Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 2020 13(3): 296-303 DOI: 10.17516/1997-1370-0565 УДК 16.21.27 Sociocultural and Linguistic Contexts of the Russian Sign Language Functioning in Krasnoyarsk Krai Liudmila V. Kulikova and Sofya A. Shatokhina Siberian Federal University Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation Received 21.02.2020, received in revised form 25.02.2020, accepted 06.03.2020 Abstract. The article contains an ethnographic description of the conditions governing the use of the regional sign language in Krasnoyarsk Krai within the modern sociolinguistic context. The subject of the discussion is the problem of the linguistic design of sign languages ​​in general, including some features of Russian Sign Language. The study provides statistical information and legal norms for the use of this iconic communication system. A study of the current state of Russian Sign Language functioning in Krasnoyarsk Krai allows us to talk about a change in the status of this sign language, an increasing interest in issues related to its applied significance, and reinforces the need to develop new theoretical approaches to its institutionalization. Keywords: Russian Sign Language, fingerspelling, regional variants, Krasnoyarsk krai, language policy. This research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), Grant No. 20-012-00321 “Regional sign languages: multimodal electronic corpus (the case of the communicative space of Eastern Siberia)”. Research area: linguistics. Citation: Kulikova, L.V., Shatokhina, S.A. (2020). Sociocultural and linguistic contexts of the Russian Sign Language functioning in Krasnoyarsk Krai. J. Sib. Fed. Univ. Humanit. Soc. Sci., 13(3), 296-303. DOI: 10.17516/1997-1370-0565. © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-1622-8304 (Kulikova); 0000-0003-1695-2826 (Shatokhina) – 296 – Liudmila V. Kulikova and Sofya A. Shatokhina. Sociocultural and Linguistic Contexts of the Russian Sign Language… Introduction expressions, eyes, head and body positions. According to the World Health Organiza- Thus, manual and non-manual signs are dis- tion, there are approximately 366 million peo- tinguished in linguistics of sign languages. ple with disabling hearing loss in the world. Manual signs are performed with the help of These people represent 5% of the world’s pop- hands and represent the most frequent type of ulation. In the Russian Federation, 14.6 million signs. These can be one-handed or two-hand- people suffer from hearing loss of one degree ed. Non-manual signs are performed with the or another, which makes up 10% of the coun- help of the body, head and facial muscles. In try’s population. Among them, 220 thousands addition, there are combined signs that merge are officially registered as hearing impaired. manual and non-manual types. Studies de- According to the data of the Social Welfare scribe a sign as a significant semantic unit with Authorities of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the the specific structural organization. By anal- number of people with hearing disabilities ogy with phonemes in spoken languages, the reaches approximately 3,000. It is impossible American scientist W. Stokoe identified three to establish the exact number of deaf people, main components of the sign: configuration, since statistics do not take into account the cas- spatial position and movement (Stokoe, 1960). es of obtaining the status of a disabled person Later additional parameters, such as orienta- as a result of other concomitant diseases. For tion (Battison, 1978) and non-manual markers a long time, sign languages ​​used by the deaf (Valli, Lucas, 2000), were added. Even in the as a means of communication were not quali- first works on the linguistics of sign languages, fied as full-fledged sign systems with the level it was noted that sign languages ​​have a com- organization not differing from spoken lan- plex morphology. Further studies showed that a guages. According to ethnologue.com web- specific feature of the morphological structure site, there are 144 living sign languages ​​in the of sign languages ​​is their simultaneous nature. world, but it is also noted that this number is Morphemes of a word are simultaneously su- not accurate. Sign languages ​​are practically perimposed on each other but not connected not associated with spoken languages ​​and de- to each other, though this is quite common in velop naturally which distinguishes them from spoken languages. Generalizations began to sign articulation. The linguistic investigation appear after empirical data was accumulated. into sign languages ​​began with a study of the Firstly, it was found out that such simultane- sublexic structure of American Sign Language