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Negation in Kata Kolok Grammaticalization Throughout Three Generations of Signers

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UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM Graduate School for Humanities Negation in Kata Kolok Grammaticalization throughout three generations of signers Master’s Thesis Hannah Lutzenberger Student number: 10852875 Supervised by: Dr. Roland Pfau Dr. Vadim Kimmelman Dr. Connie de Vos Amsterdam 2017 Abstract (250 words) Although all natural languages have ways of expressing negation, the linguistic realization is subject to typological variation (Dahl 2010; Payne 1985). Signed languages combine manual signs and non-manual elements. This leads to an intriguing dichotomy: While non-manual marker(s) alone are sufficient for negating a proposition in some signed languages (non- manual dominant system), the use of a negative manual sign is required in others (manual dominant system) (Zeshan 2004, 2006). Kata Kolok (KK), a young signing variety used in a Balinese village with a high incidence of congenital deafness (de Vos 2012; Winata et al. 1995), had previously been classified as an extreme example of the latter type: the manual sign NEG functions as the main negator and a negative headshake remains largely unused (Marsaja 2008). Adopting a corpus-based approach, the present study reevaluates this claim. The analysis of intergenerational data of six deaf native KK signers from the KK Corpus (de Vos 2016) reveals that the classification of KK negation is not as straightforward as formerly suggested. Although KK signers make extensive use of NEG, a negative headshake is widespread as well. Furthermore, signers from different generations show disparate tendencies in the use of specific markers. Specifically, the involvement of the manual negator slightly increases over time, and the headshake begins to spread within the youngest generation of signers. Thus, it is suggested that KK negation is a case in point for diachronic language change. This study contributes both theoretical and methodological insights to sign language typology and the study of diachronic language change. Keywords sign language negation; village sign language; Kata Kolok; grammaticalization Acknowledgments I am grateful to my wonderful supervisors, who gave me a guiding hand throughout the entire process of exploring KK negation. Their feedback and critical comments were as invaluable as their encouragement to take it yet a step further. In particular, I would like to thank Roland for keeping me on track and supporting me in letting go. Further, I wish to thank Connie for encouraging me to dive into linguistics. I am incredibly grateful that she took the risk to take me to the field in 2015, where my fire for this language and community was light. I am overly excited to continue on this route. This project would not have been possible without the community. I would like to thank Connie for sharing her data, and especially, to all the deaf and hearing community members in the field for sharing their language and for warmly welcoming me. In particular, I wish to thank Ni Made Dadiastini, who became a dear friend and a lifesaver for any community- or language-related question. Thank you! Lastly, I am grateful for everyone who helped me think, develop and articulate my ideas, listened to me, and provided feedback on previous drafts. I am indebted to Elisabet García González for her patience and her sharp mind, Frederik Harder for bike-rides full of negation and statistics, Jelke Bloem and Sara Iacozza for their help with linear mixed effect models, Freya Watkins for her superpower English, and Nick Palfreyman for sharing his expertise on Indonesian signing varieties with me. Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents Susanna and Bernhard who never get tired of listening to yet another challenge in the project, and whose comments helped me making the figures to shine! Glossary Abbreviations of sign languages ASL American Sign Language CSL Chinese Sign Language 中国手语 DGS German Sign Language Deutsche Gebärdensprache HKSL Hong Kong Sign Language 香港手語 KK Kata Kolok Libras Brazilian Sign Language Língua Brasileira de Sinais LIS Italian Sign Language Lingua dei Segni Italiana LIU Jordanian Sign Language Lughat il-Ishaarah LSC Catalan Sign Language Llengua de Signes Catalana NGT Sign Language of the Netherlands Nederlands Gebarentaal NZSL New Zealand Sign Language TID Turkish Sign Language Türk İşaret Dili VSL Flemish Sign Language Vlaamse Gebarentaal Abbreviations of non-manuals hs headshake neg negation nfe negative facial expression tp tongue protrusion Transcription Conventions GLOSS a manual form GLOSS-GLOSS a single sign needing more than one word to explain its meaning GLOSS#GLOSS two signs are articulated at the same time (fused) GLOSS^GLOSS clitic GLOSS | GLOSS clause boundary _____ duration of non-manual marking Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 2 Negation: A Typological Overview ........................................................................................ 3 2.1 Spoken Languages ........................................................................................................................ 3 2.2 Sign Languages ............................................................................................................................. 5 2.2.1 Manual and Non-Manual Marking ........................................................................................ 5 2.2.2 A Typological Dichotomy ..................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Negative Concord ......................................................................................................................... 9 3 Kata Kolok (KK) ................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 Linguistic and Demographic Overview ...................................................................................... 12 3.2 Negation in KK ........................................................................................................................... 13 3.3 Present Study ............................................................................................................................... 14 4 Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 16 4.1 Data ............................................................................................................................................. 16 4.2 Coding ......................................................................................................................................... 17 4.3 Procedure .................................................................................................................................... 19 5 Results ................................................................................................................................... 20 5.1 Overview of Results .................................................................................................................... 20 5.2 Manual Marking .......................................................................................................................... 21 5.3 Non-Manual Marking ................................................................................................................. 24 5.3.1 Scope of the Headshake ....................................................................................................... 25 5.3.2 Tongue Protrusion ................................................................................................................ 26 5.3.3 Choice of Non-Manual Marking .......................................................................................... 27 5.4 Statistical Trends ......................................................................................................................... 29 5.5 Additional Observations ............................................................................................................. 31 6 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 34 6.1 KK in Typological Perspective ................................................................................................... 34 6.2 Aspects of Grammaticalization ................................................................................................... 36 7 Concluding Remarks ............................................................................................................. 40 References ................................................................................................................................ 41 Appendix A .............................................................................................................................. 45 1 Introduction More than 6,000 different languages are used in various communities around the world. Crucially, both spoken and signed forms of communication exist. Contrary to popular misconception, signed languages are not a visuo-gestural equivalent of Esperanto, a constructed international auxiliary language. Instead, signed languages differ across geographical borders and sometimes even across cultural groups. Rural signing varieties represent a special socio-linguistic case. This type of signed language emerges rapidly in mostly isolated, rural enclaves often as a result of a high incidence
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