COMPETITION ON THE FACE - AFFECT AND LANGUAGE IN ASL MOTHERESE

Research on early mother-child interaction ha's documented the crucial role affect plays in the content and modulation of early interactions . For hearing mothers, voice quality is considered to be the single mo st informative channel for affective expression. For deaf caregivers w ho use American Sign Language (ASL), the vocal channel is unavailable, and facial expression is critically important. Not only do facial beh aviours signal affective and communicative information, but specific f acial behaviours also function as obligatory grammatical markers. This multifunctionality of facial expression presents a dilemma for deaf p arents signing to their toddlers as these two systems potentially comp ete for expression on the face. This study addresses how affective fac ial expression interacts with the linguistic forms in ASL motherese. T o address this issue, we present data from both cross-sectional and lo ngitudinal videotaped interaction from a total of 15 deaf mothers sign ing with their deaf toddlers (ages 0;9-2;8). Using Ekman & Friesen's F acial Action Coding System (FAGS) (I978) we analysed child-directed ma ternal wh- questions. Because they are frequent in early discourse, AN D they require furrowed brews which also signal anger and puzzlement, wh- questions represent an ideal context to address the potential conf lict of grammatical and affective facial expression in ASL motherese. Our studies indicate a shift from affect to grammar at about the child 's second birthday. These findings shed new insight on the nature and possible role of input on the language acquisition process.