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Concise Lexicon for Sign Linguistics Jan Nijen Twilhaar & Beppie van den Bogaerde John Benjamins Publishing Company www.ebook3000.com Concise Lexicon for Sign Linguistics www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com Concise Lexicon for Sign Linguistics Edited by Jan Nijen Twilhaar Beppie van den Bogaerde HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia www.ebook3000.com TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of 8 the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. doi 10.1075/z.201 Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress: lccn 2016016218 (print) / 2016027316 (e-book) isbn 978 90 272 1233 7 (Hb) isbn 978 90 272 1234 4 (pb) isbn 978 90 272 6688 0 (e-book) © 2016 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · https://benjamins.com www.ebook3000.com Table of contents Foreword vii Introduction and acknowledgments ix Sign language acronyms x Transcription of sign language examples x Sign language examples in glosses x Lexicon 1 References 221 Sources of figures 230 www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com Foreword This large, well-researched and clearly formatted lexicon of a wide variety of linguistic terms is a long-overdue and extremely welcome addition to the bookshelves of sign language teachers, interpreters, linguists, learners and other sign language users. Unique to this lexicon is not only the inclusion of many terms that are used espe- cially for sign languages, but also the fact that for the terms, there are not only examples from spoken languages but there are also glossed and translated examples from several different sign languages. As a sign language linguist, I foresee many interesting uses of this lexicon. There is an immediate temptation to find examples of terms in the sign language one is studying as well as determining how many of the most used concepts would be signed in the local language. As there are to date still almost no reference grammars of sign languages, the definitions of many of these concepts would be extremely helpful for those linguists planning to make a reference grammar of their sign language. The format provides a helpful guide for noting concepts which one uses for one’s own sign language, but which might not (yet) be in this lexicon. Curious researchers of spoken languages might also be interested in the linguistic terms used primarily for signed languages. I predict that this book will gather no dust on the bookshelves of its many differ- ent users. Penny Boyes Braem, PhD. Dr. h.c. Basel, December 2015 www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com Introduction and acknowledgments ThisConcise Lexicon for Sign Linguistics has been developed out of an expressed need by beginning sign language (SL) learners in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). During the last decades, more and more departments of sign linguistics have been established, as well as SL interpreter training and SL teacher programs. We can find such educational programs at different levels (diploma courses, bachelor and master programs (academic and professional) and even post-academic trajectories. The core of such programs is, of course, always the sign language. Its form, content and use need to be studied, learned and/or acquired within the cultural context of the local Deaf community. For second language learners, explicit instruction in form, content and use has been demonstrated to be supportive for the language learning process. However, for many sign languages no or little description exist of the various linguistic domains as there are, i.e. phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, to name the most important. What we do know is that signed languages, sharing the visual-manual modality, seem to have many similarities and overlapping grammatical structures, besides of course also having their own language-specific features. For beginning students of sign languages, we wanted to provide an overview of the most commonly found terminology and concepts, offered in a systematic way to enhance comprehension and learning by novice HEI sign language learners. Of course, advanced learners or native signers can also make use of the lexicon, since it provides an overview of the most commonly studied aspects of signed languages in general. We would like to mention that this lexicon can be seen as a sign language diptych along with The Linguistics of Sign Languages. An Introduction by Baker et al. (2016), also published by Benjamins. We hope this lexicon will support many learners of signed languages, be they pu- pils, students, parents of deaf children, or others interested in these visual languages. We could not have done this work without the feedback and support of many col- leagues. We cannot thank them all, but wish to specially mention here dr. Roland Pfau (University of