ity is a characteristic of all sign languages. published by W. Stokoe (Stokoe, 1960) in 1960, Grammatical categories encoded by many of and since then various linguistic descriptions, these morphological structures, as well as the sociolinguistic studies, and comparisons on form they take, turned out to be very similar this topic there have appeared. American Sign in different sign languages. In addition, some Language tends to be the most studied at the sign languages ​​demonstrate constructions with moment, but the sign languages ​​of other coun- sequential morphological processes. The most tries are also the subject of numerous studies productive morphological tools in sign lan- (Zeshan, 2006; Johnston, Schrembri, 2007; guages ​​are reduplication, sign modification, Lim Jia Ying, 2016). In Russia, sign language compounding, and incorporation of numerals. studies are closely connected with the works Affixation is the least productive one (Valli, of G.L. Zaitseva (Zaitseva, 2000). She was the Lucas, 2000: 56). first to describe Russian Sign Language as a It is important to distinguish Russian Sign complex communicative system. In addition, Language from Signed Russian. The latter she emphasized the importance of using sign translates spoken Russian into signs, following language in teaching the deaf and insisted on the word order of spoken Russian, and is not the need for bilingual education with the man- a separate natural linguistic system. In addi- datory use of Russian Sign Language. tion to copying grammatical aspects, Signed Sign languages ​​are sign systems in which Russian also uses artificially created gestures information is encoded using hands, facial along with the signs of Russian Sign Language – 297 – Liudmila V. Kulikova and Sofya A. Shatokhina. Sociocultural and Linguistic Contexts of the Russian Sign Language… (Zaitseva, 2000). There is no grammatical gen- to receive sign language services and claim an der in Russian Sign Language; however, the opportunity of learning in their native sign lan- biological sex is encoded. Signs representing guage. In Russia, sign language “is recognized words related to males are performed in the as the language of communication in the pres- upper part of the face, mainly in the forehead, ence of hearing and (or) speech impairment, in- while those related to females – in the lower cluding in the areas of oral use of the state lan- part of the face. There are various ways of ex- guage of the Russian Federation. A subtitling pressing the number: performing a one-hand- or sign language translation system for televi- ed sign with two hands; multiple (according sion programs, films and videos is being intro- to the number of referents) performance of a duced. Translation of Russian Sign Language gesture; joining after a nominal sign such signs (sign language, tactile sign language transla- as MNOGO (‘many’) or RAZNIJ (‘different’). tion) is carried out by interpreters of Russian Tense in Russian Sign Language is expressed Sign Language (sign language interpreter, tac- analytically by attaching signs BYLO (‘was’), tile interpreter) with appropriate education and BUDET (‘will’), or VCHERA (‘yesterday’), qualifications. The procedure for providing the ZAVTRA (‘tomorrow’) to the verb. Perfective services of translation of Russian Sign Lan- aspect is also expressed analytically by adding guage (sign language, tactile sign language) is such signs as ZAKONCHENO (‘finished’), determined by the Government of the Russian GOTOVO (‘ready’). Verb signs can undergo Federation”, namely in accordance with Feder- various aspectual changes (Grenoble, 1992). al Law No. 296 “On Amendments to Articles For a long time, sign languages developed 14 and 19 of Federal Law “On Social Protection in isolation, and there is all likelihood to be- of Persons with Disabilities in the Russian Fed- lieve that their variability was extremely high. eration” as of December 30, 2012. Earlier, Rus- Often the deaf had little opportunity to com- sian Sign Language was recognized as a means municate and develop a stable version of sign of interpersonal communication. language through constant communication Russian Sign Language is distributed in that would be fixed as the main variant within the Russian Federation and the CIS countries a certain territory. A key factor in the forma- and, according to the latest census, is native to tion of sign languages ​​was the emergence of 220 thousand people. The first school for the specialized schools, where the deaf and hard- deaf and hard-of-hearing children was opened of-hearing people got the opportunity to com- in Pavlovsk in 1806. Over the next decades, municate. The existence of sign language fam- several more similar educational institutions