Jill P Morford
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 252880 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Jill P Morford |
| NOMBRES | Jill P |
| APELLIDO | Morford |
| FIRMA | MORFORD J P |
| AFILIACIONES | University of New Mexico |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3806-3683 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 25 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 32 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 25 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1993 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Language exposure is key
To date, deaf children with deaf parents have been assumed to experience “typical” first language acquisition while deaf children from hearing families have often been excluded from research due to limited language exposure in early life. The present study eschews these assumptions and examines language development across these two populations asking whether the use of a signed language at home, the use of a signed language at school, and the fam…
Switching cost and cognate facilitation between two signed languages
This study investigated language switching and cognate facilitation in deaf bilinguals fluent in two signed languages—Irish Sign Language (ISL) and British Sign Language (BSL). Ten participants, who were all deaf and were educated in ISL and later exposed to BSL, completed a picture-naming task requiring them to switch between the two languages based on visual cues. The study aimed to establish whether a switching cost—typically observed in unimo…
Intersubjective modulation of exophoric demonstratives in ASL
Demonstratives are essential for coordinating joint attention during discourse. In contrast to spoken languages that typically distribute the work of establishing and maintaining joint attention across two or more demonstratives such as this and that in English, American Sign Language (ASL) does not have contrasting forms. ASL relies almost exclusively on pointing signs for the grammatical functions of demonstratives. This study investigates whet…
Home Signs
Language development in deaf bilinguals
Automaticity of lexical access in deaf and hearing bilinguals
The role of iconicity, construal, and proficiency in the online processing of handshape
Iconicity has traditionally been considered an objective, fixed, unidimensional property of language forms, often operationalized as transparency for experimental purposes. Within a Cognitive Linguistics framework, iconicity is a mapping between an individual’s construal of form and construal of meaning, such that iconicity is subjective, dynamic, and multidimensional. We test the latter alternative by asking signers who differed in ASL proficien…
Using signed language collocations to investigate acquisition
The visual-manual modality of sign languages renders them a unique test case for language acquisition and processing theories. In this commentary the authors describe evidence from signed languages, and ask whether it is consistent with Ambridge’s proposal. The evidence includes recent research on collocations in American Sign Language that reveal collocational frequency effects and patterns that do not constitute syntactic constituents. While th…
How Bilingualism Contributes to Healthy Development in Deaf Children
Demonstratives as indicators of interactional focus
This paper adopts a cognitive linguistic framework to explore the influence of spatial and social factors on the use of Spanish demonstratives esta ‘this’ and esa ‘that’. Twenty adult Spanish speakers in Monterrey, Mexico, were asked questions prompting the selection of puzzle pieces for placement in a 25-piece puzzle located in the shared space between the participant and an addressee. Although participants were not explicitly instructed to prod…
What is the Source of Bilingual Cross-Language Activation in Deaf Bilinguals
When deaf bilinguals are asked to make semantic similarity judgments of two written words, their responses are influenced by the sublexical relationship of the signed language translations of the target words. This study investigated whether the observed effects of American Sign Language (ASL) activation on English print depend on (a) an overlap in syllabic structure of the signed translations or (b) on initialization, an effect of contact betwee…
An Exploratory Study of ASL Demonstratives
American Sign Language (ASL) makes extensive use of pointing signs, but there has been only limited documentation of how pointing signs are used for demonstrative functions. We elicited demonstratives from four adult Deaf signers of ASL in a puzzle completion task. Our preliminary analysis of the demonstratives produced by these signers supports three important conclusions in need of further investigation. First, despite descriptions of four demo…
Iconicity is in the eye of the beholder
A renewed interest in understanding the role of iconicity in the structure and processing of signed languages is hampered by the conflation of iconicity and transparency in the definition and operationalization of iconicity as a variable. We hypothesize that iconicity is fundamentally different than transparency since it arises from individuals’ experience with the world and their language, and is subjectively mediated by the signers’ construal o…
Displaced Reference
A tale of two articulators
