Current issues in sign language

linguistics

Day 2LOT Summer School 2006

Universiteit van AmsterdamJosep Quer (ICREA & UB)

Pointing

• Form:– Handshape: 1– Movement – Hold syllable– Movement: straight– Orientation: radial side (thumb) up

Identifying pointings

JOAN IXa BOOK 3a.GIVE.1 Ixa 3a.TELL.1 IX1 TOMORROW IXb EVA 1.GIVE.3b BECAUSE IXb INTERESTED

Identifying pointings

HOLIDAY CHRISTMAS IXb HOLY-WEEK IX1 LIKE MORE IXa

Pointing without pointings

WOMAN WHO

Pointing

• Deictic interpretation– Spatial (HERE, THERE)– Temporal (TODAY)– Reference to individuals

• Grammatical categories– Determiner/Demonstrative– Pronoun– Adverbial

Pointing: LSC example

_________________t ____________________________RS-iIXa MADRIDm MOMENT JOAN i THINK IX-1i STUDY FINISH HEREb

‘When he was in Madrid, Joan thought he would finish his study in Barcelona.’

Determiner vs adverbial in ASL

• Pointings in DP (Neidle et al. 2000, MacLaughlin 1997):– prenominal: Determiner (definite)

– postnominal: Adverbial

[IXdet BOY IXadv] LIKE CHOCOLATE

JOHN LIVE IXadv

Determiner vs adverbial in ASL

• Cet homme-là (French)

• Den mannen der (Norwegian)

• This here dog (English dialects)

ASL Definite DP

___far

JOHNj jGIVEk [IXdetk MAN IXadv] NEW COAT

‘John gave the man way over there a new coat.’

ftp://csr.bu.edu/asl/sequences/compressed/master/ch6-528_344_small_0.mov

SL Pronouns: Form

• Crosslinguistically realized by an index pointing to present referents

‘I’ ‘you’ ‘s/he’

SL Pronouns: Form

• Non-present referents are localized in signing space by – pointing– eye gaze– sign articulated at a certain point

• An unambiguous referential locus is established

SL Pronouns: Features

• Spoken language pronouns may encode: person, number, gender, distance/proximity, kinship status, social status, case, and tense.

• SL pronouns are generally claimed to encode person features, sometimes number features.

• How many person distinctions? There are no fixed loci for 2nd or 3rd person.

SL Pronouns: Features

SL Pronouns: Features

• Number marking?– Plural referents that are viewed as a group are treated as one locus

SL Pronouns: Features

• Number marking?– Otherwise the loci of plural referents are used

collective distributive

SL Pronouns: Features

• Number marking?– Numeral incorporation

‘the three of them’ (LSF)

SL Pronouns: Features

• Number marking?– Dual

SL Pronouns: Features

● Inclusive/Exclusive (Cormier 2002)

Pronouns: Typology

• Peculiarities:- Gender marking across persons in the singular in Nagala- Lack of number marking in Asheninca vs. rich number marking in Nogogu- Extensive kinship marking in Aranda

Pronominal Reference

Potentially infinite number of pronominal forms for 3rd person singular

• Inclusive/exclusive distinction in 1st plural

• Rich system of number marking? Arguments against treating trial, quadruple etc. as true grammatical number marking– Etymological relation to numerals– Non-obligatory

SL Specificity

• Typological homogeneity/uniformity

• Morphophonological exclusivity: a subset of phonemes (locations) is used for referential purposes only

• Highly unusual morphological paradigm

• High degree of referential specificity: non-arbitrary relation between form & meaning

Account (McBurney 2002)

• The medium (channel) of language: time vs. space

• Pronominal reference in sign languages is medium-driven: high degree of conceptual iconicity

• The category number is lexically marked in SL but the category person is not

• Pronouns are a combination of linguistic and gestural elements

• Lack of gender marking in SL

Person marking

• No distinctions (Ahlgren 1990, Lillo-Martin & Klima 1990)

• First, second, third (Friedman 1975, Padden 1983/88)

• First vs. nonfirst (Meier 1990, Engberg-Pedersen 1993)

• Nonfirst person can be further subclassified into many distinct person values (Neidle et al. 2000)

Alternative analysis:Liddell

• Spatial locations used for pronominal reference are not phonologically specifiable.

• Pronouns as combination of linguistic and gestural elements:– Handshape, orientation, movement describable using discrete linguistic features

– Direction and endpoint of movement: gestural

Alternative analysis:Liddell

• Directing pronouns toward mental representations (not grammatical ones) is not controlled by phonological features, but by the ability to point.

Pronoun acquisition

• Pronouns (Petitto 1987):– 6-12 months: pointings– Avoidance– 21-23 months: pronoun reversal– 25-27 months: target production

Pronoun acquisition

Pronoun acquisition

• Blondel & Tuller (2005): development of pointing in a bilingual LSF/French child

• At 19 months, the child uses the first combinations of pointing to an animate referent and a predicate:– PT>herself + GO

Pronoun acquisition

• Also pointing to non-present referents as onset of pronominal use:– GRANDPA + PT>door + WORK 

• First co-occurrence of pointing and French pronouns:– PT>herself + PT>picture / oh et là-bas c’est moi ‘oh! and there, it’s me’

Pronoun acquisition

• French pronouns emerge at this same stage

• Pointing gestures serve as precursors to more complex syntax

• Pointing gestures have acquired pronominal status at this time

Bound pronouns?

__________________________________________tALUMNE CADA-UN PROFESSOR CONC+++ RESPECTARpupil each teacher AGR [redup] respect‘Each pupil respects his/her teacher.’

Bound pronouns?

_________________________________ RS-i___________t __________eg:1__________________eg:frontALUMNE CADAi PENSAR^VEURE-refl IX-1i INTEL·LIGENT MÉS-TOT

pupil each think^see.refl I intelligent superlative‘Every pupil thinks that he is the most intelligent.’

(LSC, Quer 2005)