Ann Senghas
Biographic Data
| ID | 3428531 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ann Senghas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ann |
| FAMILY NAME | Senghas |
| SIGNATURE | SENGHAS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Barnard College |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9144-0658 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The organization of verb meaning in Lengua de Señas Nicaragüense (LSN): Sequential or simultaneous structures
One structural dimension that varies across languages is the simultaneous or sequential expression of meaning. Complex predicates can layer meanings together simultaneously in a single-verb predicate (SVP) or distribute them sequentially in a multiple-verb predicate (MVP). We ask whether typological variability in this dimension might be a consequence of systematic patterns of diachronic change. We examine the distribution of markers of agency an…
Potentially recursive structures emerge quickly when a new language community forms
From Seed to System: The Emergence of Non-Manual Markers for Wh-Questions in Nicaraguan Sign Language
At a language's inception, what determines which elements are taken up to build a grammar? How is the initial raw material reshaped through intergenerational language learning? We approached this question by focusing on the emergence of non-manual wh-question markers in Nicaraguan Sign Language (LSN), a young sign language. We asked whether the seeds of non-manual markers originate in the facial gestures of the hearing Nicaraguan community, and w…
Community interactions and phonemic inventories in emerging sign languages
In this work, we address structural, iconic and social dimensions of the emergence of phonological systems in two emerging sign languages. A comparative analysis is conducted of data from a village sign language (Central Taurus Sign Language; CTSL) and a community sign language (Nicaraguan Sign Language; NSL). Both languages are approximately 50 years old, but the sizes and social structures of their respective communities are quite different. We…
Lexical iconicity is differentially favored under transmission in a new sign language: The effect of type of iconicity
Observations that iconicity diminishes over time in sign languages ( Frishberg 1975 ) pose a puzzle: Why should something so evidently useful and functional decrease? Using an archival dataset of signs elicited over 15 years from 4 first-cohort and 4 third-cohort signers of an emerging sign language (Nicaraguan Sign Language), we investigated changes in pantomimic (body-to-body) and perceptual (body-to-object) iconicity. We make three key observa…
Structural cues for symmetry, asymmetry, and non-symmetry in Central Taurus Sign Language
We investigate how predicates expressing symmetry, asymmetry and non-symmetry are encoded in a newly emerging sign language, Central Taurus Sign Language (CTSL). We find that predicates involving symmetry (i.e., reciprocal and symmetrical actions) differ from those involving asymmetry (i.e., transitive) in their use of the morphological devices investigated here: body segmentation, mirror-image articulators and double perspective. Symmetrical pre…
The communicative importance of agent-backgrounding: Evidence from homesign and Nicaraguan Sign Language
Forging a morphological system out of two dimensions: Agentivity and number
Languages have diverse strategies for marking agentivity and number. These strategies are negotiated to create combinatorial systems. We consider the emergence of these strategies by studying features of movement in a young sign language in Nicaragua (NSL). We compare two age cohorts of Nicaraguan signers (NSL1 and NSL2), adult homesigners in Nicaragua (deaf individuals creating a gestural system without linguistic input), signers of American and…
The Emergence of Two Functions for Spatial Devices in Nicaraguan Sign Language
The emergence of a new sign language since the late 1970s in Nicaragua enables us to capture the effects of successive cohorts of learners on an emerging grammar and to observe how elements are reshaped from one form and function to another. Here we document the contrastive use of a device that has been found to be central to the grammars of sign languages: the spatial modulation of signs. In Nicaraguan Sign Language, this device has two primary …
The effects of Botox injections on emotional experience
Although it was proposed over a century ago that feedback from facial expressions influence emotional experience, tests of this hypothesis have been equivocal. Here we directly tested this facial feedback hypothesis (FFH) by comparing the impact on self-reported emotional experience of BOTOX injections (which paralyze muscles of facial expression) and a control Restylane injection (which is a cosmetic filler that does not affect facial muscles). …
How does facial feedback modulate emotional experience
Children Creating Core Properties of Language: Evidence from an Emerging Sign Language in Nicaragua
