Research

Late First Language Acquisition Effects on the Phonological System of ASL

Language deprivation and subsequent late first language acquisition affect language production and comprehension, but less is known about how late first language signers acquire and process phonology specifically. Through behavioral and neuroimaging methods, my work aims to provide a better understanding of phonological processing of deaf late first language signers who learned American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language after early childhood. This work can foremost help us to better understand the effects of language deprivation and late first language acquisition on language processing and can also provide insight into language acquisition and human cognition more broadly. 

My most recent work shows that late first language acquisition does affect phonological processing in ASL:

• Nielson, S., Mayberry, R. I. (In review). Late First Language Acquisition Affects Phonological Processing: Insights from Lexical Recognition and Repetition in American Sign Language. Department of Linguistics, University of California San Diego.

• Nielson, S., Mayberry, R. I. (2022, June 23-25). Effects of Age of Acquisition on the Phonological System of American Sign Language. [Conference Talk]. International Conference on Sign Language Acquisition 4, online. [Video: ASL, IS, spoken English, English captions]

• Nielson, S., Mayberry, R. I. (2021, November 4-7). Late First Language Acquisition Alters the Phonological System of ASL. [Poster session]. Boston University Conference on Language Development 46, online. [PDF]

Sign Language Phonological Typology

This is collaborative work with Rachel Miles, a PhD student also in the UC San Diego Linguistics Department. We are looking at the phonological inventories across seven sign languages (Hong Kong Sign Language, Ho Chi Minh Vietnamese Sign Language, Sri Lankan Sign Language, Jakarta Indonesian Sign Language, Yogyakarata Sign Language, Japanese Sign Language, and American Sign Language) to further the understanding of what aspects of phonology are universal and which are language-specific across sign languages from different language families. We thank the researchers working on the databases (Asian SignBank and ASL-LEX) we are using for this project.

• Nielson, S., Miles, R. (2022, September 27-30). The Universal and the Particular: Cross-linguistic Markedness of Handshape. [Poster session]. Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 14, Osaka, Japan. [PDF]

• Miles, R., Nielson, S. (2022, September 27-30). Cross-linguistic Distributional Properties of Phonological Handshape. [Conference Talk]. Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 14, Osaka, Japan.