Sign Languages (Cambridge Language Surveys)

Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Figures......Page 10
Tables......Page 15
Contributors......Page 17
Sign language abbreviations......Page 21
Notational conventions......Page 23
1 Introduction......Page 25
1 Language transmission......Page 28
2.1 The lexicon......Page 34
2.2 Productivity......Page 36
2.3 Verb agreement......Page 37
2.4 Simultaneity......Page 38
3.2 Synchronic variation......Page 39
Part I: History and transmission......Page 41
2.1 The spoken language situation in Switzerland......Page 43
2.2 The sign language situation in Switzerland......Page 44
2.3 Descriptions of the three Swiss sign languages......Page 45
2.4.1 Education and attitudes toward deaf persons in the past......Page 47
2.4.2 Current educational situation......Page 48
2.5 Swiss sign language in Deaf communities......Page 49
2.7 Sign language research and development......Page 51
3.1 The sign language situation in Germany......Page 52
3.2.1 First institutes for the deaf and deaf organizations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries......Page 53
3.2.3 National Socialism (1933–1945)......Page 54
3.2.4 Germany after the war......Page 55
3.2.5 Resurgence of German Sign Language (and German Deaf community) after the 1970s......Page 56
3.3.1 Cochlear implants and biotechnology......Page 60
3.3.3 Coming to terms with the past......Page 61
4.1 The sign language situation in the Netherlands......Page 62
4.3.2 Current educational situation......Page 63
4.4.2 Regional and local groups......Page 65
4.6 Sign language research and development......Page 66
5 Concluding remarks......Page 68
1 Introduction......Page 70
2 Method......Page 71
3.1 LSM and education for Deaf students in Mexico......Page 72
3.3 Role of ENS......Page 75
3.4 Role of Church, mentors and padrinos......Page 76
3.5 Shifts in policy and ideology in Mexico......Page 77
3.6 Continuity of LSM......Page 79
3.6 Stability and LSM......Page 82
3.7 LSM contact with ASL......Page 84
4.1 The role of education......Page 86
4.2 Transmission across generations......Page 87
4.3 Continuity of sign languages in Latin America......Page 88
4.4 Stability of Latin American sign languages......Page 89
5 LSM and Latin American sign languages: summarizing current knowledge......Page 90
1 Introduction......Page 98
2.2 Danish Sign Language in deaf education......Page 99
2.3 Danish Sign Language outside deaf education......Page 103
2.4 Transmission of Danish Sign Language: conclusions......Page 104
2.5 Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands......Page 105
3.1 The name of the language, the number of users and official recognition......Page 106
3.2 Finnish Sign Language and deaf education......Page 107
3.3 Finnish Sign Language outside deaf education......Page 108
4.2 Swedish Sign Language and early deaf education......Page 110
4.3 The SDR and the fight for sign language in education......Page 112
4.4 Research and official recognition......Page 113
4.5 Swedish Sign Language in the present education system......Page 114
4.7 Interpreter services......Page 115
5 The three sign languages compared......Page 116
1 Introduction......Page 119
2 Status of sign languages and the signing communities......Page 120
3 Sign language varieties and influences......Page 121
4.1 Education of the Deaf......Page 123
4.2 Social groups and families......Page 129
4.3.1 Artistic manifestations in sign language......Page 132
4.3.2 Sign language in the media and Deaf press......Page 133
4.3.3 Sign language interpretation......Page 134
4.3.4 Second language teaching of sign language......Page 135
5 Conclusion......Page 136
1 Introduction......Page 137
2.1 Status......Page 138
2.2 Population of signers......Page 139
3.1 Acquisition of sign language and sources of exposure......Page 141
3.2 Language contact......Page 142
3.3 Deaf people’s attitude toward Uganda Sign Language......Page 145
3.4 Deaf association (national and local)......Page 147
4.1 The history of deaf education......Page 148
4.2 The current educational situation of Deaf people......Page 149
5.2 Sign language interpreters......Page 151
5.3 Media and technology......Page 152
