Article published in:
Where do nouns come from?
Edited by John B. Haviland
[Benjamins Current Topics 70] 2015
► pp. 65–110

The emerging grammar of nouns in a first generation sign language

Specification, iconicity, and syntax

| University of California, San Diego

A first generation family homesign system, dubbed “Z”, from the Tzotzil-speaking township of Zinacantán, in Chiapas, Mexico, provides insight into how a new sign language can begin to distinguish formally different “part-of-speech” categories. After describing the small signing community, consisting of 3 deaf sibling and their intermediate hearing sister, plus a younger cousin — the entire set of fluent adult signers — plus the hearing child of the oldest deaf signer, and setting out some of the theoretical issues surrounding the nature of “part-of-speech” in sign languages, the chapter considers three sorts of mechanisms the language has developed to help distinguish signs that refer to objects from signs that refer to actions. These include a set of size-shape specifiers that co-occur with presumed nominal signs, an iconic contrast between different sign formational elements that somewhat inconsistently signal a noun/verb distinction, and, perhaps most interestingly, a construction involving a clearly grammaticalized locative or copular element that allows Z signers to make clear that they are referring to (physical) objects rather than actions. The chapter concludes by considering the overall effect of these quite different formal strategies on the evolving language structure.

Published online: 17 June 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.70.04hav
References

