Mouth Actions in Sign Languages Sign Languages and Deaf Communities 3
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Mouth Actions in Sign Languages Sign Languages and Deaf Communities 3 Editors Annika Herrmann Markus Steinbach Ulrike Zeshan Editorial board Carlo Geraci Rachel McKee Victoria Nyst Marianne Rossi Stumpf Felix Sze Sandra Wood De Gruyter Mouton · Ishara Press Mouth Actions in Sign Languages An Empirical Study of Irish Sign Language By Susanne Mohr De Gruyter Mouton · Ishara Press ISBN 978-1-61451-705-4 e-ISBN 978-1-61451-497-8 ISSN 2192-516X e-ISSN 2192-5178 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. ” 2014 Walter de Gruyter, Inc., Boston/Berlin and Ishara Press, Preston, UK Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck Țȍ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Acknowledgements Many people have accompanied this book in its development from a raw manuscript to the edited book. I couldn’t have finished it without them and I want to express my gratitude to them here. First of all, my deepest thanks go to my PhD supervisor, Silvia Kutscher. Thank you for taking me on as a PhD student, for supporting me academi- cally and personally in situations when this whole endeavour seemed at stake. I appreciate your comments on my texts, they helped me see several linguistic problems clearer. I would also like to thank all the people who were involved in the editing, production and printing process of this book. Markus Steinbach, Ulrike Zeshan and Annika Herrmann for editorial insights and support. Thank you for always being available for even the tiniest questions relating to the text and the publishing process. Thanks also to Nicola Wright for production and final compilation of the book, as well as to Emily Farrell at de Gruyter Mouton. For scholarly criticism and linguistic advice, thanks to my anony- mous reviewer. This book was very much improved by your expertise in sign languages and linguistics and the attentive eye you turned on the manuscript. Thank you to the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne for financial as well as academic support. It is a privilege to receive a PhD scholarship in Germany. I especially appreciate the feedback I got from Claudia Riehl. Thank you for supporting me and my work – and for the discussions in class and on your balcony. A big thank you goes to Lorraine Leeson and the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with the ISL data, for supporting me during my trip to Dublin in 2009 and beyond. For answering all my small and bigger questions. Without your expertise on ISL, this wouldn’t have been possible. Further, thank you to all the signers who agreed that their data be published. Caroline W., Eilish B., Fergus D., Fergus M., Kevin L., Laurence H., Marian H., Michelle M., Noeleen D., Peter M., Sarah-Jane M. and Sean H. Thank you to my proof-readers: Aaron Horton and Vanessa Crouch for native speaker support, I could always rely on your expertise of the English language. I am also indebted to Anastasia Bauer, Anne Fehn, Kirsten Gather and Maxi Limbach who (re-)read rather long parts of this book and helped me improve it with their comments. vi Acknowledgements There is only one group of people left that I haven’t mentioned yet: my family and friends. You all supported me morally, especially in believing in me and my work no matter what. Thank you for countless talks over the phone, over hot tea or a pint, for emails and letters. Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... v List of figures ............................................................................................... xi List of tables ............................................................................................... xiv Abbreviations .............................................................................................. xv Notational Conventions ............................................................................xvii 1. Introduction ..............................................................................................1 2. The Linguistic Setup of Sign Languages – The Case of Irish Sign Language (ISL) ........................................................................................4 2.1. The Sociolinguistics of ISL ..............................................................5 2.2. The Educational System and Oralism ..............................................9 2.3. Structural Issues: The Use of Space............................................... 11 2.4. Structural Issues: Iconicity .............................................................18 2.5. Structural Issues: Simultaneity .....................................................21 2.6. Structural issues: Non-manual Features .......................................24 3. Non-manuals in Sign Languages – Theoretical Background.................31 3.1. Non-Mouth Related Non-Manuals ................................................32 3.1.1. Eye Gaze .............................................................................32 3.1.2. Facial Expression ................................................................34 3.1.2.1. Facial Expression and the Lexicon .......................35 3.1.2.2. Facial Expression and Syntax ...............................36 3.1.2.3. Facial Expression and Prosody .............................46 3.1.3. Head Movements ................................................................48 viii Contents 3.2. Mouth Actions ................................................................................50 3.2.1. Mouth Gestures ...................................................................51 3.2.2. Echo Phonology ..................................................................54 3.2.3. Mouthings ...........................................................................55 3.2.4. Spreading of Mouth Actions ..............................................61 4. Mouth Actions in ISL – A Typology of Mouthings and Mouth Gestures ..................................................................................................64 4.1. Data Sources and Methodology .....................................................66 4.2. Categorization of Mouth Actions in the SOI Data .........................71 4.2.1. Mouthings ...........................................................................71 4.2.2. Mouth Gestures ...................................................................84 4.2.3. Mouth Actions in the SOI at a Glance ................................92 5. Mouth Actions in ISL – Sociolinguistic Factors ....................................94 5.1. Research Questions and Hypotheses .............................................94 5.2. Mouth Actions and Gender ............................................................95 5.2.1. Mouth Actions in Women ...................................................95 5.2.2. Mouth Actions in Men ........................................................97 5.2.3. Comparison of Mouth Actions in Men and Women ...........99 5.3. Combining Two Sociolinguistic Factors – Gender and Age ........102 6. Mouth Actions in ISL – Linguistic Factors .......................................... 114 6.1. Word Classes – Historical and Theoretical Background ............. 115 6.1.1. Semantic Approaches to Word Class Distinction ............. 118 6.1.2. Syntactic Approaches to Word Class Distinction .............122 6.1.3. Morphosyntactic Approaches to Word Class Distinction ............................................................... 123 6.1.4. Word Class Distinction in Sign Languages.......................126 6.1.5. Discussion .........................................................................131 Contents ix 6.2. Mouth Actions and Word Classes in ISL .....................................132 6.2.1. Syntactic Categories of ISL ..............................................134 6.2.2. Lexical Classes of ISL ......................................................138 6.2.3. Correlations of Word Classes and Mouth Actions ............144 6.2.4. Mouth Gestures as a Category in Its Own Right? ............148 6.2.5. Discussion of the Results within a Functional Linguistic Model ................................................................................ 154 7. Conclusion ...........................................................................................162 Appendix A Complete list of lexical signs and fingerspellings with mouthings ........... 166 Appendix B Contexts for examples (glossed with mouthings) ..................................... 185 Notes ......................................................................................................... 204 Reference .................................................................................................. 212 Index ......................................................................................................... 228 List of figures 2.1 St. Mary’s School for Deaf Girls, Cabra 10 2.2 St. Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys, Cabra 10 2.3 The signing space 12 2.4 Locations of singular person agreement in the signing space 14 2.5 The ISL sign ask inflecting for person 15 2.6 Person inflection in ISL signs 16 2.7 The ISL sign mock 17 2.8 The ISL sign