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Part of
Constructions in Contact 2: Language change, multilingual practices, and additional language acquisition
Edited by Hans C. Boas and Steffen Höder
[Constructional Approaches to Language 30] 2021
► pp. 267–305

From letters to families

Initialized signs in American Sign Language

| Gallaudet University

This study analyzes a database of initialized signs, which are formed with handshapes corresponding to English letters, collected from an ASL dictionary. ASL handshapes are classified as either primarily used for initialization, such as the R handshape, or rarely used for initialization, such as the X handshape. Additionally, initialized signs are shown to forge kind-of and whole-part relationships with existing ASL signs. An example is biology, which derives from ASL science, reflecting that ‘biology is a kind of science’. These facts about initialized signs are analyzed in terms of constructional schemas, capturing properties that are shared among ASL signs and explaining productive instances of initialization (and de-initialization) in ASL.

Keywords: American Sign Language, initialization, initialized signs, language contact, borrowing, usage-based, Construction Grammar, dictionary study
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Lexical borrowing in American Sign Language
    • 2.1Loans, loan translations, and semantic borrowings
    • 2.2Fingerspelling and initialization
    • 2.3Initialization in its social context
  • 3.A database study of initialized signs in American Sign Language
    • 3.1Identifying initialized signs in a dictionary
    • 3.2Semantic analysis of initialized signs
      • 3.2.1Metonymic extension
      • 3.2.2Networks of initialized signs
    • 3.3Summary of the dictionary study
  • 4.Constructional analysis of initialized signs
    • 4.1Multilingualism in Construction Grammar
    • 4.2Initialized signs are blends in a constructional network
    • 4.3The functions of alphabetic handshapes
    • 4.4Initialized signs in a dynamic system
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 3 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.30.09lep
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