5.4 Societal attitudes toward sign language and Deaf communities......Page 153
7 Conclusion and future research......Page 154
1 Introduction......Page 155
2 Types of sign systems and education......Page 156
2.1 Polish Sign Language (PJM)......Page 157
2.2 Artificial sign systems......Page 158
2.3 Polish Sign Language Pidgins (or “contact” varieties)......Page 160
3 Social aspects......Page 162
4 Transmission of PJM......Page 165
5 Conclusion......Page 168
Part II: Shared crosslinguistic characteristics......Page 173
1 Introduction......Page 175
1.1 Examples of notation systems......Page 177
2.1 What is being represented?......Page 179
2.2 Iconicity and motivation......Page 181
2.3 Unit or level of representation......Page 183
2.4 Bi-iniqueness......Page 186
2.5 Economy and redundancy......Page 187
2.6 Summary: writing systems......Page 188
3.1 How is a transcription system distinguished from a writing system?......Page 189
3.2.1 Summary......Page 191
4.1 Requirements......Page 192
4.2 A proposed database structure: SignTyp......Page 193
5 Summary......Page 195
1 Introduction......Page 197
2.1.1 Single agreement......Page 199
2.1.2 Double agreement......Page 201
2.1.3 Nonmanual forms......Page 202
2.2.1 Person agreement......Page 203
2.2.2 Number agreement......Page 204
2.2.4 Canonical agreement......Page 208
2.4 Phonetic and phonological constraints......Page 209
2.5 Identification in case of unrealized agreement......Page 211
2.6 Crosslinguistic variation......Page 212
2.7 Summary......Page 214
3.1 Experimental studies......Page 215
3.2 Developmental studies......Page 217
3.3 Historical studies......Page 218
4 Verb agreement in signed languages......Page 219
1 Lexical morphemes and grammatical morphemes......Page 221
2 Some basic notions......Page 222
3.1 Some basic facts......Page 223
3.2 Temporal and aspectual properties of FATTO......Page 224
4 The story about FINISH......Page 227
5.1 Negation in LIS and ASL......Page 231
5.2 Distributional restrictions......Page 232
5.3 Negation and aspect......Page 234
5.4 Negated existentials and adjacency......Page 239
6 Summary......Page 248
1 Introduction......Page 249
3 Clause structure in LSB and ASL......Page 250
3.1.1 Basic sentences......Page 251
3.1.2 Clause structure and adverbs......Page 253
3.1.3 Clause structure and modals......Page 254
3.1.4 Clause structure and auxiliaries......Page 256
3.2 Clause structure with movement operations......Page 257
3.2.1 Topicalization......Page 258
3.2.2 Object shift......Page 261
3.2.3 Focus......Page 263
3.3 Clause structure with different verb types......Page 268
4 Summary/conclusion......Page 274
1 Introduction......Page 276
2.1 Classifier signs as multimorphemic signs......Page 279
2.2 Classifier signs as visual analogs......Page 280
2.3 Classifier signs as partially lexicalized verbs......Page 283
3 Data collection and foci of analysis......Page 285
4.1 Descriptions of a typical fall......Page 290
4.2 Descriptions of an unusual fall......Page 296
5 Factors that Influence the form of the fall descriptions......Page 302
Appendix......Page 306
1 Introduction......Page 308
1.1 Handshape in a sign language lexicon......Page 309
1.2 The phonological structure of handshape......Page 312
2 Methodology and description of the data......Page 313
3 Selected finger combinations: distribution of three-finger handshapes......Page 314
3.1 ASL......Page 315
3.2 DSGS......Page 317
4 Joint configurations: distribution of the feature [stacked]......Page 318
4.1 ASL......Page 319
4.3 HKSL......Page 320
5 Feature asymmetries across classifier types......Page 321
5.2 Instrumental classifiers (ICLs)......Page 322
5.4 Handling classifiers......Page 324
6.1 Theories of phonological contrast and their application to sign languages......Page 326
6.1.1 3FHSs......Page 327
6.1.3 Classifiers......Page 328
6.2 Types of phonological distribution......Page 330
7 Conclusions......Page 334
2.1 Defining the spoken syllable......Page 336
2.2 On sonority......Page 338
2.3.1 The Minimal Word argument......Page 342
2.3.2 Babbling argument......Page 343
2.4 On the need for the unit syllable in signed language......Page 344
3.1 Syllable structure(s) in spoken language......Page 345
