Current issues in sign language linguistics Day 2

1. Current issues in sign language linguisticsDay 2 LOT Summer School 2006 Universiteit van Amsterdam Josep Quer (ICREA & UB)

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

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

4. Identifying pointings HOLIDAY CHRISTMAS IXb HOLY-WEEK IX1 LIKE MORE IXa

5. Pointing without pointings WOMAN WHO

6. Pointing • Deictic interpretation • Spatial (HERE, THERE) • Temporal (TODAY) • Reference to individuals • Grammatical categories • Determiner/Demonstrative • Pronoun • Adverbial

7. Pointing: LSC example _________________t ____________________________RS-i IXa MADRIDm MOMENT JOAN i THINK IX-1i STUDY FINISH HEREb ‘When he was in Madrid, Joan thought he would finish his study in Barcelona.’

8. 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

9. Determiner vs adverbial in ASL • Cet homme-là (French) • Den mannen der (Norwegian) • This here dog (English dialects)

10. ASL Definite DP ___far JOHNjjGIVEk [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

11. SL Pronouns: Form • Crosslinguistically realized by an index pointing to present referents ‘I’ ‘you’ ‘s/he’

12. 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

13. 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.

14. SL Pronouns: Features

15. SL Pronouns: Features • Number marking? • Plural referents that are viewed as a group are treated as one locus

16. SL Pronouns: Features • Number marking? • Otherwise the loci of plural referents are used collective distributive

17. SL Pronouns: Features • Number marking? • Numeral incorporation ‘the three of them’ (LSF)

18. SL Pronouns: Features • Number marking? • Dual

19. SL Pronouns: Features ● Inclusive/Exclusive (Cormier 2002)

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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)

25. 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

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

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

28. Pronoun acquisition

29. 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

30. 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’

31. 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

32. Bound pronouns? __________________________________________t ALUMNE CADA-UN PROFESSOR CONC+++ RESPECTAR pupil each teacher AGR [redup] respect ‘Each pupil respects his/her teacher.’

33. Bound pronouns? _________________________________ RS-i ___________t __________eg:1__________________eg:front ALUMNE 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)