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I'm annoyed by the use of quotations around the word language in the title. This isn't "language", it's language. The use of quotations on the word delegitimizes what is being developed here, likely (in my opinion) due to bias against Signed languages.

The original paper doesn't use quotations. That's an addition from the author.

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I interpreted the quotes as implying that the children hadn’t developed a full human language, but rather the rudimentary beginnings of one. Independently of whether it’s signed or spoken.

(You are indeed correct that sign languages are full-blown languages, not just re-encodings of the local spoken language as many people think.)

Nicaraguan Sign Language is a full language, though.

Yes, I know.

But that's not what (scanning back through the article) the author used quotation marks for. They mostly talk about children forming a sort of pigeon in a laboratory setup.

Pidgin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin

Seems to be out of editing range now, but worth noting for the next reader. Oh English homophones, bane of mine own heart.

> I interpreted the quotes as implying that the children hadn’t developed a full human language, but rather the rudimentary beginnings of one.

A language, in other words.

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