This study investigates the frequency and functions of a ubiquitous form in conversational NZSL discourse glossed as palm-up. Dictionaries show that it is a polysemous vocabulary item in NZSL, although many of its uses in discourse are not accounted for in the lexicon. Analysis of discourse data from 20 signers shows it to be the second most frequently occuring item, and to exhibit phonological variation. We identify and discuss four (non-exclusive) functions of palm-up in this data: cohesive, modal, interactive, and manual frame for unpredictable mouthings (codemixing). Correspondences in form, linguistic context, and meaning are found between uses of palm-up in NZSL, similar forms in other signed languages, and co-speech palm gestures. The study affirms previous descriptions of this form as having properties of both gesture and sign, and suggests that it also has features of a discourse marker.
2024. Finding continuers in Swedish Sign Language. Linguistics Vanguard
Macedo, María Noel, Matías Yerro, Jorge Vivas, Mauricio Castillo, Maximiliano Meliande, Adriana de León, Alejandro Fojo & Roberto Aguirre
2023. Contrasting the semantic typology biases of Deaf and hearing nonsigners in their conceptualization of time and space. Applied Psycholinguistics 44:6 ► pp. 1090 ff.
Rodrigues, Angélica & Roland Pfau
2023. Language Prejudice and Language Structure: On Missing and Emerging Conjunctions in Libras and Other Sign Languages. In Understanding Linguistic Prejudice, ► pp. 157 ff.
2020. Unaddressed participants’ gaze behavior in Flemish Sign Language interactions: Planning gaze shifts after recognizing an upcoming (possible) turn completion. Journal of Pragmatics 162 ► pp. 62 ff.
Gabarró-López, Sílvia
2020. Are discourse markers related to age and educational background? A comparative account between two sign languages. Journal of Pragmatics 156 ► pp. 68 ff.
Gabarró-López, Sílvia
2024. Towards a description of palm-up in bidirectional signed language interpreting. Lingua 300 ► pp. 103646 ff.
Willoughby, Louisa, Howard Manns, Shimako Iwasaki & Meredith Bartlett
2019. Are you trying to be funny? Communicating humour in deafblind conversations. Discourse Studies 21:5 ► pp. 584 ff.
Cooperrider, Kensy, Natasha Abner & Susan Goldin-Meadow
2018. The Palm-Up Puzzle: Meanings and Origins of a Widespread Form in Gesture and Sign. Frontiers in Communication 3
Johnston, Trevor
2018. A corpus-based study of the role of headshaking in negation in Auslan (Australian Sign Language): Implications for signed language typology. Linguistic Typology 22:2 ► pp. 185 ff.
Fenlon, Jordan, Adam Schembri, Ramas Rentelis, David Vinson & Kearsy Cormier
2014. Using conversational data to determine lexical frequency in British Sign Language: The influence of text type. Lingua 143 ► pp. 187 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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