Beyond Grammar: Developing Stylistic Variation When the Input is Diverse

Using Andersen’s “nativization hypothesis” and the dictum that full competence demands mastery of stylistic variation as well as grammar, the author examines two features of ASL, productive verbs and (spatial) agreement, in the signing of two deaf children of hearing parents at two ages and with differing communicative partners. Compared with each other and with deaf pears who had Deaf parents in an earlier study, the subjects were markedly different in their developmental trends. At the time of the second assessment, their grammatical development converged, but they displayed differences in ability to suit their sign language to the kind of person (peer/adult; deaf/hearing) addressed. Family attitudes and signing practices are considered as causative.