Amsterdam), and dr. Penny Boyes Braem (Center for Sign Language Research, Zurich, Switzerland) for their willingness to discuss lemmas with us. The responsibility for any errors rests, of course, with us. This publication has been made possible with the support of the Deaf Studies Research Unit, the Knowledge Center, and the Institute for Sign, Language & Deaf Studies of Faculty of Education, Hogeschool Utrecht, University of Applied Sciences. Jan Nijen Twilhaar and Beppie van den Bogaerde Utrecht, January 2016 www.ebook3000.com x Concise Lexicon for Sign Linguistics Sign language acronyms In the lemmas of this dictionary we regularly refer to sign languages by means of ac- ronyms that are conventionally used in the international literature. These references are not entirely uniform. Some acronyms are based on the English name of the sign language (for example, BSL for British Sign Language). Other acronyms are based on the name of the sign language which is used in the concerning country (for example, NGT for Sign Language of the Netherlands). In the examples of the lemmas we always use the full English name of the sign languages. The acronyms listed below are always put between brackets behind these full names. ASL American Sign Language Auslan Australian Sign Language BSL British Sign Language DGS German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache) ISL Israeli Sign Language LIS Italian Sign Language (Lingua Italiana dei Segni) LIU Jordanian Sign Language (Lughat il-Ishaara il-Urdunia) LSA Argentine Sign Language (Lengua de Signos Argentina) LSE Spanish Sign Language (Lengua de Signos Española) LSF French Sign Language (Langue des Signes Française) NGT Sign Language of the Netherlands (Nederlandse Gebarentaal) SSL Swedish Sign Language VGT Flemish Sign Language (Vlaamse Gebarentaal) Transcription of sign language examples Sign language examples in glosses Signs are often represented in the form of glosses in small caps. These glosses do not give any information about the phonological form of the signs. We will first illustrate the conventions for the manual glosses and then those for the non-manual markers. For handshapes we make use of the font developed by the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, Centre for Sign Linguistic and Deaf Studies, of the Chinese University in Hong Kong, handshapes2002 (CUHK). possx A possessive pronoun, which in many sign languages is signed with a ]-hand. For instance poss1 is articulated on the signer’s chest. sign A gloss (i.e. the translation of a sign in written form of a spoken language) is indicated in small capital letters, for example house. In this book all signs are glossed in English. Introduction and acknowledgments xi sign++ Reduplication of a sign (for example to express plurality or certain aspectual categories), for example book++ means ‘books’. sign^sign Combined signs in a compound, for example monk^boss ‘abbot’. sign-sign Linked words if several words are needed to gloss one single sign, for exam- ple break-with-stone. clxx, cl:x A classifier handshape is indicated by ‘cl’ in combination with a subscript referring to the referent, for example clbig or clthin, or with a symbol for the handshape, for example cl: B or cl: ]. xsigny This is a verb sign that moves from one location to another, indicating agree- ment between the verb and the subject and/or object. Both subscripts indi- cate the locations. The verb 1give2 for instance, moves from the location of the signer (me) to the addressee (you). s-i-g-n Fingerspelled elements are indicated in lower case letters, linked by hyphens, for example for names: ‘s-a-l-l-y’. Lines above the glosses indicate the extension or scope (the beginning and the end) of a specific non-manual marker. Non-manual markers have functions at different linguistic levels. In this book the following symbols are used. /op/ Phonological marker: the silent articulation of the corresponding spoken Dutch word ‘op’. This mouth picture accompanies the NGT auxiliary aux-op. t This marker indicates a topicalized constituent: usually raised eyebrows and a slight forward tilt of the head. wh This marker accompanies a content question (wh-question): usually lowered eyebrows. y/n This marker accompanies a yes/no question: usually raised eyebrows, some- times in combination with head forward. neg This is the marker of negation: usually a headshake, often accompanied by a negative facial expression. aff This is the marker of affirmation: repeated head nods. hn This is a single head nod, for affirmation or in an imperative sentence. bl This is the marker for a body lean in the direction of a specific location, for example ‘bl-3a’ or ‘bl-left’. se This is the marker for squinted eyes, which is used in counterfactual condi- tional clauses. pl This is the marker for pursed lips, which is used in non-restrictive relative clauses.
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