Underlying Grammatical Rule Structure in the Deaf

Abstract

The purposes of this study were (1) to use further the measure developed and reported by Sarachan (1971) for assessing underlying language structure in the deaf, and (2) to investigate the rule-bound organization of the syntactic subcomponent of deep structure of congenitally deaf adults with no known formal oral language stimulation prior to entering school. The evidence obtained from this study suggests that deep structural differences in syntactic rules exist between congenitally deaf and hearing individuals. The evidence may be interpreted as suggesting that these differences exist regardless of the method used in school to teach the deaf language, when the benefits derived from formal preschool language exposure are denied them.