By comparing two sign languages of approximately the same age but which arose and developed under different social circumstances, we are able to identify possible relationships between social factors and language structure. We argue that... more
By comparing two sign languages of approximately the same age but which arose and developed under different social circumstances, we are able to identify possible relationships between social factors and language structure. We argue that two structural properties of these languages are related to the size and the heterogeneity versus homogeneity of their respective communities: use of space in grammatical structure and degree of lexical and sublexical variability. A third characteristic, the tendency toward single-argument clauses appears to be a function of a different social factor: language age. Our study supports the view that language is not just a structure in the brain, nor is it strictly the domain of the individual. It is very much a socio-cultural artifact. Keywords: community and language structure; sign languages; ISL; ABSL; variation; space; argument structure
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Just as vocalization proceeds in a continuous stream in speech, so too do movements of the hands, face, and body in sign languages. Here, we use motion-capture technology to distinguish lexical signs in sign language from other common... more
Just as vocalization proceeds in a continuous stream in speech, so too do movements of the hands, face, and body in sign languages. Here, we use motion-capture technology to distinguish lexical signs in sign language from other common types of expression in the signing stream. One type of expression is constructed action, the enactment of (aspects of) referents and events by (parts of) the body. Another is classifier constructions, the manual representation of analogue and gradient motions and locations simultaneously with specified referent morphemes. The term signing is commonly used for all of these, but we show that not all visual signals in sign languages are of the same type. In this study of Israeli Sign Language, we use motion capture to show that the motion of lexical signs differs significantly along several kinematic parameters from that of the two other modes of expression: constructed action and the classifier forms. In so doing, we show how motion-capture technology can help to define the universal linguistic category “word,” and to distinguish it from the expressive gestural elements that are commonly found across sign languages.
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The term “multimodality” incorporates visible gestures as part of language, a goal first put forward by Adam Kendon, and this idea revolutionized the scope of linguistic inquiry. But here I show that the term “multimodality” itself is... more
The term “multimodality” incorporates visible gestures as part of language, a goal first put forward by Adam Kendon, and this idea revolutionized the scope of linguistic inquiry. But here I show that the term “multimodality” itself is rife with ambiguity, sometimes referring to different physical channels of transmission (auditory vs. visual), and sometimes referring to the integration of linguistic structures with more imagistic, less conventionalized expressions (see David McNeill's work), regardless of the physical channel. In sign languages, both modes are conveyed in a single, visual channel, revealed here in the signing of actors in a sign language theatre. In spoken languages, contrary to expectations raised by defining “modality” in terms of the physical channel, we see that the channel of transmission is orthogonal to linguistic and gestural modes of expression: Some visual signals are part and parcel of linguistic structure, while some auditory (intonational) signals h...
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A basic design feature of language is duality of patterning, the existence of a meaningless level of elements that combine to create meaningful morphemes and words (Hockett 1960). Although the signs of sign languages have iconic origins,... more
A basic design feature of language is duality of patterning, the existence of a meaningless level of elements that combine to create meaningful morphemes and words (Hockett 1960). Although the signs of sign languages have iconic origins, Stokoe (1960) showed that sign languages do have a meaningless level, akin to phonology, setting the stage for much subsequent linguistic research on sign languages at all levels (Sandler and Lillo-Martin 2006). Here we show, following Lepic et al. (2016), that part of the phonological structure across sign languages is often motivated by meaning. Specifically, two-handedness is motivated, as are details of structure in two-handed signs previously believed to be strictly phonological and hence meaningless, such as symmetry, dominance, type of movement, and patterns of contact between the two hands. We further develop a templatic model of sign structure (Sandler 1986, 1989) to reveal which aspects of the phonological form in two-handed signs are ofte...