Preview this article: A tale of two articulators, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lab.6.6.09mor-1.gif
Sensitivity to Verb Bias in American Sign Language-English Bilinguals
Native speakers of English are sensitive to the likelihood that a verb will appear in a specific subcategorization frame, known as verb bias. Readers rely on verb bias to help them resolve temporary ambiguity in sentence comprehension. We investigate whether deaf sign-print bilinguals who have acquired English syntactic knowledge primarily through print exposure show sensitivity to English verb biases in both production and comprehension. We firs…
Bilingual word recognition in deaf and hearing signers
Recent evidence demonstrates that American Sign Language signs are active during print word recognition in deaf bilinguals who are highly proficient in both ASL and English. In the present study, we investigate whether signs are active during print word recognition in two groups of unbalanced bilinguals: deaf ASL-dominant and hearing English-dominant bilinguals. Participants judged the semantic relatedness of word pairs in English. Critically, a …
When deaf signers read English
Deaf Readers as Bilinguals
Much work has examined whether deaf and hearing individuals' reading strategies are qualitatively different, under the assumption that such differences might account for discrepancies in levels of reading achievement (cf., Allen 1986; Gallaudet Research Institute 2005; Holt 1994; Karchmer and Mitchell 2003; Traxler 2000; Wauters et al. 2006). While generalizing over the performance of deaf readers is not trivial, the evidence seems to converge on…
Homesigners as Late Learners
Language acquisition rarely begins at birth for deaf individuals. The consequences of linguistic isolation in early childhood have been investigated from two perspectives. One literature documents the gestural communication systems, called homesign, that deaf children generate prior to any exposure to language. A second literature contrasts the language processing abilities of deaf adults who did or did not have access to a signed language from b…
Preschool-aged children have difficulty constructing and interpreting simple utterances composed of graphic symbols
Children who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems while they are in the process of acquiring language face unique challenges because they use graphic symbols for communication. In contrast to the situation of typically developing children, they use different modalities for comprehension (auditory) and expression (visual). This study explored the ability of three- and four-year-old children without disabilities to perfo…
Grammatical development in adolescent first-language learners
Studies of first-language acquisition in adolescence are very rare and depend primarily on comprehension measures to evaluate grammatical knowledge. These studies have led to the general conclusion that grammatical development in adolescence is severely impaired and performance is highly variable both within and across individuals. This article is the first to present longitudinal production data on two deaf adolescents as they are acquiring thei…
Gesture when there is no speech model
Insights to language from the study of gesture
Once Is Not Enough
Natural languages are characterized by standards of well-formedness. These internal standards are likely to be, at least in part, a product of a consensus achieved among the users of a language over time. Nevertheless, it is possible that an individual, attempting to invent symbols to communicate de novo, might generate a system of symbols that is similarly characterized by internal standards of well-formedness. In these studies, we explore this …
Once Is Not Enough
Natural languages are characterized by standards of well-formedness. These internal standards are likely to be, at least in part, a product of a consensus achieved among the users of a language over time. Nevertheless, it is possible that an individual, attempting to invent symbols to communicate de novo, might generate a system of symbols that is similarly characterized by internal standards of well-formedness. In these studies, we explore this …
Iconicity is in the eye of the beholder
A renewed interest in understanding the role of iconicity in the structure and processing of signed languages is hampered by the conflation of iconicity and transparency in the definition and operationalization of iconicity as a variable. We hypothesize that iconicity is fundamentally different than transparency since it arises from individuals’ experience with the world and their language, and is subjectively mediated by the signers’ construal o…
Demonstratives as indicators of interactional focus
This paper adopts a cognitive linguistic framework to explore the influence of spatial and social factors on the use of Spanish demonstratives esta ‘this’ and esa ‘that’. Twenty adult Spanish speakers in Monterrey, Mexico, were asked questions prompting the selection of puzzle pieces for placement in a 25-piece puzzle located in the shared space between the participant and an addressee. Although participants were not explicitly instructed to prod…
Bilingual word recognition in deaf and hearing signers
