The Use of Signing Space in a Shared Sign Language of Australia (Sign Language Typology [SLT] Book 5)

In this book, an Australian Aboriginal sign language used by Indigenous people in the North East Arnhem Land (Northern Territory) is described on the level of spatial grammar. Topics discussed range from properties of individual signs to structure of interrogative and negative sentences. The main interest is the manifestation of signing space - the articulatory space surrounding the signers - for grammatical purposes in Yolngu Sign Language. Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 List of figures 14 List of tables 18 Abbreviations 19 Sign language acronyms 20 Glossary 22 Notational conventions 23 Part I: Introduction 26 1 Introduction 28 1.1 Research aims and objectives 30 1.2 Outline of the book 32 2 Sign language types 35 2.1 Deaf community sign languages 37 2.2 Emerging sign languages 38 2.3 Village sign languages 40 2.3.1 Socioeconomic and demographic settings 40 2.3.2 Social homogeneity 41 2.3.3 (Socio-)Linguistic context 42 2.3.4 Degree of endangerment 43 2.4 Alternate sign languages 44 2.4.1 Sawmill Sign Language 45 2.4.2 Monastic sign languages 46 2.4.3 Plains Indian Sign Language 47 2.4.4 Keresan Pueblo Indian Sign Language 48 2.4.5 Australian Aboriginal sign languages 48 2.5 Shared sign languages 53 2.6 Summary 55 Part II: Sociolinguistic Background & Methodology 58 3 Cultural and sociolinguistic context 60 3.1 Previous studies 60 3.2 Historic & demographic background 62 3.3 Cultural background 65 3.4 Linguistic context 66 3.5 The use of YSL in Yolngu communities 71 3.5.1 Communication with deaf Yolngu 72 3.5.2 Interaction over distance 75 3.5.3 Further aspects of YSL origin and use 75 4 Data collection 79 4.1 Fieldwork 79 4.1.1 Fieldwork sites 79 4.1.2 Cultural issue 82 4.2 Stimulus materials 83 4.2.1 Spontaneous signing 84 4.2.2 Elicited signing 84 4.2.2.1 Visual materials 84 4.2.2.2 Questionnaires and games 87 4.2.2.3 Translation from English and Djambarrpuy?u 88 4.3 Participants 89 4.4 Data annotation 92 Part III: Selected Aspects of YSL Grammar 98 5 Phonological aspects 100 5.1 Handshapes 100 5.1.1 Basic handshapes 103 5.1.1.1 Token frequency 104 5.1.1.2 Type frequency 105 5.1.1.3 Non-dominant hand frequency 105 5.1.2 Marginal handshapes 107 5.2 Sign types: preference for one-handedness 109 5.3 Nonmanual markers 115 5.3.1 Mouth gestures 115 5.3.2 Mouthings 119 5.3.3 Head movements 121 5.3.3.1 sleep vs. exist 121 5.3.3.2 bäy?u vs. yaka 123 5.4 Summary 125 6 Syntactic aspects 126 6.1 Negation 126 6.1.1 Negation in Djambarrpuy?u 126 6.1.2 Negation in YSL 127 6.1.3 Summary 131 6.2 Interrogatives 131 6.2.1 Content questions 132 6.2.1.1 Question word paradigm 132 6.2.1.2 Syntactic position of question signs 136 6.2.2 Polar questions 139 6.2.3 Nonmanual marking 142 6.2.4 Summary 143 Part IV: Use of Space 146 7 The size of signing space 148 8 Pronominal reference 152 8.1 Pronouns in spoken languages 152 8.2 Pronouns in sign languages 153 8.2.1 Metaphorical pointing 159 8.2.2 Cross-linguistic variation in metaphorical pointing 161 8.3 Pronouns in Djambarrpuy?u 162 8.4 Pronouns in YSL 164 8.4.1 Person 164 8.4.2 Number 167 8.4.3 Clusivity 169 8.4.4 Case 170 8.4.5 Summary & comparison to NCDSLs 172 8.4.6 Pointing to a house: the use of metonymic pointing in YSL 172 8.5 Summary 179 9 Verb directionality 181 9.1 Verb agreement in spoken languages 181 9.2 Verb directionality in sign languages 184 9.2.1 Sign language verb classes 184 9.2.2 Disagreements on agreement 188 9.3 Verb directionality in YSL 191 9.3.1 YSL verb classes: plain vs. non-plain 191 9.3.1.1 Frequency of spatial modification in non-plain verbs 194 9.3.1.2 Directional verbs 200 9.3.1.3 Absence of number marking 203 9.3.1.4 Optional object or location marking on YSL verbs 204 9.4 Constituent order in transitive clauses 204 9.4.1 YSL constituent order 205 9.4.2 Djambarrpuy?u constituent order 207 9.4.3 Disscussion 208 9.5 Summary 209 10 Expression of motion 211 10.1 Classifiers in spoken languages 211 10.2 Classifiers in sign languages 213 10.2.1 Entity classifiers 214 10.2.2 Handling classifiers 216 10.3 Expression of motion in YSL 218 10.3.1 YSL Directionals 218 10.3.2 YSL Classifiers 221 10.3.2.1 Entity classifiers in YSL 222 10.3.2.1.1 The Ë handshape 223 10.3.2.1.2 The handshape 225 10.3.2.1.3 The handshape 227 10.3.2.2 Handling classifiers in YSL 229 10.4 Summary 232 11 Expression of size and shape 234 11.1 Size and Shape Specifiers in sign languages 234 11.2 Size and Shape Specifiers in YSL 235 11.3 Summary 239 Part V: Discussion & Conclusion 240 12 YSL in cross-linguistic perspective 242 12.1 The use of space in shared sign languages 243 12.1.1 The lack of metaphorical pointing 243 12.1.2 Limited use of spatial modification in transitive verbs 243 12.1.3 Restricted use of entity classifiers 244 12.2 Language-external factors and sign language structure 245 12.2.1 Age of language 246 12.2.2 Frame of reference 248 12.2.3 Size of community and context-dependency 250 12.2.4 Proportion of hearing signers 251 13 Concluding remarks 254 Appendix I: List of YSL handshapes 256 Appendix II: Figures 258 Appendix III: Data 259 Notes 260 References 272 Index 300 Curriculum vitae 304 Editorial board: Sam Lutalo-Kiingi, Ronice Müller de Quadros, Nick Palfreyman, Roland Pfau, Adam Schembri, Gladys Tang, Erin Wilkinson, Jun Hui Yang The series is dedicated to the comparative study of sign languages around the world. Individual or collective works that systematically explore typological variation across sign languages are the focus of this series, with particular emphasis on undocumented, underdescribed and endangered sign languages. The scope of the series primarily includes cross-linguistic studies of grammatical domains across a larger or smaller sample of sign languages, but also encompasses the study of individual sign languages from a typological perspective and comparison between signed and spoken languages in terms of language modality, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to sign language typology.