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Traditionally in sign language research, the issue of whether a lexical sign is articulated with one hand or two has been treated as a strictly phonological matter. We argue that accounting for two-handed signs also requires considering... more
Traditionally in sign language research, the issue of whether a lexical sign is articulated with one hand or two has been treated as a strictly phonological matter. We argue that accounting for two-handed signs also requires considering meaning as a motivating factor. We report results from a Swadesh list comparison, an analysis of semantic patterns among two-handed signs, and a picture-naming task. Comparing four unrelated languages, we demonstrate that the two hands are recruited to encode various relationship types in sign language lexicons. We develop the general principle that inherently “plural” concepts are straightforwardly mapped onto our paired human hands, resulting in systematic use of the two hands across sign languages. In our analysis, “plurality” subsumes four primary relationship types — interaction, location, dimension, and composition — and we predict that signs with meanings that encompass these relationships — such as ‘meet’, ‘empty’, ‘large’, or ‘machine’ — wil...
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Compositionality is a basic property of language, spoken and signed, according<br> to which the meaning of a complex structure is determined by the meanings of<br> its constituents and the way they combine (e.g., Jackendoff,... more
Compositionality is a basic property of language, spoken and signed, according<br> to which the meaning of a complex structure is determined by the meanings of<br> its constituents and the way they combine (e.g., Jackendoff, 2011 for spoken<br> language; Sandler 2012 for constituents conveyed by face and body signals in<br> sign language; Kirby & Smith, 2012 for emergence of compositionality). Here<br> we seek the foundations of this property in a more basic, and presumably prior,<br> form of communication: the spontaneous expression of emotion. To this end, we<br> ask whether features of facial expressions and body postures are combined and<br> recombined to convey different complex meanings in extreme displays of<br> emotions. There is evidence that facial expressions are processed in a<br> compositional fashion (Chen & Chen, 2010). In addition, facial components<br> such as nose wrinkles or eye opening elicit syste...
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The study of phonological structure and patterns across languages is seen by contemporary phonologists as a way of gaining insight into language as a cognitive system. Traditionally, phonologists have focused on spoken languages. More... more
The study of phonological structure and patterns across languages is seen by contemporary phonologists as a way of gaining insight into language as a cognitive system. Traditionally, phonologists have focused on spoken languages. More recently, we have observed a growing interest in the grammatical system underlying signed languages of the deaf. This development in the field of phonology provides a natural laboratory for investigating language universals. As grammatical systems, in part, reflect the modality in which they are expressed, the comparison of spoken and signed languages permits us to separate those aspects of grammar which are modality-dependent from those which are shared by all human languages. On the other hand, modality-dependent characteristics must also be accounted for by a comprehensive theory of language. Comparing languages in two modalities is therefore of theoretical importance for both reasons: establishing modality-independent linguistic universals, and acc...
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Intonation ploughs<br> the field for morphosyntax<br> in relative clauses
THE BODY<br> AS A SOURCE OF<br> COMPOSITIONALITY IN<br> LANGUAGE
Sign languages have two strikingly different kinds of morphological structure: sequential and simultaneous. The simultaneous morphology of two unrelated sign languages, American and Israeli Sign Language, is very similar and is largely... more
Sign languages have two strikingly different kinds of morphological structure: sequential and simultaneous. The simultaneous morphology of two unrelated sign languages, American and Israeli Sign Language, is very similar and is largely inflectional, while what little sequential morphology we have found differs significantly and is derivational. We show that at least two pervasive types of inflectional morphology, verb agreement and classifier constructions, are iconi-cally grounded in spatiotemporal cognition, while the sequential patterns can be traced to normal historical development. We attribute the paucity of sequential morphology in sign languages to their youth. This research both brings sign languages much closer to spoken languages in their morphological structure and shows how the medium of communication contributes to the structure of languages.* Si l’on pouvait inventer une langue dont les dictions eussent leur signification naturelle, de sorte que tous les hommes entend...
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subjects and objects in a new language ∗
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Compositionality – the combination and recombination of meaningful units to create more complex structure, – is a defining property of human language. Here we seek the foundations of this property in a more basic form of communication:... more
Compositionality – the combination and recombination of meaningful units to create more complex structure, – is a defining property of human language. Here we seek the foundations of this property in a more basic form of communication: the expression of emotion. We collected 300 pictures of athletes, moments after winning or losing a competition. We annotated face and body displays in detail, and checked prototypical displays in winning and in losing contexts. We identified features of face and body reliably used in each situation, and some used in both, paving the way for a theory of compositionality in the expression of emotions.
