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Sociolinguistic Variation in Hong Kong Sign Language

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Sociolinguistic Variation in Hong Kong Sign Language by Wai Yan Rebecca Siu A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Victoria University of Wellington 2016 Abstract Internal lexical variation appears to be a prominent feature within signed languages; it is perhaps a result of their distinctive acquisition patterns and fragile transmission. Recent research in different signed languages indicates that sociolinguistic variation within signed languages parallels some patterns found in spoken languages, though with some factors dis- tinct to the former. This research examines sociolinguistic variation in a regional sign language, Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL), “spoken” by deaf people in Hong Kong. The focus of this dissertation is lexical vari- ation and two phonological variations in the signs DEAF/HEARING, and ‘location drop’ in articulation of signs made at the forehead. This research project is a modified replication of the earlier studies in American Sign Language, Australian Sign Language, and New Zealand Sign Language (Lucas, Bayley, & Valli, 2001; Schembri, McKee, McKee, Pi- vac, Johnston, & Goswell, 2009; McKee & McKee, 2011). The data of 65 participants recruited from the researcher’s networks in the HKSL com- munity using the friend-of-a-friend method was analyzed. Three types of data were collected: free conversation, picture naming and interview. A set of 120 pictures (with/without Chinese characters) was used to elicit signs for the concepts represented. Fifty-one out of these 120 concepts were analyzed from the semantic domains of colour, kinship, number, ii and country/region. Results show that school attended and age of signer play a prominent role in lexical variation. A gender effect is also found in several concepts. In addition to individual lexical items, the use of com- pound signs, ‘citation forms’ and handedness in number signs were also examined. Various social factors including school, age, gender, education, and work environment, interact with each other to constrain the variant choices. While numbers over ten can be produced either one-handed or two-handed, signs for hundred and tens highly favour the latter. Regarding phonological variation, conversation videos of 40 partici- pants were annotated for the DEAF/HEARING and location drop variables. For the DEAF/HEARING variables, preliminary investigation of the move- ment pattern demonstrates that there may be two different types of change going on: linguistically driven (originated from compounds) and socially driven (motivated by redefining deaf identity). It also suggests that DEAF is in a further stage of development than HEARING. For the location vari- able, twenty tokens from each participant were coded, producing 800 to- kens for multivariate analysis. Again, complex correlations between social factors are found to constrain the lowering of signs. The findings further indicate that this change has originated in the deaf school name signs due to their salience, and signers from these schools have led the change. In addition, the results in both phonological variables show that grammati- cal constraints play an essential role in conditioning variant choices, which parallels results of the previous studies. In sum, the lexical analysis results affirm the crucial role of school in shaping a signer’s lexicon. The findings of the phonological variables con- firm the role of grammatical function. Also, there is evidence of language change in progress in this young sign language. In memory of YELLOW YOUNGER, Ã樂儀 Acknowledgements (dwÃ感謝Ï一MÃ與,研v的香/~º，以ÊT©我的iM}朋Ë：林國福和Y安3。 First of all, I would like to sincerely thank all the 68 participants and my deaf friends, Angel Lam and Anita Yu, who assisted me during my fieldwork. Without the help from you all, this research project could not have been carried out. My special appreciation goes to my supervisors: Dr. David McKee, Dr. Rachel McKee (2013–2014), and Prof. Miriam Meyerhoff (2014–2016). I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mr and Mrs McKee who have not only guided and inspired me in my work over the past years, but have also taken care of me in my personal life. My thanks goes to their boys as well. They have always made me feel very welcome at their home. The McKee family is like my family in New Zealand (sorry Rachel, I know you are too young to be my mother). I am tremendously grate- ful to Miriam for her guidance and patience throughout this project. Her encouragement and commendation has always motivated me to feel con- fident and self-assured. Thanks to all three of my supervisors for walking through this journey with me. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from VUW, both for my study and for my field trip for data collection. vi A big thank you to some other people who have helped me in my work in various ways: • to Becky Yau, for spending a night in Cha discussing lexical variants in HKSL with me, while she should be enjoying her visit to Welling- ton in 2013. • to Dr. Adam Schembri, for sharing his experience with me and giv- ing me valuable advice when we met at NWAV-AP3 in 2014. • to Dr. Daniel Ezra Johnson, for his time and patience in answering my numerous enquiries about working with Rbrul. • to Dr. Paul Allison, for responding to my question promptly, which cleared up my confusion in a timely way, so that I could move for- ward in my analysis. • to Dr. Lisa Woods, for her time and statistical support. • to Andre Geldenhuis, for his time in helping me with LaTeX. • to Neda Salahshour, for checking my references. I would like to thank the members of the DSRU: Mark, Micky, and Sara, for allowing me to use their office, for teaching me NZSL, and for their patience in signing with me. The administrative staff of LALS, es- pecially Janet and Bernie, thank you for making my life as a student eas- ier. My core officemates, Neda and Yen, thank you for always being there when I wanted to chat and being quiet when I needed to work. My Can- tonese interlocutors, Matthew and Fiona, thank you for chatting with me in my mother tongue. This is really important to someone away from home. Also, I am so thankful to have two HK deaf friends, Becky and Polly, around in NZ. Their visits and messages meant a lot to me. Special thanks to my best friend, sk, for always being there to share my ups and downs, and for all the support and encouragement. vii I would also like to acknowledge the roots of this research. My sincer- est thanks go to Prof. Gladys Tang of CUHK and Prof. Ceil Lucas of Gal- laudet University. I suppose Gladys had covertly “induced” me to study linguistics long before I became her masters student. Our encounter and conversations were always linked to the deaf people in HK and their lan- guage. I deeply appreciate her insights over the past years. Being in Ceil’s sociolinguistics class and language variation class was the seed of this re- search project. Without her inspiration, this dissertation could not have been written. To get to the stage of pursuing a PhD in the field of sign linguistics was never my initial expectation, but the result has been personally rewarding. Although I do not go to church anymore now, I will never forget how I first started learning to sign and meet deaf people. I am indebted to the members of the HK Catholic Pastoral Association for the Deaf, particularly the former pastor Fr. Charles Dittmeier, who opened my eyes to the Deaf World. I would like to extend my thanks to the HK deaf community. Every deaf individual I met during my interpreting career and my work at the CSLDS has inspired me in some way. All my other friends, deaf and hearing, definitely deserve acknowl- edgement. I do not want to miss anyone of them in this list. Therefore, no names here, but their support and encouragement (plus countless free coffees and meals) over the past years are deeply appreciated and kept in my heart. Finally, thanks to my family for their understanding. My parents have always allowed me to do whatever I want. Because of my big sister and little brother, I could do whatever I want without worrying my parents. We never talk about love in our family, but you all know I love you all. How to access video materials for this dissertation The reader has the option to read this dissertation in digital format with embedded videos if s/he chooses. In the disc attached at the back cover of this dissertation, there is a folder named videos and a pdf file of this dissertation. The pdf file is linked to the videos in the folder. In the pdf file, the figures that have captions in blue are linked to the corresponding videos. For example, on page 89, Figure 4.3 as below. Click on the blue caption of Figure 4.3, then the video file of the two phonological variants of BLUE will be opened in a media player. Contents Abstracti Acknowledgementsv How to access video materials for this dissertation ix Table of contentsx List of Figures xiii List of Tables xx 1 Introduction1 1.1 Background............................1 1.2 Aim and scope...........................5 1.3 Thesis structure..........................6 2 Literature review7 2.1 Overview..............................7 2.2 Sociolinguistic variation in spoken languages.........8 2.2.1 Lexical variation in spoken languages.........8 2.2.2 Phonological variation in spoken languages...... 12 2.3 Sociolinguistic variation in signed languages......... 15 2.3.1 Introduction........................ 15 2.3.2 Lexical variation in signed languages........
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