3.2 The structure of the signed syllable......Page 347
3.2.1 The sequentially oriented approach to the signed syllable......Page 348
3.2.2 The simultaneously oriented approach to the signed syllable......Page 349
4 Conclusion......Page 355
1 Background: routes from gesture to language......Page 356
2 Route One: from gesture to lexical morpheme to grammatical morpheme......Page 357
3 Route Two: from gesture to prosody/intonation to grammatical marker......Page 359
3.1 Cognitive processes and Route Two......Page 361
4 Gesture to language in Italian Sign Language......Page 362
4.1 POSSIBLE(O), POSSIBLE(F) and POSSIBLE(SS)......Page 364
4.2 IMPOSSIBLE(H-pa-pa) and IMPOSSIBLE(Hff)......Page 365
5.1 From speaking to benediction......Page 366
5.2 From benediction to death......Page 368
5.3 From death to impossibility......Page 369
5.4 Grammaticalization in LIS: from death to impossibility......Page 371
6 Route Two: manner of movement in gesture and language......Page 373
6.2 Manner of movement: from gesture to prosody......Page 374
6.3 Verb aspect: the grammaticalizaton of prosody......Page 376
7 Conclusions......Page 377
1 Introduction......Page 379
2 Theoretical model......Page 380
2.1 Macrovents and the role of time......Page 381
2.2 Motion events and the role of direction......Page 383
2.3.1 Event typology and notation......Page 384
2.3.2 Telicity......Page 385
2.3.3 Argument structure for event predicates......Page 386
2.3.4 The “almost” test......Page 387
2.4 Further details of internal event structure......Page 388
3.1 Available resources for hands and mouth......Page 390
3.2 Form–meaning mappings......Page 391
3.2.1 Telic predicates headed by heterogeneous lexical verbs......Page 393
3.2.2 Homogeneous roots, atelic and telic predicates......Page 395
3.2.3 “Almost X” as a test for telicity......Page 397
3.2.4 Other form–meaning mappings......Page 398
3.2.5 ASL motion events and the Unique Vector Constraint......Page 399
4 Conclusion......Page 402
1 Introduction......Page 405
2.1.1 Head and body movements......Page 406
2.1.3 Mouth gestures vs. mouthings......Page 407
2.2.1 Nonmanual adjectives......Page 409
2.2.2 Nonmanual adverbials......Page 410
2.3.1 Negation and affirmation......Page 411
2.3.2 Interrogatives......Page 413
2.3.3 Topics......Page 414
2.3.4 Conditionals......Page 415
2.3.5 Relative clauses......Page 416
2.3.6 Agreement......Page 417
2.4.1 Focus: body leans......Page 418
2.4.2 Role shift......Page 420
3.1 Domain markers......Page 421
3.1.1 On the relation between syntactic and prosodic phrasing......Page 422
3.1.2 Mouthings and the prosodic word......Page 423
3.1.3 Layered nonmanuals and the intonational phrase......Page 424
3.2 Edge markers......Page 425
4 Summary......Page 426
Part III: Variation and change......Page 427
1 Introduction......Page 429
3 The influence of Andrew Foster on deaf education in West Africa......Page 432
4 Foreign sign languages......Page 434
5.1 Social settings......Page 439
5.2 Sign language endangerment......Page 442
5.3.1 Ghana......Page 445
5.3.2 Nigeria......Page 450
5.3.3 Senegal......Page 452
5.3.4 Mali......Page 453
6 Summary......Page 455
1 Introduction......Page 457
1.1 Sign language communities in the Middle East......Page 459
1.2 Lexicostatistical analyses of sign languages......Page 461
1.2.1 Lexicostatistical analyses of sign languages in the Arab world......Page 464
3 Results......Page 465
4 Discussion......Page 468
5 Conclusion......Page 472
1 Introduction......Page 475
2.1 Early perspectives on sign language variation......Page 476
2.2 Variation in the DASL......Page 478
2.3 After the DASL......Page 480
3 Variation in signed and spoken languages......Page 481
4.1 Multivariate analysis of variation......Page 484
4.2 Variation in ASL reconsidered......Page 485
5 The role of modality in variation......Page 491
6 Where do we go from here?......Page 496
7 Conclusion......Page 499
1 The deaf communities in the UK, Australia and New Zealand......Page 500
2 The history of BSL......Page 501
3 From BSL to Auslan and NZSL......Page 504
4 BSL, Auslan and NZSL in the twentieth century......Page 505
5 Comparative studies of the BSL, Auslan and NZSL lexicons......Page 506
