Search results

1

Classifier constructions as procedural referring expressions in American Sign Language

100%

Jones S.

Research in Language

|

2015

|

vol. 13

|

issue 4

368-391

EN

The present paper comments on signs of American Sign Language in the perspective of relevance theory. The main claim is that classifiers encode procedural instructions to help the addressee pick out the intended referent for the procedural referring expressions made with classifier constructions. The author explains how three classes of classifiers differently manipulate concepts to instruct the addressee to create ad hoc concepts though the use of inference, narrowing, and broadening. It is also claimed that classifier constructions do not encode a conceptual meaning, but a procedural instruction. The discussion includes illustrations of how the speaker’s using classifier constructions instead of lexical signs may increase the number of cognitive effects on the part of the addressee.

2

Modality-Independent Effects of Phonological Neighborhood Structure on Initial L2 Sign Language Learning

88%

Williams J., Newman S. D.

Research in Language

|

2015

|

vol. 13

|

issue 2

198-212

EN

The goal of the present study was to characterize how neighborhood structure in sign language influences lexical sign acquisition in order to extend our understanding of how the lexicon influences lexical acquisition in both sign and spoken languages. A referentmatching lexical sign learning paradigm was administered to a group of 29 hearing sign language learners in order to create a sign lexicon. The lexicon was constructed based on exposures to signs that resided in either sparse or dense handshape and location neighborhoods. The results of the current study indicated that during the creation of the lexicon signs that resided in sparse neighborhoods were learned better than signs that resided in dense neighborhoods. This pattern of results is similar to what is seen in child first language acquisition of spoken language. Therefore, despite differences in child first language and adult second language acquisition, these results contribute to a growing body of literature that implicates the phonological features that structure of the lexicon is influential in initial stages of lexical acquisition for both spoken and sign languages. This is the first study that uses an innovated lexicon-construction methodology to explore interactions between phonology and the lexicon in L2 acquisition of sign language.

3

Forging a morphological system out of two dimensions: Agentivity and number

63%

Horton L., Goldin-Meadow S., Coppola M., Senghas A., Brentari D.

Open Linguistics

|

2014

|

vol. 1

|

issue 1

EN

Languages have diverse strategies for marking agentivity and number. These strategies are negotiated to create combinatorial systems. We consider the emergence of these strategies by studying features of movement in a young sign language in Nicaragua (NSL). We compare two age cohorts of Nicaraguan signers (NSL1 and NSL2), adult homesigners in Nicaragua (deaf individuals creating a gestural system without linguistic input), signers of American and Italian Sign Languages (ASL and LIS), and hearing individuals asked to gesture silently. We find that all groups use movement axis and repetition to encode agentivity and number, suggesting that these properties are grounded in action experiences common to all participants. We find another feature – unpunctuated repetition – in the sign systems (ASL, LIS, NSL, Homesign) but not in silent gesture. Homesigners and NSL1 signers use the unpunctuated form, but limit its use to No-Agent contexts; NSL2 signers use the form across No-Agent and Agent contexts. A single individual can thus construct a marker for number without benefit of a linguistic community (homesign), but generalizing this form across agentive conditions requires an additional step. This step does not appear to be achieved when a linguistic community is first formed (NSL1), but requires transmission across generations of learners (NSL2).

Refine search results

2 Research in Language

1 Open Linguistics

1 Brentari D.

1 Coppola M.

1 Goldin-Meadow S.

1 Horton L.

1 Jones S.

1 Newman S. D.

1 Senghas A.

1 Williams J.

3 2015

Classifier constructions as procedural referring expressions in American Sign Language

Modality-Independent Effects of Phonological Neighborhood Structure on Initial L2 Sign Language Learning

Forging a morphological system out of two dimensions: Agentivity and number