References

Augustine, SaintBishop of Hippo (
1955) Confessions and enchiridion, newly translated and edited by Albert C. Outler. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.Google Scholar
1992) Confessions, Commentary by James J. O’Donnell. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane, Marie Coppola, Laura Mazzoni, & Susan Goldin-Meadow
(2012) When does a system become phonological? Handshape production in gesturers, signers, and homesigners. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 30 (1), 1–31. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Penelope
(1994) The INS and ONS of Tzeltal locative expressions: the semantics of static descriptions of location. Linguistics, 32 (4/5), 743–790. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Herbert H.
(1996) Using language. New York & Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Coppola, Marie & Elissa L. Newport
(2005) Grammatical subjects in home sign: Abstract linguistic structure in adult primary gesture systems without linguistic input. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 102 (52), 19249–19253.
Coppola, Marie & Wing Chee So
(2005) Abstract and object-anchored deixis: Pointing and spatial layout in adult homesign systems in Nicaragua. In Alejna Brugos, Manuella R. Clark-Cotton, & Suengwan Ha (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Boston university conference on language development (pp. 144–155). Boston: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
(2006) The seeds of spatial grammar: Spatial modulation and coreference in homesigning and hearing adults. In David Bamman, Tatiana Magnitskaia, & Colleen Zaller (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Boston university conference on language development (pp. 119–130). Boston: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Coppola, Marie & Annie Senghas
(2010) The emergence of deixis in Nicaraguan signing. In Diane Brentari (Ed.), Sign languages: A Cambridge language survey (pp. 543–569). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cormier, Kearsey, Sandra Smith, & Zed Sevcikova
(2013) Predicate structures, gesture and simultaneity in the representation of action in British sign language: Evidence from deaf children and adults. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 18 (3), 370–390. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cuxac, Christian
(2000) Iconicity of sign language. In Martin M. Taylor, Françoise Néel, & Don Bouwhuis (Eds.), The structure of multimodal dialogue (pp. 321–334). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2001) Les langues des signes: analyseurs de la faculté de langage. Acquisition Et Interaction En Langue Etrangère, 15, 11–36.Google Scholar
Danziger, Eve
(2008) A person a place or a thing? Whorfian consequences of syntactic bootstrapping in Mopan Maya. In Melissa Bowerman & Penelope Brown (Eds.), Crosslinguistic perspectives on argument structure: Implications for learnability (pp. 29–48). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Danziger, Eve & Elizabeth Keating
(1996) Between anthropology and cognitive science: a reemerging dialogue. Symposium presented to the Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association , San Francisco, November, 1966.
de Vos, Connie
(2012) Sign-spatiality in Kata Kolok. Doctoral dissertation, Nijmegen, Radboud University.Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W.
(1987) The discourse basis of ergativity. Language, 64, 805–855. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Frishberg, Nancy
(1975) Arbitrariness and iconicity: Historical change in American sign language. Language, 51 (3), 696–719. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fusellier-Souza, Ivani
(2001) La création gestuelle des individus sourds isolés. Acquisition et interaction en langue étrangère, 15, 61–96.Google Scholar
(2004) Sémiogenèse des langues des signes, Étude de langues des signes emergentes (LS ÉMG) pratiquées par des sourds brésiliens. Doctoral dissertation, Sciences du langage, Université Paris 8.Google Scholar
(2006) Emergence and development of sign languages: from a semiogenetic point of view. Sign Language Studies, 7 (1), 30–56. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan
(2003) The resilience of language: what gesture creation in deaf children can tell us about how all children learn language. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
(2012) Homesign: gesture to language. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach, & Bencie Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 601–625). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, Cynthia Butcher, Carolyn Mylander, & Mark Dodge
(1994) Nouns and verbs in a self-styled gesture system: What’s in a name? Cognitive Psychology, 27, 259–319. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haviland, John B.
(2011) Nouns, verbs, and constituents in an emerging ‘Tzotzil’ sign language. In Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Bravo, Line Mikkelsen, & Eric Potsdam (Eds.), Representing language: Essays in honor of Judith Aissen (pp. 151–171). Santa Cruz, CA: California Digital Library eScholarship Repository, Linguistic Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd
(1997) Possession: Cognitive sources, forces, and grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Elizabeth Closs Traugott
(1993) Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hunger, Barbara
(2006) Noun/verb pairs in Austrian sign language (ÖGS). Sign Language & Linguistics, 9 (1/2), 71–94. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, Terry
(2012) Lexicalization and grammaticalization. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach, & Bencie Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 816–841). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kegl, Judith & Gayla Iwata
(1989) Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragüense: A pidgin sheds light on the “Creole?” ASL. In Robert Carlson, Scott DeLancey, Spike Gildea, Doris Payne, & Anju Saxena (Eds.), Proceedings of the fourth meeting of the Pacific linguistics conference (pp. 266–294). Eugene, Oregon: Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon.Google Scholar
Kegl, Judith, Annie Senghas, & Maria Coppola
(1999) Creation through contact: Sign language emergence and sign language change in Nicaragua. In Michel DeGraff (Ed.), Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony, and development (pp. 179–237). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kendon, Adam
(1980) A description of a deaf-mute sign language from the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea with some comparative discussion, Part II: The semiotic functioning of Enga signs. Semiotica, 32, 81–117.Google Scholar