6 Other signed languages with some BSL contact......Page 510
7 Sociolinguistic variation and change in BANZSL......Page 511
7.1.1 Region......Page 512
7.1.2 Age......Page 514
7.1.4 Ethnicity and religion......Page 517
7.2 Phonological variation and change......Page 519
7.3 Syntactic variation and change......Page 520
8 Conclusion......Page 522
1.1.1 Chinese Sign Language family......Page 523
1.1.2 Japanese Sign Language family......Page 524
2.1 Handshapes......Page 526
2.2 Movements and points of contact......Page 527
2.3 Chinese character signs......Page 528
2.3.2. Pronunciation pun signs......Page 529
2.3.3. Visual metonymic signs......Page 530
3.1.1 Fingerspelling and initialized signs......Page 531
3.1.2 Chinese character signs......Page 533
3.2 Inflectional morphology......Page 535
3.3.1 Hands as morphemes......Page 536
3.4 Compounding......Page 538
4.1 Constituent order......Page 539
4.2 The role of nonmanuals......Page 540
5 Concluding remarks......Page 542
1 Introduction......Page 543
1.1 Prosodic cues in spoken languages......Page 544
1.2.1 P(rosodic) Words......Page 545
1.2.3. I(ntonational) Phrases......Page 546
2.1 Results (a): Differences among the four sign languages......Page 549
2.2 Results (b): Differences between signed and spoken languages......Page 550
3 Study 2: Identifying I-phrases and the role of blinks......Page 552
3.1 Identifying I-phrases......Page 553
3.2 Use of blinks......Page 555
4 Study 3: blinks and prosodic constituents in HKSL......Page 557
4.2 Use of blinks......Page 558
4.2.1 Blinks at I-phrases......Page 559
4.2.2 Blinks at intermediate P-phrases......Page 561
4.2.3 Blinks within P-words......Page 563
5 Discussion and conclusions......Page 564
Appendix Notational conventions specific to this chapter......Page 565
1.1 Grammaticalization......Page 567
1.2 The present studies......Page 568
1.3 From Nicaraguan homesigns to Nicaraguan Sign Language......Page 569
1.4 Indexical pointing......Page 572
1.4.1 Pointing in sign languages......Page 573
1.5 Deixis......Page 575
2.1 Pointing observed in Nicaraguan signed narratives......Page 576
2.3 Points to the real-orld environment......Page 577
2.4 Points to the signer’s body......Page 578
2.4.1 Ordering patterns of points to the chest in combination with other signs......Page 579
2.5 Points to empty space......Page 580
2.6 Ordering patterns of locative and nominal points in combination with other signs......Page 582
2.7 The ANOTHER sign......Page 583
2.7.1 Locative ANOTHER......Page 584
2.8 Locative versus nominal deictics......Page 585
2.9 The changing patterns of signing across groups......Page 586
3 Discussion......Page 588
3.1.1 Input to grammaticalization processes......Page 589
3.1.2 De-spatialization as emancipation......Page 590
3.2 Grammaticalization paths for pointing in sign languages......Page 591
25 The grammar of space in two new sign languages......Page 594
1 Background......Page 595
2 Spatial morphology in new sign languages......Page 596
3 Two new sign languages......Page 599
4 Method......Page 600
5.1 ABSL signers......Page 603
5.2.1 Use of space......Page 606
5.2.2 Agreement inflection......Page 608
6 Discussion......Page 612
7 Conclusion......Page 615
1 Introduction......Page 617
2 Transmission of sign languages in Northern Europ......Page 618
4 Transmission of sign languages in the Nordic countries......Page 621
6 Transmission of sign languages in Africa......Page 622
8 Notation systems......Page 623
10 Functional markers in sign languages......Page 626
12 Factors that form classifier signs......Page 629
13 Handshape constrasts in sign language phonology......Page 630
14 Syllable structure in sign language phonology......Page 632
15 Grammaticalization in sign languages......Page 633
16 The semantics–phonology interface......Page 634
18 Sign languages in West Africa......Page 635
20 Variation in American Sign Language......Page 636
22 Variation in East Asian sign language structures......Page 637
23 Crosslinguistic variation in prosodic cues......Page 639
24 Deixis in an emerging sign language......Page 640
25 The grammar of space in two new sign languages......Page 641
References......Page 642
Index......Page 694