nightblade354 wrote:
Babies who can hear and have hearing parents who expose them to speech begin to babble at a certain age as a precursor to speaking. In the same way, deaf babies with deaf parents who communicate with them and with each other by signing begin to babble in signs at the same age. That is, they make repetitive hand gestures that constitute, within the language system of signs, the analogue of repeated syllables in speech.
The information above, if accurate, can best be used as evidence against which one of the following hypotheses?
(A) Names of persons or things are the simplest words in a language, since babies use them before using the names of actions or processes
(B) The development of language competency in babies depends primarily on the physical maturation of the vocal tract, a process that requires speech-oriented vocal activity
(C) In the absence of adults who communicate with each other in their presence, babies develop idiosyncratic languages
(D) In babbling, babies are unaware that the sound or gesture combinations they use can be employed in a purposeful way
(E) The making of hand gestures by hearing babies who have hearing parents
A: The information given does not contradict the hypotheses.
B: The information does conteradict this hypotheses. The information implies that the development of language competency in babies is
independent of the physical maturation of the vocal tract, as deaf babies develop language competency by babbling in sign language.
C: This might be true for deaf and hearing babies. The information given does not contradict the hypotheses.
D: The information given does not contradict the hypotheses.
E: The information given does not contradict the hypotheses.