Deaf Learners' Knowledge of English Universal Quantifiers

Abstract

Deaf and hearing students' knowledge of English sentences containing universal quantifiers was compared through their performance on a 50‐item, multiple‐picture task that required students to decide whether each of five pictures represented a possible meaning of a target sentence. The task assessed fundamental knowledge of quantifier sentences, recognition of quantifier sentence ambiguity, and preferences for specific sentence interpretations. Results revealed that deaf learners at middle school, high school, and college levels of education understand the fundamental meaning of universal quantifier sentences but differ in certain aspects from hearing native speakers in their preferred interpretations. Differences between deaf and hearing learners are explained in terms of economy principles associated with minimalism and aspects of semantic complexity. The findings contribute to our understanding of language acquisition under conditions of restricted access to spoken language input as well as to language acquisition generally.