Sign languages offer a unique and informative perspective on the question of the origin of phonological and phonetic features. Here I review research showing that signs are comprised of distinctive features which can be discretely listed... more
Sign languages offer a unique and informative perspective on the question of the origin of phonological and phonetic features. Here I review research showing that signs are comprised of distinctive features which can be discretely listed and which are organized hierarchically. In these ways sign language feature systems are comparable to those of spoken language. However, the inventory of features and aspects of their organization, while similar across sign languages, are completely unlike those of spoken languages, calling into question claims about innateness of features for either modality. Studies of a young village sign language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), demonstrate that phonological structuring is not in evidence at the outset, but rather self-organizes gradually (Sandler et al 2011). However, our new research shows that signature phonetic features of ABSL already can be detected when ABSL signers use signs from Israeli Sign Language. This ABSL ‘accent’ points t...
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This paper offers a new look at the traditional analysis of verb classes in sign languages. According to this analysis (Padden 1988), verbs in many sign languages fall into one of three classes: plain verbs, spatial verbs and agreement... more
This paper offers a new look at the traditional analysis of verb classes in sign languages. According to this analysis (Padden 1988), verbs in many sign languages fall into one of three classes: plain verbs, spatial verbs and agreement verbs. These classes differ from each other with respect to the properties of the arguments which they encode. Agreement verbs, verbs denoting transfer, encode the syntactic role of the arguments, as well as their person and number features, by the direction of the movement of the hands and the facing of the palms. In spatial verbs, the class of verbs denoting motion and location in space, the direction of movement encodes the locations of locative arguments, the source and the goal. The shape of the path movement the hands are tracing often depicts the shape of the path that an object traverses in space. Plain verbs, which constitute the default semantic class, do not encode any grammatical features of their arguments. The above analysis focuses on t...
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We explore two models of the nonpreference hand in sign language phonology. These models are fully developed by the authors elsewhere. Here, we compare and contrast the models, paying special attention to the relationship between the... more
We explore two models of the nonpreference hand in sign language phonology. These models are fully developed by the authors elsewhere. Here, we compare and contrast the models, paying special attention to the relationship between the models and the theories behind them. In the process, we address questions of broad theoretical interest: (I) Does the existence of two anatomically similar articulators in sign languages require a phonological model that is fundamentally different from models of spoken language? (2) In what ways does the particular phonological theory adopted shape the investigation and its results? The model of Sandler (1989, 1994a) is motivated by theories of Feature Geometry (e.g., Clements 1985), while that of van der Hulst (1993, to appear) is motivated by principles of Dependency Phonology. These theories are not. mutually exclusive, but each approaches the issue of phonological structure from a somewhat different perspective. We. show that each model of the nonpr...
Short abstract Compounding is one of the few sequential word formation processes found across sign languages. We examine the properties of compounds in languages in the visual-gestural modality, showing both similarities to spoken... more
Short abstract Compounding is one of the few sequential word formation processes found across sign languages. We examine the properties of compounds in languages in the visual-gestural modality, showing both similarities to spoken language compounds, as well as a modality-specific type of simultaneous compounding. We also explore the development of compounds in a new sign language, (Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language) showing that there is a relationship between conventionalization and grammaticalization of compounds: as particular forms become conventionalized in the community, both morphological and phonological structural properties begin to emerge.
In the study of sign language phonology, little attention has been paid to the phonetic detail that distinguishes one sign language from another. We approach this issue by studying the foreign accent of signers of a young sign language –... more
In the study of sign language phonology, little attention has been paid to the phonetic detail that distinguishes one sign language from another. We approach this issue by studying the foreign accent of signers of a young sign language – Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) – which is in contact with another sign language in the region, Israeli Sign Language (ISL). By comparing ISL signs and sentences produced by ABSL signers with those of ISL signers, we uncover language particular features at a level of detail typically overlooked in sign language research. For example, within signs we find reduced occlusion (lack of contact), and across phrases there is frequent long distance spreading of the nondominant hand. This novel study of an emerging language in a language contact environment provides a model for comparative sign language phonology, and suggests that a community’s signature accent is part of the evolution of a phonological system.
