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All Things Morphology: Its independence and its interfaces
Edited by Sedigheh Moradi, Marcia Haag, Janie Rees-Miller and Andrija Petrovic
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 353] 2021
► pp. 57–80

Chapter 4
Signs and words

| University of Haifa

Natural sign languages both constrain and expand our understanding of the nature of words. In each modality, words can be used in isolation, have meanings or grammatical functions, and are identifiable by their prosodic form. Such shared properties constrain the universal definition of the word. The differences, such as pervasive simultaneity and iconicity in sign word structure and word formation, compared to linearity and arbitrariness typical of spoken words, expand our conception of what a word can be. Investigation of an emerging sign language reveals just how fundamental the word is to language, and shows how morphological complexity begins as an abstract pattern. Sign languages introduce a tension between constraining and expanding the definitive properties of words, offering a more nuanced understanding of this most basic unit of linguistic structure.

Keywords: sign language, words, morphology, iconicity, simultaneity, linearity, language emergence, Israeli Sign Language, Al Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sign words are similar to spoken words
    • 2.1Constraints
    • 2.2Linear morphological processes
  • 3.Sign words are different from spoken words
    • 3.1Meaningful meaningless parts
    • 3.2Iconically motivated, simultaneous morphology
      • 3.2.1Verb agreement
      • 3.2.2Temporal aspect inflections
    • 3.3Classifier constructions: Hybrids of lexical and gestural elements
    • 3.4Hybrid forms in creative performance: The Ebisu Sign Language Theatre Laboratory
  • 4.Language begins with the word
    • 4.1Words at the outset
    • 4.2Lexical variation in the community
  • 5.The birth of abstract productive morphology
  • 6.Summary and conclusion: What’s in a word?
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.353.04san
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