(1988) Sign languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, semiotic and communicative perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(2004) Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kimmelman, Vadim
(2009) Parts of speech in Russian sign language: the role of iconicity and economy. Sign Language & Linguistics, 12 (2), 161–186. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Klima, Edward S. & Ursula Bellugi
(1979) The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kuschel, Rolf
(1973) The silent inventor: The creation of a sign language by the only deaf-mute on a Polynesian Island. Sign Languages Studies, 2 (3), 1–27. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Langacker, Ron
(1990) Nouns and verbs. Language, 63, 53–94. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Le Guen, Olivier
(2012) An exploration in the domain of time: from Yucatec Maya time gestures to Yucatec Maya Sign Language time signs. In Ulrike Zeshan & Connie de Vos (Eds.), Endangered sign languages in village communities: Anthropological and linguistic insights (pp. 209–250). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter & Ishara Press.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
MacLeod, Catriona
(1973) A deaf man’s sign language. Its nature and position relative to spoken languages. Linguistics, 101, 72–88.Google Scholar
Mandel, Mark
(1977) Iconic devices in American Sign Language. In Lynn A. Friedman (Ed.), On the other hand: New perspectives on American sign language (pp. 57–107). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Meir, Irit
(2010) Iconicity and metaphor: Constraints on metaphorical extension of iconic forms. Language, 86, 865–896.Google Scholar
Meir, Irit, Carol A. Padden, Mark Aronoff, & Wendy Sandler
(2007) Body as subject. Journal of Linguistics, 43, 531–563. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Morford, Jill P.
(1996) Insights to language from the study of gesture: a review of research on the gestural communication of nonsigning deaf people. Language and Communication, 16 (2), 165–178. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Morford, Jill P. & Judy A. Kegl
(2000) Gestural precursors to linguistic constructs: how input shapes the form of language. In David McNeill (Ed.), Language and gesture (pp. 358–387). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Gary, Rosalind Herman, & Bencie Woll
(2002) The development of complex verb constructions in British Sign Language. Journal of Child Language, 29 (3), 655–675. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Müller, Cornelia
(2010) Wie Gesten bedeuten. Eine kognitiv-linguistische und sequenzanalytische Perspektive. Sprache und Literatur, 41, 37–68 (Sonderheft: Sprache und Geste ).Google Scholar
(2013a) Gestures as a medium of expression. The linguistic potential of gestures. In Cornelia Müller, Adam Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silva Ladewig, & David McNeill (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (pp. 202–207). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
(2013b) Towards a grammar of gestures. A form based view. In Cornelia Müller, Adam Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silva Ladewig, & David McNeill (Eds.), Body – language – communication: An international handbook on multimodality in human interaction (pp. 707–703). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Padden, Carol
(1988) Interaction of morphology and syntax in American sign language. New York: Garland Press.Google Scholar
(2010) In search of grammar. Paper presented to theoretical issues in sign language research, 10, Purdue, IN, October 1, 2010.
Padden, Carol, Irit Meir, Wendy Sandler, & Mark Aronoff
(2010) Against all expectations: Encoding subjects and objects in a new language. In Donna B. Gerdts, John C. Moore, & Maria Polinsky (Eds.), Hypothesis A / hypothesis B: Linguistic explorations in honor of David M. Perlmutter (pp. 383–400). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Peirce, Charles Sanders
(1894/1992) What is a sign? In Nathan Houser & Christian Kloesel (Eds.), The essential Peirce: Selected philosophical writings (Vol. 2, pp. 4–10). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Perniss, Pamela & Ulrike Zeshan
(2008) Possessive and existential constructions in Kata Kolok (Bali). In Ulrike Zeshan & Pamela Perniss (Eds.), Possessive and existential constructions in sign languages (pp. 125–150). Nijmegen: Ishara Press.Google Scholar
Pfau, Roland & Markus Steinbach
(2011) Grammaticalization in sign languages. In Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization (pp. 683–695). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman
(1960) Word and object. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emmanuel Schegloff, & Gail Jefferson
(1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696–735. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sandler, Wendy, Irit Meir, Carol Padden, & Mark Aronoff
(2005) The emergence of grammar: Systematic structure in a new language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 102 (7), 2661–2665
Sapir, Edward
(1921) Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.Google Scholar
Schwager, Waldemar & Ulrike Zeshan
(2008) Word classes in sign languages: criteria and classifications. Studies in Language, 32 (3), 509–545. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Streeck, Jürgen
(2009) Gesturecraft: The manu-facture of meaning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Supalla, Ted & Elissa L. Newport
(1978) How many seats in a chair? The derivation of nouns and verbs in American sign language. In Patricia A. Siple (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research (pp. 91–132). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Taub, Sarah
(2001) Language from the body: Iconicity and metaphor in American sign language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Washabaugh, William
(1979) Hearing and deaf signers on Providence Island. Sign Language Studies, 24, 191–214. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1980a) The manu-facturing of a language. Semiotica, 29 (1/2), 1–37. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1980b) The organization and use of Providence Island sign language. Sign Language Studies, 26, 65–92. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1986) Five fingers for survival: Deaf sign language in the Caribbean. Ann Arbor: Karoma Press.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig
(1958) Philosophical investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Yau, Shun-Chiu
(1992) Création gestuelle et débuts du langage, création de langues gestuelles chez des sourds isolés. Hong Kong: Langages Croisés.Google Scholar