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Sign language linguistics is one of the younger areas of linguistic research, having been a field in its own right only since the 1960s, when the first research investigating sign languages from a linguistic perspective was published.... more
Sign language linguistics is one of the younger areas of linguistic research, having been a field in its own right only since the 1960s, when the first research investigating sign languages from a linguistic perspective was published. Since sign language was historically considered not to be language at all, but merely a gesture-based aid for basic communication, early research was focused on demonstrating the linguistic status of sign languages—that they are indeed languages in their own right, equivalent to spoken languages. The earliest research used traditional linguistic tools to investigate the phonological structure of sign language (specifically American Sign Language [ASL]), and to demonstrate that sign languages had duality of patterning, but the field soon expanded in all directions. Within the following decades, more in-depth analyses of the phonological and grammatical structure of sign languages were published, as well as investigations on the acquisition and use of sign language. With time, existing theoretical models for spoken language were applied to sign languages as well, and a number of new models for representing the syntax and phonology of sign languages were introduced. Cross-linguistic research on different sign languages, as well as on different social environments (e.g., urban versus village sign languages), has become more and more popular, as have cross-modal comparisons with spoken languages. In applied fields of linguistics, education and interpreting have become two of the main areas of investigation, as has the study of sign language in artistic use (e.g., poetry), often in close connection to the field of deaf studies. The interface between sign language and gesture has become a hot topic, especially within the domains of language emergence and foundations of human cognition. Finally, neurolinguistics has also expanded to include sign language within the scope of research.
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The study of language over the centuries has yielded a large inventory of concepts and categorizations that are commonly taken for granted. Consonants, vowels, syllables, morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and at all levels,... more
The study of language over the centuries has yielded a large inventory of concepts and categorizations that are commonly taken for granted. Consonants, vowels, syllables, morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and at all levels, rules or constraints are accepted unquestioningly as the nuts and bolts of language. But how fundamental are these properties? In other words, are these and other ubiquitous properties of language genuine universals? That is the question that guides our enterprise. We are compelled to ask this question by a deceptively simple discovery: natural human languages exist in a physical modality that is different from the one that has been studied for so many centuries – the modality of sign languages used by deaf people all over the world. That these are natural languages in the same sense as spoken languages seems now to be beyond any doubt (see, among many others, Klima and Bellugi 1979, Wilbur 1979, Poizner, Klima, and Bellugi 1987, Lucas and Valli 1992, Sandler and Lillo-Martin 2001, Emmorey 2002). Sign languages arise spontaneously wherever deaf people have an opportunity to meet regularly. They are acquired by children raised in deaf families without instruction, and along a timetable that is similar to that of hearing children acquiring spoken language (overviews include Newport and Meier 1985, Lillo-Martin 1999a). Sign language appears as effortless and as user-friendly as its spoken counterpart.
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1. The specific area of study known as 'American Sign Language (ASL) phonology' has a short history-approximately 30 years-but in that period it has matured and aligned itself with contemporary issues in phonology in im-portant... more
1. The specific area of study known as 'American Sign Language (ASL) phonology' has a short history-approximately 30 years-but in that period it has matured and aligned itself with contemporary issues in phonology in im-portant ways. This change in the character of the discipline can ...
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Speakers mark different levels of discourse structure with pauses of different durations [1-2] and with intonational features spanning units bigger than utterance level [3] Similarly, in sign languages, discourse structure is signaled by... more
Speakers mark different levels of discourse structure with pauses of different durations [1-2] and with intonational features spanning units bigger than utterance level [3] Similarly, in sign languages, discourse structure is signaled by pauses [4-5], head nods [6], eyegaze [7-8], eyeblinks [9], and facial expressions [10]
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1 One human language or two? The study of language over the centuries has yielded a large inventory of concepts and categorizations that are commonly taken for granted. Consonants, vowels, syllables, morphemes, words, phrases, clauses,... more
1 One human language or two? The study of language over the centuries has yielded a large inventory of concepts and categorizations that are commonly taken for granted. Consonants, vowels, syllables, morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and at all levels, ...