A new sign language has been created by deaf Nicaraguans over the past 25 years, providing an opportunity to observe the inception of universal hallmarks of language. We found that in their initial creation of the language, children analyzed complex events into basic elements and sequenced these elements into hierarchically structured expressions according to principles not observed in gestures accompanying speech in the surrounding language. Suc…
Children Creating Language: How Nicaraguan Sign Language Acquired a Spatial Grammar
It has long been postulated that language is not purely learned, but arises from an interaction between environmental exposure and innate abilities. The innate component becomes more evident in rare situations in which the environment is markedly impoverished. The present study investigated the language production of a generation of deaf Nicaraguans who had not been exposed to a developed language. We examined the changing use of early linguistic…
Agreement Morphology and the Acquisition of Noun-Drop in Spanish
Spanish exhibits a determiner phrase (DP)-internal phenomenon (noun-drop or N-drop) closely analogous to subject pro-drop. Where English has the near-vacuous nominal one in the DP the blue one, for example, Spanish lacks any overt nominal: el azul, literally 'the blue'. The availability of N-drop in a language has been linked by some authors to richness of the overt agreement morphology on adjectives, determiners, or both. The evidence from child…
Relations among word meanings in early lexical development
When deriving the meanings of individual words, children must also discern the relations among words. To ascertain how children interpret such relations, we taught twelve 2-year-olds novel count nouns for related but unfamiliar objects. Although we never specified the relations among words, children's interpretation of the relations was mediated by the similarity of the objects. For dissimilar objects, children interpreted the words as mutually e…
Relations among word meanings in early lexical development
When deriving the meanings of individual words, children must also discern the relations among words. To ascertain how children interpret such relations, we taught twelve 2-year-olds novel count nouns for related but unfamiliar objects. Although we never specified the relations among words, children's interpretation of the relations was mediated by the similarity of the objects. For dissimilar objects, children interpreted the words as mutually e…
Agreement Morphology and the Acquisition of Noun-Drop in Spanish
Spanish exhibits a determiner phrase (DP)-internal phenomenon (noun-drop or N-drop) closely analogous to subject pro-drop. Where English has the near-vacuous nominal one in the DP the blue one, for example, Spanish lacks any overt nominal: el azul, literally 'the blue'. The availability of N-drop in a language has been linked by some authors to richness of the overt agreement morphology on adjectives, determiners, or both. The evidence from child…
From Seed to System: The Emergence of Non-Manual Markers for Wh-Questions in Nicaraguan Sign Language
At a language's inception, what determines which elements are taken up to build a grammar? How is the initial raw material reshaped through intergenerational language learning? We approached this question by focusing on the emergence of non-manual wh-question markers in Nicaraguan Sign Language (LSN), a young sign language. We asked whether the seeds of non-manual markers originate in the facial gestures of the hearing Nicaraguan community, and w…
How does facial feedback modulate emotional experience
Relations among word meanings in early lexical development
When deriving the meanings of individual words, children must also discern the relations among words. To ascertain how children interpret such relations, we taught twelve 2-year-olds novel count nouns for related but unfamiliar objects. Although we never specified the relations among words, children's interpretation of the relations was mediated by the similarity of the objects. For dissimilar objects, children interpreted the words as mutually e…
Children Creating Language: How Nicaraguan Sign Language Acquired a Spatial Grammar
It has long been postulated that language is not purely learned, but arises from an interaction between environmental exposure and innate abilities. The innate component becomes more evident in rare situations in which the environment is markedly impoverished. The present study investigated the language production of a generation of deaf Nicaraguans who had not been exposed to a developed language. We examined the changing use of early linguistic…
Agreement Morphology and the Acquisition of Noun-Drop in Spanish
Spanish exhibits a determiner phrase (DP)-internal phenomenon (noun-drop or N-drop) closely analogous to subject pro-drop. Where English has the near-vacuous nominal one in the DP the blue one, for example, Spanish lacks any overt nominal: el azul, literally 'the blue'. The availability of N-drop in a language has been linked by some authors to richness of the overt agreement morphology on adjectives, determiners, or both. The evidence from child…
Children Creating Core Properties of Language: Evidence from an Emerging Sign Language in Nicaragua
