Research on the language acquisition of deaf individuals who are exposed to accessible linguistic input at a variety of ages has provided evidence for a sensitive period of first language acquisition. Recent studies have shown that deaf individuals who first learn language after early childhood, late first-language learners (LL1), do not comprehend reversible Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) sentences. The present study analyzed 478 signed productions elicited with pictures depicting simple events with one or two arguments by 28 signers. The argument order patterns of native signers converged with one another and the word order patterns of American Sign Language (ASL). By contrast, the ordering patterns of the LL1 signers did not converge with one another or with the patterns of the native signers. This indicates that early childhood is a period of heightened sensitivity to basic word order and may help explain why complex structures are difficult for LL1 signers to learn.

中文翻译：

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简单句子中的论点顺序受第一语言习得年龄的影响：来自美国手语第一语言手语晚期手语者的证据


对在不同年龄段接触可访问的语言输入的聋人的语言习得的研究为第一语言习得的敏感期提供了证据。最近的研究表明，在儿童早期之后首次学习语言的聋人，即晚期第一语言学习者 （LL1），无法理解可逆的主语-动词-宾语 （SVO） 句子。本研究分析了 478 件签名作品，这些作品由 28 名签名者用描绘简单事件的图片和一两个论点引出。母语手语者的论点顺序模式彼此收敛，美国手语 （ASL） 的词序模式也趋同。相比之下，LL1 签名者的排序模式彼此不收敛，也不与本机签名者的模式收敛。这表明幼儿期是对基本词序高度敏感的时期，可能有助于解释为什么 LL1 手语者难以学习复杂的结构。