Article published in:
Sign Language & Linguistics
Vol. 18:2 (2015) ► pp. 205–237

Weak hand holds in two sign languages and two genres

| Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen
| University of Amsterdam

In this paper, we provide a quantitative analysis of weak hand holds based on corpus data. We include both a cross-linguistic analysis of these holds in narrative data from Russian Sign Language (RSL) and Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), and a language-internal, cross-genre analysis comparing NGT narrative and conversational data. We classified the functions of all holds found in two corpora of RSL and NGT, and analyzed their formal characteristics. We found that holds in RSL and NGT have similar functions. However, holds are significantly more frequent in RSL than in NGT. In addition, we found that the distribution of holds across different functions varies between different genres in NGT. The similarities between RSL and NGT in the domain of holds may be attributed to modality effects. The differences in frequency of holds ask for a language-specific explanation, and we discuss several possible scenarios.

Keywords: corpus data, cross-linguistic comparison, weak hand holds, Sign Language of the Netherlands, Russian Sign Language, cross-genre comparison
Published online: 04 February 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.18.2.02saf
References
Battison, Robin
1978 Lexical borrowing in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press.Google Scholar
Bickford, J. Albert
2005 The signed languages of Eastern Europe. SIL International.Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane & Laurinda Crossley
2002 Prosody on the hands and face. Evidence from American Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics 51. 105–130. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Burkova, Svetlana Igorevna & Olga Aleksandrovna Varinova
2012 K voprosu os territorialnom i sotsialnom var’irovanii russkogo zhestovogo jazyka [On the problem of regional and social variation in Russian Sign Language]. In Olga Viktorovna Fedorova (ed.), Russkij Zhestovyj Jazyk: Pervaja Lingvisticheskaja Konferentsija [Russian Sign Language: The first linguistic conference], 127–143. Moscow: Center of Cognitive Studies.Google Scholar
Crasborn, Onno
2001 Phonetic implementation of phonological categories in Sign Language of the Netherlands. Leiden: University of Leiden dissertation. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
2006 A linguistic analysis of the use of the two hands in sign language poetry. In Jeroen van de Weijer & Bettelou Los (eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 20061, 65–77. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Crasborn, Onno & Anna Sáfár
In press. An annotation scheme to investigate the form and function of hand dominance in the Corpus NGT. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach & Annika Herrmann (eds.) A matter of complexity: Subordination in sign languages Berlin De Gruyter Mouton Crossref
Crasborn, Onno, Inge Zwitserlood & Johan Ros
2008 Corpus NGT. An open access digital corpus of movies with annotations of Sign Language of the Netherlands. Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen. URL: http://​www​.let​.ru​.nl​/corpusngt/.
Crasborn, Onno & Inge Zwitserlood
2008 The Corpus NGT: an online corpus for professionals and laymen. In Onno Crasborn, Thomas Hanke, Eleni Efthimiou, Inge Zwitserlood & Ernst Thoutenhoofd (eds.), Construction and exploitation of sign language corpora. Proceedings of the 3 rd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages , 44–49. Paris: ELRA.Google Scholar
Dudis, Paul G
2004 Body partitioning and real-space blends. Cognitive Linguistics 1521. 223–238.Google Scholar
Emmorey, Karen, Barbara Tversky & Holly A. Taylor
2000 Using space to describe space: Perspective in speech, sign, and gesture. Spatial Cognition and Computation 231. 157–180. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Engberg-Pedersen, Elisabeth
1994 Some simultaneous constructions in Danish Sign Language. In Mary Brennan & Graham H. Turner (eds.), Word-order issues in sign language, 73–88. Durham: International Sign Linguistics Association.Google Scholar
Freleng, Friz
1950 Canary row [film, animated cartoon]. New York: Time Warner.Google Scholar
Kimmelman, Vadim
2014 Information structure in Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam dissertation. [http://​dare​.uva​.nl​/personal​/record​/432175]. DOI: CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kimmelman, Vadim, Anna Sáfár & Onno Crasborn
Under revision. Towards a classification of weak hand holds. Crossref
Liddell, Scott K
