Cover not available
Article published In:
Gesture
Vol. 19:1 (2020) ► pp.1–40

“When you were that little…”

From Yucatec Maya height-specifier gestures to Yucatec Maya Sign Language person-classifier signs

| Stockholm University

In this article, I analyse how conventional height-specifier gestures used by speakers of Yucatec Maya become incorporated into Yucatec Maya Sign Languages (YMSLs). Combining video-data from elicitation, narratives, conversations and interviews collected from YMSL signers from four communities as well as from hearing nonsigners from another Yucatec Maya village, I compare form, meaning and distribution of height-specifiers in gesture and sign. Co-speech gestures that depict the height of upright entities – performed with a flat hand, palm facing downwards – come to serve various linguistic functions in YMSLs: a noun for human referents, a verb GROW, a spatial referential device, and an element of name signs. Special attention is paid to how height-specifier gestures fulfil a grammatical purpose as noun-classifiers for human referents in YMSLs. My study demonstrates processes of lexicalisation and grammaticalisation from gesture to sign and discusses the impact of gesture on the emergence of shared sign languages.

Keywords: Yucatec Maya, Yucatec Maya Sign Language, shared sign language, gestural classifier, noun classifier, size-and-shape specifier, lexicalisation, grammaticalisation, language emergence, language evolution
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Yucatec Maya communities, YMSLs and their contribution to gesture and sign language studies
  • Gestural classifiers in Mesoamerican languages and size-and-shape specifiers in sign languages
    • Gestural classifiers and height-specifiers in Mesoamerica
    • Size-and-shape specifiers and person-classifiers in sign languages
  • Data and participants
  • Height-specifier gestures in spoken Yucatec Maya
  • Height-specifier in YMSLs
    • Descriptive/predicative use
    • Nouns for human referents
    • Verb grow
    • Loci in signing space and directional verbs
    • Person-classifiers
    • Name signs
  • Discussion
    • From Yucatec Maya gestures to YMSL signs
    • Height-specifiers as noun-classifiers
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.19007.saf
References