This paper introduces data from Kafr Qasem Sign Language (KQSL), an as-yet undescribed sign language, and identifies the earliest indications of embedding in this young language. Using semantic and prosodic criteria, we identify... more
This paper introduces data from Kafr Qasem Sign Language (KQSL), an as-yet undescribed sign language, and identifies the earliest indications of embedding in this young language. Using semantic and prosodic criteria, we identify predicates that form a constituent with a noun, functionally modifying it. We analyze these structures as instances of embedded predicates, exhibiting what can be regarded as very early stages in the development of subordinate constructions, and argue that these structures may bear directly on questions about the development of embedding and subordination in language in general. Deutscher (2009) argues persuasively that nominalization of a verb is the first step-and the crucial step-toward syntactic embedding. It has also been suggested that prosodic marking may precede syntactic marking of embedding (Mithun, 2009). However, the relevant data from the stage at which embedding first emerges have not previously been available. KQSL might be the missing piece o...
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Compositionality refers to a structural property of human language, according to which the meaning of a complex expression is a function of the meaning of its parts and the way they are combined. Compositionality is a defining... more
Compositionality refers to a structural property of human language, according to which the meaning of a complex expression is a function of the meaning of its parts and the way they are combined. Compositionality is a defining characteristic of all human language, spoken and signed. Comparative research into the emergence of human language aims at identifying precursors to such key features of human language in the communication of other primates. While it is known that chimpanzees, our closest relatives, produce a variety of gestures, facial expressions and vocalizations in interactions with their group members, little is known about how these signals combine simultaneously. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to investigate whether there is evidence for compositional structures in the communication of chimpanzees. We investigated two semi-wild groups of chimpanzees, with focus on their manual gestures and their combinations with facial expressions across different social co...
Emotions are signaled by complex arrays of face and body actions. The main point of contention in contemporary treatments is whether these arrays are discrete, holistic constellations reflecting emotion categories, or whether they are... more
Emotions are signaled by complex arrays of face and body actions. The main point of contention in contemporary treatments is whether these arrays are discrete, holistic constellations reflecting emotion categories, or whether they are compositional-comprised of smaller components, each of which contributes some aspect of emotion to the complex whole. We address this question by investigating spontaneous face and body displays of athletes and place it in the wider context of human communicative signals and, in particular, of language. A defining property of human language is compositionality-the ability to combine and recombine a relatively small number of elements to create a vast number of complex meaningful expressions, and to interpret them. We ask whether this property of language can be discerned in a more ancient communicative system: intense emotional displays. In an experiment, participants interpreted a range of emotions and their strengths in pictures of athletes who had j...
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Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Gesture, Complexity, Linguistics, and 3 moreIsrael, Grammar, and Mimic
In natural communication, the medium through which language is transmitted plays an important and systematic role. Sentences are broken up rhythmically into chunks; certain elements receive special stress; and, in spoken language,... more
In natural communication, the medium through which language is transmitted plays an important and systematic role. Sentences are broken up rhythmically into chunks; certain elements receive special stress; and, in spoken language, intonational tunes are superimposed onto these chunks in particular ways — all resulting in an intricate system ofprosody. Investigations of prosody in Israeli Sign Language demonstrate that sign languages have comparable prosodic systems to those of spoken languages, although the phonetic medium is completely different. Evidence for the prosodic word and for the phonological phrase in ISL is examined here within the context of the relationship between the medium and the message. New evidence is offered to support the claim that facial expression in sign languages corresponds to intonation in spoken languages, and the term “superarticulation” is coined to describe this system in sign languages. Interesting formaldiffer ences between the intonationaltunes o...
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Michael Arbib's book proposes a scenario of language evolution that begins with pantomime, progresses to proto-sign, and then develops together with proto-speech in an “expanding spiral” to create a language-ready brain. The richness... more
Michael Arbib's book proposes a scenario of language evolution that begins with pantomime, progresses to proto-sign, and then develops together with proto-speech in an “expanding spiral” to create a language-ready brain. The richness of detail in Arbib's hypothesis makes serious appraisal of each of its aspects possible. Here I describe findings about established and emerging sign languages that bear specifically upon the interaction between sign and speech proposed in the Mirror System Hypothesis. While supporting the central role that Arbib attributes to gestural/visual communication in understanding language and its evolution, I point out some kinks in the spiral that potentially disrupt its smooth expansion. One is the fact that each modality relies on an entirely different motor system. Another is the type of relation that holds between the articulators and grammatical structure, which is radically different in each system as well. A third kink disrupts the proposed con...