2003 Grammar, gesture and meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Liddell, Scott K., Marit Vogt-Svendsen & Brita Bergman
2007 A crosslinguistic comparison of buoys. Evidence from American, Norwegian, and Swedish Sign Language. In Myriam Vermeerbergen, Lorraine Leeson & Onno Crasborn (eds.), Simultaneity in sign languages: Form and function, 187–215. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
McKee, Rachel Locker & Sophia Wallingford
2011 ‘So, well, whatever’: Discourse functions of palm-up in New Zealand Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics 14(2). 213–247. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Christopher
1994a Simultaneous constructions in Quebec Sign Language. In Mary Brennan & Graham H. Turner (eds.), Word-order issues in sign language, 89–112. Durham: International Sign Linguistics Association.Google Scholar
1994b Simultaneous constructions and complex signs in Quebec Sign Language. In Inger Ahlgren, Brita Bergman & Mary Brennan (eds.), Perspectives on sign language structure. Papers from the Fifth International Symposium on Sign Language Research , 131–148. Durham: International Sign Linguistics Association.
Nespor, Marina & Wendy Sandler
1999 Prosody in Israeli Sign Language. Language and Speech 421. 143–176. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nilsson, Anna-Lena
2007 The non-dominant hand in a Swedish Sign Language discourse. In Myriam Vermeerbergen, Lorraine Leeson & Onno Crasborn (eds.), Simultaneity in sign languages: Form and function, 163–185. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nyst, Victoria
2007 Simultaneous constructions in Adamorobe Sign Language (Ghana). In Myriam Vermeerbergen, Lorraine Leeson & Onno Crasborn (eds.), Simultaneity in sign languages: Form and function, 128–145. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Padden, Carol
1983 Interaction of morphology and syntax in American Sign Language. San Diego, CA: University of California dissertation. [Published 1988, Garland Press, New York.]Google Scholar
Pfau, Roland & Markus Steinbach
2011 Grammaticalization in sign languages. In Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization, 683–695. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy & Diane Lillo-Martin
2006 Sign language and linguistic universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sáfár, Anna & Onno Crasborn
2013 A corpus-based approach to manual simultaneity. In Laurence Meurant, Aurélie Sinte, Mieke Van Herreweghe & Myriam Vermeerbergen (eds.), Sign language research, uses and practices: Crossing views on theoretical and applied sign language linguistics, 179–203. Berlin & Nijmegen: De Gruyter Mouton & Ishara Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sáfár, Anna, Laurence Meurant, Thierry Haesenne, Ellen Nauta, Danny De Weerdt & Ellen Ormel
2015 Mutual intelligibility among the sign languages of Belgium and the Netherlands. Linguistics 531. 353–374. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schermer, Trude
2004 Lexical variation in Sign Language of the Netherlands. In Mieke van Herreweghe & Myriam Vermeerbergen (eds.), To the lexicon and beyond: Sociolinguistics in European Deaf communities, 94–110. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Vermeerbergen, Myriam & Eline Demey
2007 Sign + gesture = speech + gesture. Comparing aspects of simultaneity in Flemish Sign Language to instances of concurrent speech and gesture. In Myriam Vermeerbergen, Lorraine Leeson & Onno Crasborn (eds.), Simultaneity in sign languages: Form and function, 257–282. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vermeerbergen, Myriam, Lorraine Leeson & Onno Crasborn
2007 Simultaneity in signed languages: A string of sequentially organised issues. In Myriam Vermeerbergen, Lorraine Leeson & Onno Crasborn (eds.), Simultaneity in sign languages: Form and function, 1–25. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vogt-Svendsen, Marit & Brita Bergman
2007 Point buoys: The weak hand as a point of reference for time and space. In Myriam Vermeerbergen, Lorraine Leeson & Onno Crasborn (eds.), Simultaneity in sign languages: Form and function, 217–235. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zimmer, June & Cynthia G. Patschke
1990 Determiners in ASL. In Ceil Lucas (ed.), Sign language research: Theoretical issues, 201–210. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Brentari, Diane
2019.  In Sign Language Phonology, Crossref logo
Papadatou-Pastou, Marietta & Anna Sáfár
2016. Handedness prevalence in the deaf: Meta-analyses. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 60 ► pp. 98 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.