References

Bergman, Brita & Wallin, Lars
(2003) Noun and verbal classifiers in Swedish Sign Language. In Karen Emmorey (Ed.), Perspectives on classifier constructions in sign languages (pp. 35–51). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace
(1980) The pear stories: Cognitive, cultural, and linguistic aspects of narrative production. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Cooperrider, Kensy, Abner, Natasha, & Goldin-Meadow, Susan
(2018) The palm-up puzzle: Meanings and origins of a widespread form in gesture and sign. Frontiers in Communication, 31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coppola, Marie
2020). Gestures, homesign, sign language: Cultural and social factors driving lexical conventionalization. In Olivier Le Guen, Josefina Safar, & Marie Coppola Eds. Emerging sign languages of the Americas pp. 349 390 Berlin De Gruyter Mouton
Craig, Colette
(1986) Jacaltec noun classifiers: A study in language and culture. In Colette Craig (Ed.), Noun classes and categorisation. Proceedings of a symposium on categorization and noun classification (pp. 263–293). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dachkovsky, Svetlana, Stamp, Rose, & Sandler, Wendy
(2019) Time will tell: Dynamics of grammaticalization & lexicalization of TIME-PASS in Israeli Sign Language. Paper presented at TISLR13, Hamburg.
Enfield, Nick
(2009) The anatomy of meaning: Speech, gesture, and composite utterances. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Escobedo Delgado, Ernesto Cesar
(2012) Chican Sign Language: A sociolinguistic sketch. In Ulrike Zeshan & Connie de Vos (Eds.), Sign languages in village communities: Anthropological and linguistic insights (pp. 377–380). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Foster, George
(1948) Empire’s children. Mexico: Nuevo Mundo.Google Scholar
Fox Tree, Erich
(2009) Meemul Tziij: An indigenous sign language complex of Mesoamerica. Sign Language Studies, 9 (3), 324–366. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopper, Paul & Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
(2003) Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hou, Lynn
(2018) Iconic patterns in San Juan Quiahije Chatino Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 18 (4), 570–611. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Janzen, Terry
(2012) Lexicalization and grammaticalization. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach, & Bencie Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 816–841). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Johnson, Robert
(1991) Sign language, culture, and community in a traditional Yucatec Maya village. Sign Language Studies, 731, 461–474. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kendon, Adam
(2004) Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle 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.), Sign languages in village communities: Anthropological and linguistic insights (pp. 209–250). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
in prep.). Manual classifiers of Mesoamerica.
Le Guen, Olivier, Petatillo Balam, Rebeca, & Kinil Canché, Rita
2020). Yucatec Maya multimodal interaction as basis for Yucatec Maya Sign Language. In Olivier Le Guen, Josefina Safar, & Marie Coppola Eds. Emerging sign languages of the Americas pp. 287 347 Berlin De Gruyter Mouton
Le Guen, Olivier & Safar, Josefina
in prep.). Intergenerational evolution of the use of the signing space in Yucatec Maya Sign Languages.
Lepic, Ryan
(2015) Motivation in morphology: Lexical patterns in ASL and English: PhD dissertation, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Lucy, John
(1992) Grammatical categories and cognition. A case study of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McKee, Rachel, Safar, Josefina, & Pivac Alexander, Sara
forthcoming). Depicting signs in New Zealand Sign Language. To appear in Language and Communication .
McKee, Rachel & McKee, David
(2000) Name signs and identity in New Zealand Sign Language. In Melanie Metzger (Ed.), Bilingualism and identity in Deaf communities (pp. 3–40). Washington: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Meo-Zilio, Giovanni & Mejía, Silvia
(1980) Diccionario de gestos. España e Hispanoamérica, Volume 11. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.Google Scholar
Nyst, Victoria
(2012) Shared sign languages. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach, & Bencie Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 552–574). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
(2018) Cross-linguistic variation in space-based distance for size depiction in the lexicons of six sign languages. Sign Language & Linguistics, 21(2), 350–379. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perniss, Pamela
(2012) Use of sign space. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach, & Bencie Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 412–431). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Pfau, Roland & Steinbach, Markus
(2013) Person climbing up a tree (and other adventures in sign language grammaticalization). Sign Language & Linguistics, 16 (2), 189–220. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Safar, Josefina
(2019) Translanguaging in Yucatec Maya signing communities. Applied Linguistics Review 10(1), 31–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Safar, Josefina, Olivier Le Guen, Geli Collí Collí, & Merli Collí Hau
(2018) Numeral variation in Yucatec Maya Sign Languages. Sign Language Studies, 18 (4), 488–516. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Safar, Josefina & Petatillo Chan, Rodrigo
2020). Strategies of noun-verb distinction in Yucatec Maya Sign Languages. In Olivier Le Guen, Josefina Safar, & Marie Coppola Eds. Emerging sign languages of the Americas pp. 155 202 Berlin De Gruyter Mouton
Safar, Josefina & Le Guen, Olivier
2020). Yucatec Maya Sign Language(s). A sociolinguistic overview. In Olivier Le Guen, Josefina Safar, & Marie Coppola Eds. Emerging sign languages of the Americas Berlin De Gruyter Mouton
Safar, Josefina
(2020) A comparative study of Yucatec Maya Sign Languages. PhD dissertation, Stockholm University, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy & Lillo-Martin, Diane
(2006) Sign language and linguistic universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schembri, Adam
(2003) Rethinking “classifiers” in signed languages. In Karen Emmorey (Ed.), Perspectives on classifier constructions in sign languages (pp. 3–34). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Supalla, Ted
(1986) The classifier system in American Sign Language. In Colette Craig (Ed.), Noun classes and categorisation. Proceedings of a symposium on categorization and noun classification (pp. 181–214). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tano, Angoua & Nyst, Victoria
(2018) Comparing body-part size and shape constructions in village Sign Languages with cospeech gesture. Sign Language Studies, 18 (4), 517–545. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, Sherman, Rossini, Paolo, & Antinoro Pizzuto, Elena
(2010) Grammaticalization in sign languages. In Diane Brentari (Ed.), Sign languages (pp. 332–354). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zavala, Roberto
(2000) Multiple classifier systems in Akatek (Mayan). In Gunter Senft (Ed.), Systems of nominal classification (pp. 114–146). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike
(2003) ‘Classificatory’ constructions in Indo-Pakistani Sign Language: Grammaticalization and lexicalization processes. In Karen Emmorey (Ed.), Perspectives on classifier constructions in sign languages (pp. 113–142). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Zwitserlood, Inge
(2012) Classifiers. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach, & Bencie Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 158–185). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar