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Sign Language Linguistics 318
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Chapter one: sign languages asnatural languages
Introduction
SL have grammar
Not one universal SL
SL emerges where there is deaf community
SL not derived from spoken lang
Gestural theory of lang origin= SL first form of communic
Language in space
Visual-spatial language
Signing space → in front of top half of body and around the head
Citation form= the way that signs are produced with no context
Parameters
1. Location
2. Handshape
3. Movement
4. Orientation
5. *Non-manual components
Mouthing: Based on spoken word
Mouth gesture: not related to spoken lang
Compositionality: basic form elements combine to form signs which form sentences
Deaf communities
Homesign= communication between deaf child and hearing family members
little or no grammar
SL often have beginning in schools
Village sign language or rural sign language = when considerable amount of deaf
people in community (example: Adamorobe SL)
Prelingually deaf= born deaf or become deaf within first year
, Relationship between signed and spoken language
Sign system / manually coded sign = when spoken language is directly translated into
sign.
Visual form of a spoken language.
Follows grammatical rules of spoken language
Form of relexification of the spoken lang
Often used for teaching purposes
SL are natural languages but manually coded are not
Sign languages Sign systems
Natural languages Not natural languages
Not derived from spoken lang but have own Derived from spoken lang: take grammar
lexicon and grammar from spoken lang and insert lexical
elements of sign lang in combination with
invented signs
First language of prelingually deaf people Visually support spoken lang. used in
teaching or in communication when hearing
ppl don’t sign well
Fingerspelling used to communicate about concept, object or person that isn’t a sign
for
Influence of spoken lang seen in fingerspelling
Gestures
Used in spoken lang.
Example: thumbs up=good
Sometimes culturally specific
Index sign
Used in all SLs
Point with index finger or whole hand
Different grammatical functions in SLs
Sign language and linguistics universality
In spoken lang look for properties in common= linguistic universality
Q if SL share universals with spoken lang or if there is modality-specific universals
SL combined simultaneously in terms of parameters while spoken lang is sequentially
, Signs combined in sequences to form sentences like words combined
Can express negative statement, ask a Q and issue an order
Also present in SL
All SLs make use of signing space for grammatical purposes
This is a good candidate for a universal specific to the visual-spatial modality
Difference between sign languages
SL only recently being studied too soon to make claims of SL specific universals
Great variation in the LEXICON
Example: baby is iconic might expect to be universal but can’t be
sure
[iconicity= shows clear relationship between form and meaning]
Iconicity itself does not necessarily mean that sign will have same
form in different SLs
Lexicon is culturally determined and therefore varies
If arbitrary sign is similar in form & meaning then it is likely that there has been some
form of language contact [or due to common historical source]
Variation in if one hand or both hands used
SLs also differ in the FORMS THEY USE
Different handshapes labelled according to manual alphabet
Variation in SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE
Forms used for different grammatical functions may vary
Order of signs within sentence may be subject to cross-linguistic variation
Similar= do not have a copula such as “is” { MARY CLEVER }
But not a modality specific universal because some spoken langs behave
similarly
Transcribing Sign Languages
Have been attempts at creating a sign writing system but not systematically used in
every country
For research purposes a few notation systems have been developed too complex
and detailed for daily use
HamNoSys or KOMVA
, Berkeley Transcription System
Glosses used to transcribe => only provide info about meaning of sign not the form
(only an approximation)
Taken from spoken lang
Not a perfect translation – does not depict full range of meaning
Handshapes
Often labelled according to specific role that they play in manual alphabet
Example: C-hand
Difficult because it varies in different SLs and
Also difficult because SLs use elements not articulated with the hands
Non-manual markers:
Non-manual markers shown by use of a line above the gloss and then
explained above line (example: neg=negation – shaking head)
_____________neg
MARY INDEX3a
→ Length of the line indicates which signs are accompanied by the marker
→ Abbreviation indicates function of the component
/boy/
BOY
→ Indicates that mouthing articulated at same time as sign
→ Silent => if it was spoken would say [+voice]
INDEX3a
→ 3a: indicates that the indexical sign is pointing towards an area of signing
space located to the side of the signer
→ By using after sign MARY: this sign is localised in space and this location
can be used later in discourse = LOCALIZATION
→ INDEX 1 = refer to signer or self , INDEX2= refer to addressee
→ Use 3a for localization of one sign and 3b for the other. For example with
INGE INDEX3a and BOY INDEX3b, Inge will be positioned on one side and
boy on the other.
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