Recent evidence demonstrates that American Sign Language signs are active during print word recognition in deaf bilinguals who are highly proficient in both ASL and English. In the present study, we investigate whether signs are active during print word recognition in two groups of unbalanced bilinguals: deaf ASL-dominant and hearing English-dominant bilinguals. Participants judged the semantic relatedness of word pairs in English. Critically, a …
Homesigners as Late Learners
Language acquisition rarely begins at birth for deaf individuals. The consequences of linguistic isolation in early childhood have been investigated from two perspectives. One literature documents the gestural communication systems, called homesign, that deaf children generate prior to any exposure to language. A second literature contrasts the language processing abilities of deaf adults who did or did not have access to a signed language from b…
Deaf Readers as Bilinguals
Much work has examined whether deaf and hearing individuals' reading strategies are qualitatively different, under the assumption that such differences might account for discrepancies in levels of reading achievement (cf., Allen 1986; Gallaudet Research Institute 2005; Holt 1994; Karchmer and Mitchell 2003; Traxler 2000; Wauters et al. 2006). While generalizing over the performance of deaf readers is not trivial, the evidence seems to converge on…
Grammatical development in adolescent first-language learners
Studies of first-language acquisition in adolescence are very rare and depend primarily on comprehension measures to evaluate grammatical knowledge. These studies have led to the general conclusion that grammatical development in adolescence is severely impaired and performance is highly variable both within and across individuals. This article is the first to present longitudinal production data on two deaf adolescents as they are acquiring thei…
Once Is Not Enough
Natural languages are characterized by standards of well-formedness. These internal standards are likely to be, at least in part, a product of a consensus achieved among the users of a language over time. Nevertheless, it is possible that an individual, attempting to invent symbols to communicate de novo, might generate a system of symbols that is similarly characterized by internal standards of well-formedness. In these studies, we explore this …
Insights to language from the study of gesture
Gesture when there is no speech model
Grammatical development in adolescent first-language learners
Studies of first-language acquisition in adolescence are very rare and depend primarily on comprehension measures to evaluate grammatical knowledge. These studies have led to the general conclusion that grammatical development in adolescence is severely impaired and performance is highly variable both within and across individuals. This article is the first to present longitudinal production data on two deaf adolescents as they are acquiring thei…
Preschool-aged children have difficulty constructing and interpreting simple utterances composed of graphic symbols
Children who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems while they are in the process of acquiring language face unique challenges because they use graphic symbols for communication. In contrast to the situation of typically developing children, they use different modalities for comprehension (auditory) and expression (visual). This study explored the ability of three- and four-year-old children without disabilities to perfo…
When deaf signers read English
Deaf Readers as Bilinguals
Much work has examined whether deaf and hearing individuals' reading strategies are qualitatively different, under the assumption that such differences might account for discrepancies in levels of reading achievement (cf., Allen 1986; Gallaudet Research Institute 2005; Holt 1994; Karchmer and Mitchell 2003; Traxler 2000; Wauters et al. 2006). While generalizing over the performance of deaf readers is not trivial, the evidence seems to converge on…
Homesigners as Late Learners
Language acquisition rarely begins at birth for deaf individuals. The consequences of linguistic isolation in early childhood have been investigated from two perspectives. One literature documents the gestural communication systems, called homesign, that deaf children generate prior to any exposure to language. A second literature contrasts the language processing abilities of deaf adults who did or did not have access to a signed language from b…
Bilingual word recognition in deaf and hearing signers
Recent evidence demonstrates that American Sign Language signs are active during print word recognition in deaf bilinguals who are highly proficient in both ASL and English. In the present study, we investigate whether signs are active during print word recognition in two groups of unbalanced bilinguals: deaf ASL-dominant and hearing English-dominant bilinguals. Participants judged the semantic relatedness of word pairs in English. Critically, a …
Sensitivity to Verb Bias in American Sign Language-English Bilinguals
Native speakers of English are sensitive to the likelihood that a verb will appear in a specific subcategorization frame, known as verb bias. Readers rely on verb bias to help them resolve temporary ambiguity in sentence comprehension. We investigate whether deaf sign-print bilinguals who have acquired English syntactic knowledge primarily through print exposure show sensitivity to English verb biases in both production and comprehension. We firs…