This paper introduces data from Kafr Qasem Sign Language (KQSL), an as-yet undescribed sign language, and identifies the earliest indications of embedding in this young language. Using semantic and prosodic criteria, we identify... more
This paper introduces data from Kafr Qasem Sign Language (KQSL), an as-yet undescribed sign language, and identifies the earliest indications of embedding in this young language. Using semantic and prosodic criteria, we identify predicates that form a constituent with a noun, functionally modifying it. We analyze these structures as instances of embedded predicates, exhibiting what can be regarded as very early stages in the development of subordinate constructions, and argue that these structures may bear directly on questions about the development of embedding and subordination in language in general. Deutscher (2009) argues persuasively that nominalization of a verb is the first step-and the crucial step-toward syntactic embedding. It has also been suggested that prosodic marking may precede syntactic marking of embedding (Mithun, 2009). However, the relevant data from the stage at which embedding first emerges have not previously been available. KQSL might be the missing piece o...
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Many sign languages have semantically related noun-verb pairs, such as ‘hairbrush/brush-hair’, which are similar in form due to iconicity. Researchers studying this phenomenon in sign languages have found that the two are distinguished by... more
Many sign languages have semantically related noun-verb pairs, such as ‘hairbrush/brush-hair’, which are similar in form due to iconicity. Researchers studying this phenomenon in sign languages have found that the two are distinguished by subtle differences, for example, in type of movement. Here we investigate two young sign languages, Israeli Sign Language (ISL) and Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), to determine whether they have developed a reliable distinction in the formation of noun-verb pairs, despite their youth, and, if so, how. These two young language communities differ from each other in terms of heterogeneity within the community, contact with other languages, and size of population. Using methodology we developed for cross-linguistic comparison, we identify reliable formational distinctions between nouns and related verbs in ISL, but not in ABSL, although early tendencies can be discerned. Our results show that a formal distinction in noun-verb pairs in sign lang...
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Research Interests: Genetics, Geology, Gesture, Arabic, Automaticity, and 15 moreCommunication systems, Community, Greek, Grammar, Celtic, Grammaticization, Compounding, Displacement, Assimilation, Argument, C, G, A, Clause, and Gesticulation
The relation between prosody and syntax is investigated here by tracing the emergence of each in a new language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language. We analyze the structure of narratives of four signers of this language: two older second... more
The relation between prosody and syntax is investigated here by tracing the emergence of each in a new language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language. We analyze the structure of narratives of four signers of this language: two older second generation signers, and two about 15 years younger. We find that younger signers produce prosodic cues to dependency between semantically related constituents, e.g., the two clauses of conditionals, revealing a type and degree of complexity in their language that is not frequent in that of the older pair. In these younger signers, several rhythmic and (facial) intonational cues are aligned at constituent boundaries, indicating the emergence of a grammatical system. There are no overt syntactic markers (such as complementizers) to relate clauses; prosody is the only clue. But this prosodic complexity is matched by syntactic complexity inside propositions in the younger signers, who are more likely to use pronouns as abstract grammatical markers of argu...
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Research Interests: Syntax, Word order, Wood, Aspect, Negation, and 4 morePossessives, nothing, Dawn, and Phrase Structure
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In a detailed comparison of the intonational systems of two unrelated languages, Israeli Sign Language and American Sign Language, we show certain similarities as well as differences in the distribution of several articulations of... more
In a detailed comparison of the intonational systems of two unrelated languages, Israeli Sign Language and American Sign Language, we show certain similarities as well as differences in the distribution of several articulations of different parts of the face and motions of the head. Differences between the two languages are explained on the basis of pragmatic notions related to information structure, such as accessibility and contingency, providing novel evidence that the system is inherently intonational, and only indirectly related to syntax. The study also identifies specific ways in which the physical modality in which language is expressed influences intonational structure.
