The noun-verb distinction in established and emergent sign systems

Abner, Natasha; Flaherty, Molly; Stangl, Katelyn; Coppola, Marie; Brentari, Diane; Goldin‐Meadow, Susan

doi:10.1353/lan.2019.0030

Cited by 29 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Nevertheless, homesign systems do show certain hallmarks of linguistic structure. They exhibit systematic word order patterns (Goldin-Meadow & Feldman, 1977), hierarchical organization (Hunsicker & Goldin-Meadow, 2012), lexical category distinctions such as noun, verb, and adjective (Abner et al, 2019;Goldin-Meadow et al, 1994), hand and motion morphemes that combine to form stems (Goldin-Meadow et al, 1995, 2007, and the groundwork of phonology (Brentari et al, 2012).…”

Section: Number In Homesignmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergent Morphology in Child Homesign: Evidence from Number Language

Abner

Namboodiripad

Spaepen

et al. 2021

Language Learning and Development

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Human languages, signed and spoken, can be characterized by the structural patterns they use to associate communicative forms with meanings. One such pattern is paradigmatic morphology, where complex words are built from the systematic use and re-use of sub-lexical units. Here, we provide evidence of emergent paradigmatic morphology akin to number inflection in a communication system developed without input from a conventional language, homesign. We study the communication systems of four deaf child homesigners (mean age 8;02). Although these idiosyncratic systems vary from one another, we nevertheless find that all four children use handshape and movement devices productively to express cardinal and noncardinal number information, and that their number expressions are consistent in both form and meaning. Our study shows, for the first time, that all four homesigners not only incorporate number devices into representational devices used as predicates , but also into gestures functioning as nominals, including deictic gestures. In other words, the homesigners express number by systematically combining and re-combining additive markers for number (qua inflectional morphemes) with representational and deictic gestures (qua bases). The creation of new, complex forms with predictable meanings across gesture types and linguistic functions constitutes evidence for an inflectional morphological paradigm in homesign and expands our understanding of the structural patterns of language that are, and are not, dependent on linguistic input.

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Section: Number In Homesignmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergent Morphology in Child Homesign: Evidence from Number Language

Abner

Namboodiripad

Spaepen

et al. 2021

Language Learning and Development

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“…Thus, extending the use of features in event descriptions or labels to events and labels shows a language-wide pattern of generalisation. Abner et al (2019) make this same argument for nominalisation: the use of repetition to distinguish nouns and verbs becomes systematic when it is broadened from iterative contexts (iconic for repetition) to non-iterative events (not iconic for repetition). Thus, evidence for the emergence of phonology comes from CTSL2 and CTSL3 signers generalising the handshape class distinction in joint complexity to both labels and event descriptions, and from NSL1 signers generalising the handshape class distinction in selected finger complexity to labels and descriptions (see Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Although understudied in spoken languages, iconic forms in sign languages are well-studied and abundant. Iconicity plays a role in phonological and morphophonological patterns in sign language typology (Hwang et al 2017), emergence (Abner et al 2019), expansion of the lexicon (Occhino 2017), first-language acquisition (Caselli & Pyers 2017) and second-language acquisition (Ortega 2014). When iconic forms and phonetically easier forms are placed in competition with one another, the iconic forms often win out.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community interactions and phonemic inventories in emerging sign languages

et al. 2021

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In this work, we address structural, iconic and social dimensions of the emergence of phonological systems in two emerging sign languages. A comparative analysis is conducted of data from a village sign language (Central Taurus Sign Language; CTSL) and a community sign language (Nicaraguan Sign Language; NSL). Both languages are approximately 50 years old, but the sizes and social structures of their respective communities are quite different. We find important differences between the two languages’ handshape inventories. CTSL's handshape inventory has changed more slowly than NSL's across the same time period. In addition, while the inventories of the two languages are of similar size, handshape complexity is higher in NSL than in CTSL. This work provides an example of the unique and important perspective that emerging sign languages offer regarding longstanding questions about how phonological systems emerge.

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“…There do not appear to be such words in CTSL, so the semantic categories of Object and Person appear to be sufficient for all grammatical description (see Ergin & Brentari, 2017); for similar arguments concerning the spoken language Riau Indonesian (see Gil, 2009). Indeed, while arguing for a noun-verb distinction in established and emerging sign languages, Abner et al (2019) concede that the distinction in question can equally be characterized as Object vs. Action; i.e., as a semantic rather than syntactic distinction. We advocate for similar substitutions in the analyses presented here.…”

Section: The Status Of Syntax In Ctslmentioning

confidence: 99%

Central Taurus Sign Language: On the Edge of Conventionalization

Ergin¹,

Kursat²,

Hartzell³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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We discuss the conventionalization process in Central Taurus Sign Language (CTSL), an emerging sign language in its initial stages, and present evidence from four studies for the amount of lexical and structural variation it harbors. The four studies together portray the architecture of a young system under construction. Study 1 looks at signs for everyday objects and finds considerable variation in their degree of conventionalization. Study 2 examines modifier-head and negation-head relationships, showing substantial conventionalization. Study 3 addresses the emergence and conventionalization of various word orders as argument structure markers. It shows that conventionalization increases over successive cohorts of signers, but it decreases as argument structure becomes more complex. Study 4 demonstrates the emergence and conventionalization of distinctive morphological markers to signal the subtle semantics of symmetry and reciprocity. Finally, we raise the issue of whether CTSL presents evidence of syntactic structure, or whether its properties can be characterized in terms of a simpler “linear grammar” that maps directly between phonology and semantics.

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The noun-verb distinction in established and emergent sign systems

Cited by 29 publications

References 68 publications

Emergent Morphology in Child Homesign: Evidence from Number Language

Emergent Morphology in Child Homesign: Evidence from Number Language

Community interactions and phonemic inventories in emerging sign languages

Central Taurus Sign Language: On the Edge of Conventionalization

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