Chapter published in:
Historical Linguistics 2015: Selected papers from the 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Naples, 27-31 July 2015Edited by Michela Cennamo and Claudia Fabrizio
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 348] 2019
► pp. 519–560
Chapter 25Grammaticalizing the face in a first generation sign language
The case of “Z”
Zincantec Family Homesign (or “Z”) is a first generation sign-language emerging in a single family in Chiapas, Mexico. Despite its very short history Z demonstrates how speakers’ gestures can “jump” into the lexicon of a newly created sign language and become further specialized via processes of grammaticalization. This paper moves beyond the grammaticalization of manual signs to consider how facial expressions can similarly be incorporated into the emerging lexicon and morphosyntax of even a very young sign language, contributing to the systematic expression of such grammatical categories as affective and epistemic stance.
Keywords: grammaticalization, sign-language, pragmatics, evolution of language, emergence, emerging sign language, homesign, non-manual signs, facial expression, stance, evidential, affect
Article outline
- 1.Z: A first generation sign language
- 2.A brief typology of Z signs
- 3.An instance of grammaticalization in Z
- 4.Affect and attention on the face
- 5.Grammars of the face
- 6.The frown: Critical uncertainty
- 7.Conclusion and summary
-
Acknowledgements -
References
Published online: 10 September 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.348.25hav
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.348.25hav
References
Dachkovsky, Svetlana
De Jorio, Andrea & Adam Kendon
de Vos, Connie
Dingemanse Mark, Seán G. Roberts, Julija Baranova, Joe Blythe, Paul Drew, Simeon Floyd
Du Bois, John W.
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenaus
Ekman, Paul & Wallace V. Friesen
Ekman, Paul & Wallace V. Friesen
Feldman, Heidi, Susan Goldin-Meadow & Leila Gleitman
Frith, Chris
Frishberg, Nancy
Fusellier-Souza, Ivani
Goldin-Meadow, Susan
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, Cynthia Butcher, Carolyn Mylander & Mark Dodge
Grammer, Karl, Wulf Schiefenhövel, Margret Schleidt, Beatrice Lorenz & Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt
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, 151–171. Santa Cruz, CA.: California Digital Library eScholarship Repository, Linguistic Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Heine, Bernd
Hopper, Paul J. & Elisabeth C. Traugott
Jakobson, Roman
Janzen, Terry
Janzen, Terry & Barbara Shaffer
Janzen, Terry, Barbara Shaffer & Sherman Wilcox
Laughlin, Robert M.
Le Guen, Olivier
McKee, Rache. L. & Sophia Wallingford
McNeill, David
Meir, Irit, Carol Padden, Mark Aronoff, & Wendy Sandler
Nonaka, Angela M.
Perniss, Pamela & Ulrike Zeshan
Pfau, Roland & Marcus Steinbach
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff & Gail Jefferson
Sandler, Wendy, Irit Meir, Carol Padden, & Mark Aronoff
Shaffer, Barbara
Stec, Kashmiri
Traugott, Elizabeth C.
Wierzbicka, Anna
Wilbur, Ronnie B.
Wilcox, Sherman
Wilcox, Phyllis & Sherman Wilcox
Zeshan, Ulrike