Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T06:13:05.968Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conceptual Spaces and Pronominal Reference in American Sign Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Karen van Hoek
Karen van Hoek
Affiliation:
Program in Linguistics, 1093 Frieze Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. e-mail: kvh@umich.edu
Get access

Abstract

American Sign Language uses spatial locations as an integral part of its systems of pronominal reference. Referents mentioned in an ASL discourse may be associated with points in the signing space (“referential loci”). Pronominal signs are directed to those loci, unambiguously indicating their referents. Referential loci are sometimes analyzed as overt phonological representations of the semantic indices associated with referents in the discourse. In this paper I show that referential loci do not function merely to index or identify referents, but rather that they carry a great deal of additional information pertaining to the conceptual location of referents in the discourse space. I examine contexts in which one referent is associated with two distinct loci in the signing space, and offer a preliminary formulation of principles governing locus selection in such contexts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , December 1992 , pp. 183 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ariel, M. 1988. Referring and Accessibility. Journal of Linguistics 24:65–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ariel, M. 1990. Accessing Noun Phrase Antecedents. New York: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Fauconnier, G. 1985. Mental Spaces. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT PressGoogle Scholar
van, Hock K. 1989. Locus Splitting in American Sign Language. In Carison, R., DeLancey, S., Gildea, S., Payne, D. & Saxena, A. (eds.) Proceedings of the Fourth Pacific Linguistics Conference, Eugene Oregon: University of Oregon Press. pp. 239–255.Google Scholar
van, Hock K. 1992. Paths through Conceptual Structure: Constraints on Pronominal Anaphora. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California at San Diego.Google Scholar
Klima, E.S. and Bellugi, U. 1979. The Signs of Language. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Liddell, S. 1990. Four Functions of a Locus. In Lucas, C. (ed.) Sign Language Research; Theoretical Issues. Washington D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. pp. 176–198.Google Scholar
Lillo-Martin, D. and Klima, E.S. 1991. Pointing Out Differences: American Sign Language Pronouns in Syntactic Theory. In Fischer, S. and Siple, P. (eds.), Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research vol. 1, Chicago: Chicago University Press. pp. 191–210.Google Scholar
Padden, C. 1983 Interaction of Morphology and Syntax in American Sign Language. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California at San Diego.Google Scholar
Padden, C. 1990. The Relation Between Space and Grammar in ASL Verb Morphology. In Lucas, C. (ed.) Sign Language Research; Theoretical Issues, Washington D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. pp. 118–132.Google Scholar