Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T11:01:38.559Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Nominal expressions in Hong Kong Sign Language: Does modality make a difference?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Gladys Tang
Affiliation:
Associate Professor Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Felix Y. B. Sze
Affiliation:
Research student University of Bristol, UK
Richard P. Meier
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Kearsy Cormier
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
David Quinto-Pozos
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Signed language research in recent decades has revealed that signed and spoken languages share many properties of natural language, such as duality of patterning and linguistic arbitrariness. However, the fact that there are fundamental differences between the oral–aural and visual–gestural modes of communication leads to the question of the effect of modality on linguistic structure. Various researchers have argued that, despite some superficial differences, signed languages also display the property of formal structuring at various levels of grammar and a similar language acquisition timetable, suggesting that the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar (UG) apply across modalities (Brentari 1998; Crain and Lillo-Martin 1999; Lillo-Martin 1999). The fact that signed and spoken languages share the same kind of cognitive systems and reflect the same kind of mental operations was suggested by Fromkin (1973), who also argued that having these similarities does not mean that the differences resulting from their different modalities are uninteresting. Meier (this volume) compares the intrinsic characteristics of the two modalities and suggests some plausible linguistic outcomes. He also comments that the opportunity to study other signed languages in addition to American Sign Language (ASL) offers a more solid basis to examine this issue more systematically.

This chapter suggests that a potential source of modality effect may lie in the use of space in the linguistic and discourse organization of nominal expressions in signed language.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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

Abney, Steven P. 1987. The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. Doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Ahlgren, Inger and Brita Bergman. 1994. Reference in narratives. In Perspectives on sign language structure: Papers from the 5thInternational Symposium on Sign Language Research, ed. Inger Ahlgren, Brita Bergman and Mary Brennan, 29–36. Durham: International Sign Linguistics Association, University of Durham
Allan, Keith. 1977. Classifiers. Language 53:285–311CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahan, Benjamin, Judy, Kegl, Robert, G. Lee, Dawn, MacLaughlin and Carol, Neidle. 2000. The licensing of null arguments in American Sign Language. Linguistic Inquiry 31:1–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brentari, Diane. 1998. A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Cheng, Lisa and Rint, R. Sybesma. 1999. Bare and not-so-bare nouns and the structure of NP. Linguistic Inquiry 20:509–542CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crain, Stephen and Diane Lillo-Martin. 1999. An introduction to linguistic theory and language acquisition. Malden, MA: Blackwell
Fauconnier, Gilles. 1985. Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Fauconnier, Gilles. 1997. Mapping in thought and language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Fromkin, Victoria A. 1973. Slips of the tongue. Scientific American 229:109–117CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kegl, Judy. 1985. Locative relations in American Sign Language: Word formation, syntax and discourse. Doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Klima, Edward and Ursula Bellugi. 1979. The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Liddell, Scott K. 1980. American Sign Language syntax. The Hague: Mouton
Liddell, Scott K. 1994. Tokens and surrogates. In Perspectives on sign language structure: Papers from the 5thInternational Symposium on Sign Language Research, ed. Inger Ahlgren, Brita Bergman and Mary Brennan, 105–119. Durham, England: International Sign Linguistics Association, University of Durham
Liddell, Scott K. 1995. Real, surrogate and token space: grammatical consequences in ASL. In Language, gesture, and space, ed. Karen Emmorey and JudyReilly, 19–42. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Liddell, Scott K. 1996. Spatial representation in discourse: comparing spoken and sign language. Lingua 98:145–167CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddell, Scott K. and Melanie, Metzger. 1998. Gesture in sign language discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 30:657–697CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lillo-Martin, Diane. 1991 Universal Grammar and American Sign Language: Setting the null argument parameters. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Lillo-Martin, Diane. 1999. Modality effects and modularity in language acquisition: The acquisition of American Sign Language. In Handbook of child language acquisition, ed. Tej K. Bhatia and William C. Ritchie, 531–568. San Diego, CA: Academic Press
Longobardi, Giuseppe. 1994. Reference and proper names: a theory of N-movement in syntax and logical form. Linguistic Inquiry 25:609–665Google Scholar
MacLaughlin, Dawn. 1997. The structure of determiner phrases: Evidence from American Sign Language. Doctoral dissertation, Boston University, Boston, MA
Matthews, Stephen and Virginia Yip. 1994. Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar. London: Routledge
Meier, Richard P. 1990. Person deixis in American Sign Language. In Theoretical issues in sign language research. Vol. 1: Linguistics, ed. Susan D. Fischer and Patricia Siple, 175–190. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
Neidle, Carol, Judy Kegl, Dawn MacLaughlin, Benjamin Bahan, and Robert G. Lee. 2000. The syntax of American Sign Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Padden, Carol. 1990. The relation between space and grammar in ASL verb morphology. In Sign language research: Theoretical issues, ed. Ceil Lucas, 118–132. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press
Poizner, Howard, Edward Klima, and Ursula Bellugi. 1987. What the hands reveal about the brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Sze, Felix Y. B. 2000. Space and nominals in Hong Kong Sign Language. M.Phil. thesis, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Tang, Gladys. 1999. Motion events in Hong Kong Sign Language. Paper presented at the Annual Research Forum, Hong Kong Linguistic Society, Chinese University of Hong Kong, December
van Hoek, Karen. 1996. Conceptual locations for reference in American Sign Language. In Spaces, worlds, and grammar, ed. Gilles Fauconnier and Eve Sweetser, 334–350. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
Wilbur, Ronnie B. 1979. American Sign Language and sign systems. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press
Zimmer, June and Cynthia Patschke. 1990. A class of determiners in ASL. In Sign language research: Theoretical issues, ed. Cecil Lucas, 201–210. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×