台灣自然手語呼應動詞習得之初探

手語習得是手語研究與教學上十分重要的議題。本研究的目的即在探討台灣聾家庭兒童習得自然手語語法-呼應動詞的情形，以聾成人在呼應動詞的表達作為標準，分析這群來自聾家庭的兒童在呼應動詞的表現是否和成人相同。本研究以圖片作為誘發材料，分別請聾家庭的兒童，看圖片並用手語打出其意思，蒐集語料後，則進一步請手譯員透過ELAN軟體分析兒童所打的手語是否正確出現呼應動詞。結果發現五位兒童在研究期間對於呼應動詞語法的呈現正確率從0%到100%，出現很大的變異，五位兒童有四位都有出現呼應動詞的語法，但有兩位後來的呼應動詞失去了該有的空間特性。本研究初步認為呼應動詞很可能受到口語學習的影響，而失去自然手語的空間特性。未來需要更多的研究方能進一步確認這樣的推測。

Sign language acquisition is a crucial issue on sign language studies and approaches. This study aims on the process of children coming from deaf families acquiring agreement verbs in Taiwan Sign Language. We conducted the experiment based on the form of agreement verbs of Deaf adults in order to parallel that of hearing and deaf children. This study used pictures as stimulus for five children to sign. The next step is to use EUDICO Linguistic Annotator (ELAN) to analyze those children’s sign. With the accuracy from 0 to 100%, we found a variety among five participants. Four out of five produced verb agreement grammar; however, two of them missed the use of space. This study argued that it was because of verbal learning that those two participants missed the use of space in sign. We need further studies to verify this assumption.