Predicate structures, gesture and simultaneity in the representation of action in British Sign language: Evidence from deaf children and adult

British Sign Language (BSL) signers use a variety of structures such as constructed action (CA), depicting constructions (DC), or lexical verbs to represent action and other verbal meanings. This study examines the use of these verbal predicate structures and their gestural counterparts, both separately and simultaneously, in narratives by deaf children with various levels of exposure to BSL (ages 5;1 to 7;5) and adult deaf native BSL signers. Results reveal that all groups used the same types of predicative structures, including children with minimal BSL exposure. However, adults used CA, DC and/or lexical signs simultaneously more
frequently than children. These results suggest that simultaneous use of CA with lexical and depicting predicates is more complex than the use of these predicate structures alone and thus may take deaf children more time to master.
Keywords: constructed action, classifier construction, depicting construction,British
Sign Language, gesture, embodiment