of deaf parents. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 18(4): 769–788. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kendon, A.
1988 How gestures can become like words. In Cross-cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication, F. Poyatos (ed.), 131–141. Lewiston NY: C.J. Hogrefe.Google Scholar
2002 Some uses of the headshake. Gesture 2(2): 147–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kita, S. & Özyürek, A.
2003 What does cross-linguistic variation in semantic coordination of speech and gesture reveal? Evidence for an interface representation of spatial thinking and speaking. Journal of Memory and Language 48: 16–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Limousin, F.
2011 Acquisition de la reference personnelle en LSF: Analyse longitudinale des pointages, des forms nulls et des noms signés chez une enfant soured de parents sourds. PhD dissertation, University of Paris 8.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B.
2000 The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk. Transcription format and programs. Vol. 1. Routledge.Google Scholar
Mayberry, R. & Nicoladis, E.
2000 Gesture reflects language development: Evidence from bilingual children. Psychological science 9(6): 192–196.Google Scholar
McNeill, D.
1992 Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McNeill, D. & McNeill. N. B.
1968 What does a child mean when he says no? In Proceedings of the Conference on Language and Language Behaviour, E. M. Zale (ed.), 464–473. New York NY: Appleton Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, A.
2006 Un JE en construction. Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle.Google Scholar
2009 L’enfant dans la langue. Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, A. & Beaupoil, P.
2015 Multimodal approaches to language acquisition through the lens of negation. Vestnik of Moscow State University. Linguistics and Literary Studies 6(717): 435–451. Special issue on Discourse as Social Practice.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, A., Beaupoil, P., Blondel, M. & Boutet, D.
2016 A multimodal approach to the development of negation in signed and spoken languages: Four case studies. In The Usage-Based Study of Language Learning and Multilingualism, L. Ortega, A. E. Tyler, H. I. Park & M. Uno (eds), 15–36. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, A. & Parisse, C.
2012 The Paris Corpus. French Language Studies 22(1): 7–12. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morgenstern, A., Leroy, M. & Caët S.
2013 Self- and other-repairs in child-adult interaction at the intersection of pragmatic abilities and language acquisition. Journal of Pragmatics 56: 151–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nicoladis, E.
2007 The effect of bilingualism on the use of manual gestures. Applied Psycholinguistics 28: 441–454. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nicoladis, E., Mayberry R. J. & Genesee, F.
1999 Gesture and early bilingual development. Developmental Psychology 35(2): 514–526. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kimbrough Oller, D. & Jarmulowicz, L.
2007 Language and literacy in bilingual children in the early school years. In Handbook of Language Development, E. Hoff & M. Shatz (eds), 368–386. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parisse, C. & Morgenstern, A.
2012 The unfolding of the verbal temporal system in 2 French children’s speech between 18 and 36 months. French Language Studies 22(1): 95–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pea, R. D.
1980 The development of negation in early child language. In The Social Foundations of Language and Thought: Essays in Honor of Jerome Seymour Bruner, D. R. Olson (ed.), 156–186. New York NY: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Sekali, M.
2012 The emergence of complex sentences in a French child’s language from 0;10 to 4;01: Causal adverbial clauses and the concertina effect. Journal of French Language Studies 22: 115–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shaw, E.
2013 Gesture in Multiparty Interaction: A Study of Embodied Discourse in Spoken English and American Sign Language. PhD dissertation, Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Spitz, R. A.
1957 No and Yes: On the Genesis of Human Communication. New York NY: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Stern, C. & Stern, W.
1907[1928] Die Kindersprache – Eine psychologische Untersuchung. Leipzig: Barth.Google Scholar
Streeck, J.
2009 Gesturecraft: The Manu-facture of Meaning [Gesture Studies 2]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sutton-Spence, R. & Woll, B.
1999 The Linguistics of British Sign Language. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, Michael
2003 Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tuller L., Blondel, M. & Niederberger N.
2007 Growing up in French and French Sign Language. In French Applied Linguistics [Language Learnng and Language Teaching 16], D. Ayoun (ed.), 334–376. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vaidyanathan, R.
1991 Development of forms and functions of negation in the early stages of language acquisition: A study in Tamil. Journal of Child Language 18: 51–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Volterra, V. & Antinucci, F.
1979 Negation in child language: A pragmatic study. In Developmental pragmatics, E. Ochs & B. B. Schieffelin (eds), 281–303. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Volterra, V., Caselli, M. C., Capirci, O., Pizzuto, E.
2004 Gesture and the emergence and development of language. In Beyond Nature-Nurture: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Bates, M. Tomasello & D. I. Slobin (eds), 22–44. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Wode, H.
1977 Four early stages in the development of L1 negation. Journal of Child Language 4: 87–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zeshan, U.
2006 Negative and interrogative constructions in sign languages: A case study in sign language typology. In Interrogative and Negative Constructions in Sign Languages [Sign Language Typology 1], U. Zeshan (ed.), 28–68. Nijmegen: Ishara Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zlatev, J., Persson T. & Gärdenfors, P.
2005 Bodily mimesis as “the missing link”. In Human Cognitive Evolution [LUCS 121]. Lund: Lund University Cognitive Studies.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Benazzo, Sandra & Aliyah Morgenstern
2014. A bilingual child’s multimodal path into negation. Gesture 14:2 ► pp. 171 ff. DOI logo
Boutet, Dominique, Marion Blondel, Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel & Aliyah Morgenstern
2021. A multimodal and kinesiological approach to the development of negation in signing and non-signing children. Languages and Modalities 1 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Harrison, Simon & Silva H. Ladewig
2021. Recurrent gestures throughout bodies, languages, and cultural practices. Gesture 20:2 ► pp. 153 ff. DOI logo
Morgenstern, Aliyah, Lea Chevrefils, Marion Blondel, Coralie Vincent, Chloé Thomas, Jean-François Jego & Dominique Boutet
2021. “Of thee I sing”: An opening to Dominique Boutet’s kinesiological approach to gesture. Languages and Modalities 1 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.