The contribution of lexical overlap to perceived iconicity in foreign signs
Author: Rehana Omardeen
Student number: 4683277
First supervisor and first reader: Prof. dr. O. Crasborn
Second supervisor and second reader: dr. C. Börstell
September, 2018 Acknowledgements
I would like to say thank you my supervisors, Onno Crasborn and Calle Börstell for their advice and guidance throughout the thesis project. Special thanks to Merel van Zuilen for recording the CSL signs, and Roeland van Hout for help with mixed models. Lastly, thank you to everyone who helped recruit participants for the study, and of course the participants themselves. The handshape fonts used in this thesis are created by the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies, CUHK. List of Abbreviations
ASL American Sign Language
BSL British Sign Language CSL Chinese Sign Language
DGS German Sign Language Deutsche Gebärdensprache
Libras Brazilian Sign Language Língua Brasileira de Sinais
LSC Catalan Sign Language Llengua de Signes Catalana NGT Sign Language of the Netherlands Nederlandse Gebarentaal
TİD Turkish Sign Language Türk İşaret Dili LEXICAL OVERLAP AND PERCEIVED ICONICITY
1. Introduction 5 2. Background 8 2.1. Iconicity 8 2.2. Lexical comparisons 12 2.3. The current study 15 3. Methods 17 3.1. Research design 17 3.2. Materials 17 3.3. Phonological comparison 18 3.4. Iconicity rating 22 3.5. Analysis 24 4. Results 25 4.1. Usage 25 4.2. Foreign versus native iconicity 26 4.3. Lexical overlap and iconicity 27 5. Discussion 30 6. Conclusion 36 References 37 Appendix 40