ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH - STANDARDS OF WELL-FORMEDNESS IN MANUAL COMMUNICATION CREATED OVER 3 DIFFERENT TIMESPANS

Natural languages are characterized by standards of well-formedness. T hese internal standards are likely to be, at least in part, a product of a consensus achieved among the users of a language over time. Never theless, it is possible that an individual, attempting to invent symbo ls to communicate de novo, might generate a system of symbols that is similarly characterized by internal standards of well-formedness, In t hese studies, we explore this possibility by comparing (1) a conventio nal sign language used by a community of signers and passed down from generation to generation with (2) gestures invented by a deaf child ov er a period of years and (3) gestures invented by nonsigning hearing i ndividuals on the spot. Thus, we compare communication in the manual m odality created over three different timespans-historical, ontogenetic , and microgenetic-focusing on the extent to which the gestures become codified and adhere to internal standards in each of these timespans. Our findings suggest that an individual can introduce standards of we ll-formedness into a self-generated gesture system, but that gradual d evelopment over a period of time is necessary for such standards to be constructed.