Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Linguistics, Dec. 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-228). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

I propose that the HKSL phrase structure has a head-initial vP, but a head-final TP and NegP given the word order and syntactic positions of various functional elements, modals, auxiliary-like elements and negators. Previous discussion on Continuity-Maturation debate largely focuses on the presence/absence of functional projections in child phrase structure. The fact that functional projections are available at an early age in HKSL suggests that the early phrase structure is not just VP (as suggested by the Small Clause Hypothesis). The data show further that syntactic movement like V-to-v movement, object shift and subject raising in the adult grammar take time to develop. The findings support the Continuity view. / The grammatical category VERB in HKSL can be in various forms: lexical verbs and classifier predicates. Lexical verbs have three subtypes: agreement verbs, spatial verbs and plain verbs. These three types of lexical verbs have different properties. Agreement verbs can be marked overtly for verb agreement. Spatial verbs may encode locations of the entities. Plain verbs contrast with agreement verbs in that they are not marked for any agreement morphology or spatial locations. Classifier predicates usually consist of a verb root and classifier handshapes which may refer to the arguments. Given different properties of these different forms, the HKSL verbs are regrouped as plain verbs and non-plain verbs (i.e. agreement verbs, spatial verbs and verb roots of classifier predicates). A development from morphologically simpler verbs to morphologically complex verbs is observed while other factors like knowledge of signing space and input ambiguity also influence the developmental pattern of various kinds of verbs. / This thesis examines different forms of VERB and functional elements in a set of longitudinal data of a deaf child named CC in order to address the Continuity-Maturation debate. In particular, I explore the development of various forms of VERB, which lays the foundation of the study of early HKSL phrase structure. The Continuity-Maturation debate is addressed on the basis of presence/absence of a light verb phrase (vP), Tense Phrase (TP) and Negation Phrase (NegP) and syntactic movements like V-to-v movement, object shift and subject raising in early HKSL. / Lam, Wai Sze. / Adviser: Wai Lan Gladys Tang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 71-01, Section: A, page: 0164. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-279). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Lam Wai-sze. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-214). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / List of Abbreviations --- p.v / Table of Contents --- p.vi / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.0 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- "Research Focus.," --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Methodology --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- Notational Conventions --- p.8 / Chapter 1.4 --- Thesis Outline --- p.11 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Verb Agreement in Spoken Languages --- p.13 / Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1 --- Realizations of agreement features --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Personal Pronoun --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Verb Agreement --- p.17 / Chapter 2.1.2.1 --- Subject-verb agreement --- p.17 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Subject-verb agreement and verb-object agreement --- p.21 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Summary --- p.24 / Chapter 2.2 --- Properties of agreement markers --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3 --- Formal Approaches to Verb Agreement --- p.26 / Chapter 2.4 --- Chapter Summary --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Verb Agreement in Signed Languages --- p.35 / Chapter 3.0 --- Introduction --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1 --- Agreement features in personal pronouns --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Person --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Number --- p.42 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Gender --- p.43 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Summary --- p.43 / Chapter 3.2 --- Verbs and agreement marking --- p.43 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Verb Types --- p.44 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Verb Agreement --- p.50 / Chapter 3.2.2.1 --- Verb Agreement as a relation between verbs and arguments ´ؤ true or not true? --- p.52 / Chapter 3.2.2.2 --- Why location marking is not part of agreement marking? --- p.62 / Chapter 3.2.2.3 --- Confusion on person distinctions --- p.63 / Chapter 3.2.2.4 --- Number and Gender marking --- p.66 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Summary --- p.68 / Chapter 3.3 --- Optionality of verb agreement in signed languages --- p.68 / Chapter 3.4 --- Role shift and verb agreement --- p.69 / Chapter 3.5 --- Formal approaches to verb agreement in signed languages --- p.72 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Semantic approaches --- p.72 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Syntactic approaches --- p.75 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Mathur's (2000) phonological analysis --- p.78 / Chapter 3.6 --- Differences in verb agreement in spoken languages and signed languages --- p.79 / Chapter 3.7 --- Chapter Summary --- p.81 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Verb Agreement in Hong Kong Sign Language --- p.83 / Chapter 4.0 --- Introduction --- p.83 / Chapter 4.1 --- Person in personal pronouns --- p.84 / Chapter 4.2 --- Person marking in verbs --- p.94 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Verb Types --- p.95 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Spatial verbs and plain verbs ´ؤ absence of agreement marking --- p.97 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Agreement marking on agreement verbs --- p.101 / Chapter 4.2.3.1 --- Person distinctions in HKSL --- p.102 / Chapter 4.2.3.2 --- ´ب Optional agreement marking in HKSL --- p.112 / Chapter 4.2.3.3 --- Obligatory agreement marking in HKSL --- p.116 / Chapter 4.2.3.4 --- Absence of person marking --- p.122 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Does non-manual marking serve as an agreement marker in HKSL? --- p.123 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Summary --- p.125 / Chapter 4.3 --- Role shift and person marking --- p.126 / Chapter 4.4 --- Person marking and location marking --- p.132 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- How do we identify location marking? --- p.132 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- How does location marking affect person marking? --- p.135 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Is person marking covert in the presence of location marking? --- p.140 / Chapter 4.4.4 --- Summary --- p.142 / Chapter 4.5 --- "Person marking, Role shift and Location marking" --- p.143 / Chapter 4.6 --- Interim discussion --- p.144 / Chapter 4.6.1 --- Linguistic space --- p.144 / Chapter 4.6.2 --- Optional verb agreement revisited --- p.145 / Chapter 4.6.3 --- Modalities and verb agreement --- p.146 / Chapter 4.7 --- Chapter Summary --- p.149 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Towards an explanation --- p.150 / Chapter 5.0 --- Introduction --- p.150 / Chapter 5.1 --- Theoretical background --- p.150 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- The Minimalist Program (MP) --- p.150 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- The nature of features --- p.152 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- Agreement marking and functional categories --- p.156 / Chapter 5.1.4 --- Feature checking as an agreement mechanism --- p.160 / Chapter 5.1.5 --- Optionality in MP.… --- p.168 / Chapter 5.2 --- Analysis of HKSL person agreement --- p.169 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Agreement projections in HKSL --- p.170 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Feature checking in HKSL --- p.172 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Optionality in person agreement in HKSL --- p.179 / Chapter 5.3 --- Reconsideration of the concept of Verb Agreement --- p.181 / Chapter 5.4 --- Chapter Summary --- p.182 / Chapter Chapter Six --- Conclusion --- p.183 / Appendices --- p.186 / Appendix 1 Sample picture stimuli for the picture narration --- p.187 / Appendix 2 Citation forms of elicited verbs in HKSL --- p.191 / Appendix 3 Figures of examples presented in Chapter Four --- p.196 / Appendix 4 Number marking in ASL --- p.206 / Appendix 5 Remarks on plural pronouns in HKSL --- p.208 / References --- p.209

