Register Variation in Flemish Sign Language (VGT) The influence of register variation on signing speed, mouthings and mouth gestures and the reduction of two - handed signs. Maarten Vandewalle Studentnumber: 01106243 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mieke Van Herreweghe A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literature - language combination D utch - English Academic year: 2017 - 2018 2 A b stract This thesis is the report of a research on register variation in Flemish Sign Language (VGT). The idea was to study the influence of formality on the speed of signing, the amount of mouthings and mouth gestures and the reduction of two - handed signs. By calculating those aspects for both a formal and an informal setting, I could compare the language use in two different situations. The results of this research showed that the aforementioned aspects of VGT are influenced by register variation, but no definitive definition of register variation could be given, as there was no consistent difference between the informal and formal situations. 3 4 Acknowledgments I embarked on this journey of sign langua ge research with a few very clear goals. The first one is getting a degree. As this is my master's thesis and the very last part of my education, I am very eager to complete it and earn my diploma. The second goal of this thesis was to learn. Students writ e their thesis on subjects they are interested in and mostly they already know a good deal about it. For me, that was also the case, but sign language research is still a young discipline, and there is still so much more to learn about the Flemish Sign Lan guage. I am happy that I was able to look at a theme that interests me deeply in order to finish my education. My interest in sign languages has always been there. However, it remained a distant goal to learn the language until 2014. In 2014, I enrolled in the course organised by Fevlado Diversus VZW. I learned the language over the course of two years and though I am far from fluent, I am still enthusiastic to increase my knowledge and my competences concerning the language. In 2016, I took the class on the grammatical aspects of VGT taught by prof. dr. Mieke Van Herreweghe and I finished my bachelor's paper on the subject of negation in VGT. The choice to write this thesis on VGT was easily made. My interest in the variationist sociolinguistics is of a m ore recent date and can be attributed to prof. dr. Stef Slembrouck, who taught a class on sociolinguistics in my second year and sparked my interest, and prof. dr. Johan De Caluwe, whose classes on tussentaal and language use have made a great impression o n me. I would like to take this opportunity to give thanks to some very important people. First of all I would like to thank my promoter, prof. dr. Mieke Van Herreweghe. She is one of the authorities on Flemish Sign Language and it has been a huge honour and an amazing opportunity to have had her as my promoter. I would like to thank her for her support and her advice. She made time for me even though her schedule is always full and she always helped me as soon as possible. She was my promoter for my bach elor's paper and choosing her as the promoter for my thesis was obvious. Professor Slembrouck and professor De Caluwe, for reasons I have already explained. Next I would like to thank my parents, without whom I would never have made it this far in my life and who have supported me in writing this thesis. Mostly they did so by reminding me the deadline was 'only' three months away. Your nagging may not have been appreciated at all times, but you guys do mean well. Lastly, and maybe 5 most importantly, Sien: yo u are my muse, my guardian angel and the reason I continued writing every day. Without you, I would be nowhere. Thank you. For everything! 6 Index Abstract ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 3 Acknowledgments ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 5 Index ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 7 List of terms ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 8 1. Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 9 2. Flemish Sign Language (Vlaamse Gebarentaal or VGT) ................................ ................................ .. 11 2.1. VGT as a natural language ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 12 2. 2. The use of the mouth in VGT ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 14 2.3. Variation in VGT ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 15 3. Register variation ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 21 3.1. The five styles according to Joos (1967) ................................ ................................ .................. 21 4. Earlier studies ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 25 4.1. Research on sign languages in general ................................ ................................ .................... 25 4.2. Research on register in sign languages ................................ ................................ ................... 27 4.3. Research on register variation in VGT ................................ ................................ ..................... 28 5. The study ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 31 5.1. Corpus VGT ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 32 5.2. Selection of the material ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 33 5.3. Methods ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 35 6. Results ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 37 6.1. Signing speed ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................... 37 6.2. Mouthings and mouth gestures ................................ ................................ .............................. 38 6.3. Reduction of two - handed signs ................................ ................................ .............................. 39 7. Discussion ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 41 7.1. Problems during the research ................................ ................................ ................................ 41 7.2. Signing speed ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................... 43 7.3. Mouthings and mouth gestures ................................ ................................ .............................. 47 7.4. Reduction of two - handed signs ................................ ................................ .............................. 52 7.5. General discussion ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 53 8. Further research ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................... 57 9. Conclusion ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 61 10. Bibliography ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 63 11. Annex ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 67 7 Word Count: 20656 List of terms ASL: American Sign Language BSL: British Sign Language Fevlado: Federatie van de Vlaamse Dovenverenigingen or Federation of the Flemish deaf organisations NmG: Nederlands met Gebaren or Signed Dutch Tussentaal: Literaly 'in - between - language', language used by (young) Flemish Dutch speakers (De Caluwe, 2009). VGT: V laamse Gebarentaal or Flemish Sign Language 8 1. Introduction Register variation has been described in many languages and according to Biber (1995) it is present in every language . In a fairly recent research branch, register variation has been discovered in American Sign Language (ASL) (Zimmer, 1989 and Quinto - Pozos and Mehta, 2010) and British Sign Language (BSL) ( Sutton - Spence and Woll, 1999 and Stone, 2011) as well. It is clear that register variation is something that is present in most natu ral languages. It only stands