The Role of visual representation in a signed language: evidence from native signing deaf children acquiring Auslan (Australian Sign Language)

Researchers into the acquisition of classifier signs in signed languages have claimed that they can be described in linguistic terms (Kantor, 1980; Newport, 1984; Schick, 1987; Supalla, 1982). Due to unresolved problems with this analysis, researchers have begun to question the idea of a purely ‘linguistic’ analysis of classifier signs (Cogill-Koez, 2000b; Cogill-Koez, 2000a; Liddell, 2003b; Schembri, 2003), leading to a view that signed languages do not use linguistic means of representation to the exclusion of visual representation. In this paper, data elicited from 25 deaf children from deaf families on the acquisition of classifier signs is presented. The results are compared with the patterns of development for children learning spoken languages and other aspects of signed languages and learning how to represent concepts visually. This comparison shows that the stages that children pass through while learning classifier signs resemble those of the development of visual representation. The evidence is compatible with the interpretation of classifier signs as being primarily a visual system of representation, rather than an ‘exclusively linguistic’ system.