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 256-273).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The focus of this study was the inducement of imagery in order to retain sign language vocabulary items. Thirty-eight beginning sign language students were selected as subjects. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. The treatment group received instructions in the use of imagery mnemonics in order to better retain sign language vocabulary. Subjects in the control group were left to learn the vocabulary items by methods of their own choosing. Results of the statistical analyses indicated no significant difference between groups on posttest measures. However, there was a tendency toward an interaction between subjects' grade point averages and the treatments. The inducement of imagery in the treatment group was somewhat of an "equalizer" between subjects with high and low grade point averages. Additional analyses indicated that the inducement of imagery mnemonics in the treatment group was more successful for the poorer students and hindered the better students.

Research regarding language and communication modality in deaf or hard of hearing children and their parents is limited. Previous research often considered modality as any visual, gestural, or tactile communication, rather than distinct languages of different modalities. This study examined language and communication modality in hearing parents who have made a commitment to learning American Sign Language (ASL) and who use both ASL and spoken English to communicate with their deaf or hard of hearing children. Nine hearing parents and their deaf/hard of hearing children participated in naturalistic play sessions. The play sessions were recorded and transcribed for ASL, spoken English, and communicative interactions. Analysis of results indicated a positive correlation between the amount of ASL (tokens and duration of time) used by parents and their children. No relationship was indicated between the amount of spoken English (tokens and duration of time) by parents and their children, nor the amount (frequency and percent) of bimodal utterances used by parent and their children. Furthermore, there was no relationship found between families using the same versus different dominant language modality and their sustained interactions (frequency, duration, and number of turns). Findings indicated a relationship between parent and child language in a visually accessible language, ASL, but not in spoken language. Data regarding bimodal utterances suggested that parents and children successfully kept both ASL and spoken English separate during play. Finally, analysis of communicative interactions demonstrated similarities between parent-child dyads that had the same dominant communication modality and those with different dominant modalities, suggesting the possibility of successful communication despite language modality differences. Overall, findings from this study illustrated that hearing parents can successfully learn and use languages of different modalities with their deaf/hard of hearing children.

This study explores the role and place of Lesotho Sign Language (LSL) in the education of deaf learners. It seeks to determine how the present language-in-education policy and language practices at home and in the schools for the deaf impact on education of deaf learners. For this purpose, the research focuses on the schools for the deaf as the sites where policy is to be implemented. The study also investigates the attitude of policy makers towards the inclusion of LSL in the current national language-in-education policy. A qualitative approach to research was adopted for this study. Data was collected mainly through interviews with policy makers, deaf children, teachers and parents of deaf learners. To complement this data, observations were conducted in schools where deaf children in Lesotho are taught. The study is a language policy study and as such, language planning and bilingual education theories are interrogated. Rationale choice theory is applied to explain which factors policy makers in Lesotho consider in language planning. This is an attempt to understand reasons that may enable or hinder the inclusion of LSL in the national language-in-education policy. Additionally, based on Cummins’ theoretical framework for minority student intervention and empowerment, the study suggests the adoption of bilingual model for the schools of the deaf to teaching deaf learners. Bilingual education does not only encourage instruction through LSL, it also provides an opportunity for deaf learners to decide on the language that best meets their learning needs. The analysis of data revealed that education of deaf learners in Lesotho is not satisfactory. This is due to three main reasons. First, Lesotho Sign Language is not sufficiently used in the schools for the deaf. The situation brings about discrepancy between the mother tongue policy and its implementation. Secondly, teachers are neither adequately proficient in LSL nor are they conversant with Deaf culture. Coupled with all these, teachers lack skills suitable to teach deaf children. Thirdly, parents are not actively involved in the education of their children. All these impact negatively on the education of deaf learners in Lesotho. Finally, although policy makers showed a positive attitude towards the inclusion of LSL in the current national language-in-education, they expressed a lot of skepticism on whether the government would be wiling to financially ready for the implementation of such policy. Based on these findings, this research is an important contribution to describing the situation of Deaf education in Lesotho and the inherent difficulties that Deaf learners experience due to the current language practices in the schools for the Deaf. The study is also of great value since in Lesotho, most people are not aware of deafness as a phenomenon or of the existence of Sign Language. Literature on Lesotho language policy and minority languages focuses on spoken languages. The ostensible avoidance of LSL in both academic and policy circles is therefore the main focus of this study.

Fung, Hiu Man Cat. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 250-264). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.