Displaced Reference
A tale of two articulators
Preview this article: A tale of two articulators, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lab.6.6.09mor-1.gif
Iconicity is in the eye of the beholder
A renewed interest in understanding the role of iconicity in the structure and processing of signed languages is hampered by the conflation of iconicity and transparency in the definition and operationalization of iconicity as a variable. We hypothesize that iconicity is fundamentally different than transparency since it arises from individuals’ experience with the world and their language, and is subjectively mediated by the signers’ construal o…
What is the Source of Bilingual Cross-Language Activation in Deaf Bilinguals
When deaf bilinguals are asked to make semantic similarity judgments of two written words, their responses are influenced by the sublexical relationship of the signed language translations of the target words. This study investigated whether the observed effects of American Sign Language (ASL) activation on English print depend on (a) an overlap in syllabic structure of the signed translations or (b) on initialization, an effect of contact betwee…
An Exploratory Study of ASL Demonstratives
American Sign Language (ASL) makes extensive use of pointing signs, but there has been only limited documentation of how pointing signs are used for demonstrative functions. We elicited demonstratives from four adult Deaf signers of ASL in a puzzle completion task. Our preliminary analysis of the demonstratives produced by these signers supports three important conclusions in need of further investigation. First, despite descriptions of four demo…
The role of iconicity, construal, and proficiency in the online processing of handshape
Iconicity has traditionally been considered an objective, fixed, unidimensional property of language forms, often operationalized as transparency for experimental purposes. Within a Cognitive Linguistics framework, iconicity is a mapping between an individual’s construal of form and construal of meaning, such that iconicity is subjective, dynamic, and multidimensional. We test the latter alternative by asking signers who differed in ASL proficien…
Using signed language collocations to investigate acquisition
The visual-manual modality of sign languages renders them a unique test case for language acquisition and processing theories. In this commentary the authors describe evidence from signed languages, and ask whether it is consistent with Ambridge’s proposal. The evidence includes recent research on collocations in American Sign Language that reveal collocational frequency effects and patterns that do not constitute syntactic constituents. While th…
How Bilingualism Contributes to Healthy Development in Deaf Children
Demonstratives as indicators of interactional focus
This paper adopts a cognitive linguistic framework to explore the influence of spatial and social factors on the use of Spanish demonstratives esta ‘this’ and esa ‘that’. Twenty adult Spanish speakers in Monterrey, Mexico, were asked questions prompting the selection of puzzle pieces for placement in a 25-piece puzzle located in the shared space between the participant and an addressee. Although participants were not explicitly instructed to prod…
Language development in deaf bilinguals
Automaticity of lexical access in deaf and hearing bilinguals
Intersubjective modulation of exophoric demonstratives in ASL
Demonstratives are essential for coordinating joint attention during discourse. In contrast to spoken languages that typically distribute the work of establishing and maintaining joint attention across two or more demonstratives such as this and that in English, American Sign Language (ASL) does not have contrasting forms. ASL relies almost exclusively on pointing signs for the grammatical functions of demonstratives. This study investigates whet…
Home Signs
Language exposure is key
To date, deaf children with deaf parents have been assumed to experience “typical” first language acquisition while deaf children from hearing families have often been excluded from research due to limited language exposure in early life. The present study eschews these assumptions and examines language development across these two populations asking whether the use of a signed language at home, the use of a signed language at school, and the fam…
Switching cost and cognate facilitation between two signed languages
This study investigated language switching and cognate facilitation in deaf bilinguals fluent in two signed languages—Irish Sign Language (ISL) and British Sign Language (BSL). Ten participants, who were all deaf and were educated in ISL and later exposed to BSL, completed a picture-naming task requiring them to switch between the two languages based on visual cues. The study aimed to establish whether a switching cost—typically observed in unimo…
Hearing Impairment and Communication (22 obras) · Linguistics (20 obras) · Psychology (17 obras) · American Sign Language (12 obras) · Sign language (12 obras) · Computer Science (11 obras) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (9 obras) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (9 obras) · Hand Gesture Recognition Systems (8 obras) · Neuroscience of multilingualism (8 obras)