Conceptual Blending and the Windowing of Attention in Simultaneous Constructions in Irish Sign Language

The emergence of temporal language in Nicaraguan Sign Language

“…In contrast, there was a gradual increase in the dual use of hands across the three cohorts, suggesting that NSL may be converging on this particular device for indicating temporal overlap between two events. The use of simultaneous constructions to convey temporal information has been observed in a number of other sign languages, including ASL, British Sign Language, Danish Sign Language, Irish Sign Language, and Quebec Sign Language (Emmorey, 2002; Engberg-Pedersen, 1993, 1994; Leeson & Saeed, 2002; Liddell, 2003; Miller, 1994; Morgan, 2002; Rathmann, 2005). Simultaneous constructions may prove to be a sign language universal, taking advantage of the capacity for simultaneity in the manual modality, in contrast to the strict linearization required by vocal production (e.g., Emmorey, 1995; Padden, 1988; Perniss, 2007).…”

“…The temporal relationship between the two hands as they move, simultaneously or sequentially, encodes the temporal relation between the events. The use of simultaneous constructions has been observed in multiple sign languages, including ASL, Danish Sign Language, German Sign Language, Irish Sign Language, and Quebec Sign Language (Engberg-Pedersen, 1993, 1994; Leeson & Saeed, 2002; Liddell, 2003; Miller, 1994; Perniss, 2007). …”

Locative Functions of Simultaneous Perspective Constructions in German Sign Language Narratives

“…Instead, event narratives exhibit a high degree of non-prototypical alignments, representing elements from both perspectives. I argue that the use of non-prototypically aligned forms can be motivated by discourse constraints of efficiency and informativeness, in conjunction with a pragmatically-determined preference to focus on the interaction between characters (Leeson and Saeed, 2002) and to represent events from an egocentric point of view (Engberg-Pedersen, 1993).…”

“…Moreover, the availability of multiple independent articulators makes possible the simultaneous representation of independent meaningful elements. These simultaneous constructions are defined as representations that are produced in more than one articulatory channel, whereby each channel bears distinct and independent meaning units, which stand in some relationship to each other (Miller 1994, Engberg-Pedersen 1994, Leeson and Saeed 2002, Vermeerbergen 2001.…”

“…Although this general definition of simultaneous constructions makes no commitment to the involvement of specific articulators, examples of simultaneous constructions within existing typologies in the literature typically involve the two manual articulators. Researchers of different sign languages have identified numerous types of bimanual simultaneous constructions based on formal and functional properties (Miller, 1994 for Quebec Sign Language;Engberg-Pedersen, 1993, 1994 for Danish Sign Language; Leeson and Saeed, 2002 for Irish Sign Language; Vermeerbergen, 2001 for Flemish Sign Language; Liddell, 2003 for American Sign Language; cf. also the review of literature on American Sign Language presented in Miller, 1994, including Friedman, 1975Klima and Bellugi, 1979;and Gee and Kegl, 1983).…”