Chapter 4 discusses interesting views of modern linguistics and I found myself asking quite a few questions. To begin, on page 55 Fox discusses Chomsky’s argument for how speaking children are capable of testing, rejecting and revising their use of their native language, otherwise known as hypothesis testing, to determine what is correct and was is incorrect. However, Fox points out that nearly 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, so then, how would deaf children use hypothesis testing with gestures as opposed to sounds, words and phrases; especially if they are born to hearing parents who are not fluent signers?
Another topic that was of great interest to me pertained to page 66, in which Fox discusses deaf native signers who suffer from strokes or other brain injuries. My question here pertains to differences among native deaf signers and hearing patients. Fox briefly describes that injuries to the brain have shown similarities between the dysfunctions seen in sign language and spoken-language, but provides little to no differences between the two, and that these similarities result from damage to the same part of the brain (left hemisphere). However, deaf patients sign using their hands so what would these findings imply about damage to motor areas of the brain? And how would that affect a deaf patient’s ability to communicate?