Homonymy in the Lexicons of Young Children Acquiring American Sign Language

The incidence of homonymy in children's early sign language production was examined in nine young children of deaf parents. Analysis of parental reports of how their children formed their signs revealed that all of the children produced homonymous forms (i.e., a single manual form used to represent two or more different adult target signs). Altogether, the children were reported as producing 26 sets of homonymous forms to represent 59 adult target signs. This incidence of homonymy in the children's early signing did not differ significantly from the incidence of homonymy previously reported in a study of normally developing children acquiring spoken language. This finding is interpreted as indicating an important similarity in language acquisition processes across language modalities. Analysis of the sign formational characteristics of the children's homonymous forms revealed that the children's signs and the adult target signs typically shared a common location aspect. The movement and handshape aspects of the adult target signs were less frequently retained in the children's homonymous forms.