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It is generally accepted that there are three major categories of phonological elements in the signs of sign language: (i) the shape of the hand, (ii) the location of the hand on or near the body and (iii) the movement of the hand –... more
It is generally accepted that there are three major categories of phonological elements in the signs of sign language: (i) the shape of the hand, (ii) the location of the hand on or near the body and (iii) the movement of the hand – either (a) movement of the fingers or palm at a single location or (b) movement of the whole hand along a path from one location to another. It has further been argued that each of these categories consists of hierarchically organised classes of features (Sandler 1987b, 1989a).
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The notion of subject in human language has a privileged status relative to other arguments. This special status is manifested in the behavior of subjects at the morphological, syntactic, semantic and discourse levels. Here we present... more
The notion of subject in human language has a privileged status relative to other arguments. This special status is manifested in the behavior of subjects at the morphological, syntactic, semantic and discourse levels. Here we present evidence that subjects have a privileged status at the lexical level as well, by analyzing lexicalization patterns of verbs in three different sign languages. Our analysis shows that the sub-lexical structure of iconic signs denoting states of affairs in these languages manifests an inherent pattern of form–meaning correspondence: the signer's body consistently represents one argument of the verb, the subject. The hands, moving in relation to the body, represent all other components of the event – including all other arguments. This analysis shows that sign languages provide novel evidence in support of the centrality of the notion of subject in human language. It also solves a typological puzzle about the apparent primacy of object in sign languag...
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It is possible for a language to emerge with no direct linguistic history or outside linguistic influence. Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) arose about 70 years ago in a small, insular community with a high incidence of profound... more
It is possible for a language to emerge with no direct linguistic history or outside linguistic influence. Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) arose about 70 years ago in a small, insular community with a high incidence of profound prelingual neurosensory deafness. In ABSL, we have been able to identify the beginnings of phonology, morphology, syntax, and prosody. The linguistic elements we find in ABSL are not exclusively holistic, nor are they all compositional, but a combination of both. We do not, however, find in ABSL certain features that have been posited as essential even for a proto-language. ABSL has a highly regular syntax as well as word-internal compounding, also highly regular but quite distinct from syntax in its patterns. ABSL, however, has no discernable word-internal structure of the kind observed in more mature sign languages: no spatially organized morphology and no evident duality of phonological patterning.
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The division of linguistic structure into a meaningless (phonological) level and a meaningful level of morphemes and words is considered a basic design feature of human language. Although established sign languages, like spoken languages,... more
The division of linguistic structure into a meaningless (phonological) level and a meaningful level of morphemes and words is considered a basic design feature of human language. Although established sign languages, like spoken languages, have been shown to be characterized by this bifurcation, no information has been available about the way in which such structure arises. We report here on a newly emerging sign language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, which functions as a full language but in which a phonological level of structure has not yet emerged. Early indications of formal regularities provide clues to the way in which phonological structure may develop over time.
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The paper examines the role that iconicity plays in the structuring of grammars. Two main points are argued for: (a) Grammar does not necessarily suppress iconicity; rather, iconicity and grammar can enjoy a congenial relation in that... more
The paper examines the role that iconicity plays in the structuring of grammars. Two main points are argued for: (a) Grammar does not necessarily suppress iconicity; rather, iconicity and grammar can enjoy a congenial relation in that iconicity can play an active role in the structuring of grammars. (b) Iconicity is not monolithic. There are different types of iconicity and languages take advantage of the possibilities afforded by them. We examine the interaction between iconicity and grammar by focusing on the ways in which sign languages employ the physical body of the signer as a rich iconic resource for encoding a variety of grammatical notions. We show that the body can play three different roles in iconic forms in sign languages: it can be used as a naming device where body parts represent body parts; it can represent the subject argument of verbal signs, and it can stand for first person. These strategies interact and sometimes compete in the languages under study. Each langu...
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Abstract. The existence of a phonological system -- a system of meaningless building blocks that make up meaningful words -- is often considered a prerequisite for language, and the discovery that sign languages used by deaf people have a... more
Abstract. The existence of a phonological system -- a system of meaningless building blocks that make up meaningful words -- is often considered a prerequisite for language, and the discovery that sign languages used by deaf people have a meaningless level of structure convinced ...