A new sign language has been created by deaf Nicaraguans over the past 25 years, providing an opportunity to observe the inception of universal hallmarks of language. We found that in their initial creation of the language, children analyzed complex events into basic elements and sequenced these elements into hierarchically structured expressions according to principles not observed in gestures accompanying speech in the surrounding language. Suc…
How does facial feedback modulate emotional experience
The Emergence of Two Functions for Spatial Devices in Nicaraguan Sign Language
The emergence of a new sign language since the late 1970s in Nicaragua enables us to capture the effects of successive cohorts of learners on an emerging grammar and to observe how elements are reshaped from one form and function to another. Here we document the contrastive use of a device that has been found to be central to the grammars of sign languages: the spatial modulation of signs. In Nicaraguan Sign Language, this device has two primary …
The effects of Botox injections on emotional experience
Although it was proposed over a century ago that feedback from facial expressions influence emotional experience, tests of this hypothesis have been equivocal. Here we directly tested this facial feedback hypothesis (FFH) by comparing the impact on self-reported emotional experience of BOTOX injections (which paralyze muscles of facial expression) and a control Restylane injection (which is a cosmetic filler that does not affect facial muscles). …
Forging a morphological system out of two dimensions: Agentivity and number
Languages have diverse strategies for marking agentivity and number. These strategies are negotiated to create combinatorial systems. We consider the emergence of these strategies by studying features of movement in a young sign language in Nicaragua (NSL). We compare two age cohorts of Nicaraguan signers (NSL1 and NSL2), adult homesigners in Nicaragua (deaf individuals creating a gestural system without linguistic input), signers of American and…
Lexical iconicity is differentially favored under transmission in a new sign language: The effect of type of iconicity
Observations that iconicity diminishes over time in sign languages ( Frishberg 1975 ) pose a puzzle: Why should something so evidently useful and functional decrease? Using an archival dataset of signs elicited over 15 years from 4 first-cohort and 4 third-cohort signers of an emerging sign language (Nicaraguan Sign Language), we investigated changes in pantomimic (body-to-body) and perceptual (body-to-object) iconicity. We make three key observa…
Structural cues for symmetry, asymmetry, and non-symmetry in Central Taurus Sign Language
We investigate how predicates expressing symmetry, asymmetry and non-symmetry are encoded in a newly emerging sign language, Central Taurus Sign Language (CTSL). We find that predicates involving symmetry (i.e., reciprocal and symmetrical actions) differ from those involving asymmetry (i.e., transitive) in their use of the morphological devices investigated here: body segmentation, mirror-image articulators and double perspective. Symmetrical pre…
The communicative importance of agent-backgrounding: Evidence from homesign and Nicaraguan Sign Language
Community interactions and phonemic inventories in emerging sign languages
In this work, we address structural, iconic and social dimensions of the emergence of phonological systems in two emerging sign languages. A comparative analysis is conducted of data from a village sign language (Central Taurus Sign Language; CTSL) and a community sign language (Nicaraguan Sign Language; NSL). Both languages are approximately 50 years old, but the sizes and social structures of their respective communities are quite different. We…
From Seed to System: The Emergence of Non-Manual Markers for Wh-Questions in Nicaraguan Sign Language
At a language's inception, what determines which elements are taken up to build a grammar? How is the initial raw material reshaped through intergenerational language learning? We approached this question by focusing on the emergence of non-manual wh-question markers in Nicaraguan Sign Language (LSN), a young sign language. We asked whether the seeds of non-manual markers originate in the facial gestures of the hearing Nicaraguan community, and w…
Potentially recursive structures emerge quickly when a new language community forms
The organization of verb meaning in Lengua de Señas Nicaragüense (LSN): Sequential or simultaneous structures
One structural dimension that varies across languages is the simultaneous or sequential expression of meaning. Complex predicates can layer meanings together simultaneously in a single-verb predicate (SVP) or distribute them sequentially in a multiple-verb predicate (MVP). We ask whether typological variability in this dimension might be a consequence of systematic patterns of diachronic change. We examine the distribution of markers of agency an…
Psychology (13 works) · Linguistics (12 works) · Hearing Impairment and Communication (11 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (10 works) · Mathematics (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Sign language (9 works) · Communication (7 works) · American Sign Language (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (5 works)