The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change
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Ted Supalla
Abstract
It has frequently been claimed that a synthetic typology is a hallmark of sign language. However, this view is challenged by our historical reconstruction of early forms and subsequent changes in the expression of negation and gendered kinship in American Sign Language. Early rule-governed phrases provided an environment for the formation of analytic paradigms and then cliticization, enabling gradual processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization. These conclusions are reinforced by our fieldwork on young sign languages on Amami Island and in international contact situations among deaf European signers. These data show, respectively, consistent proto-word formation and analytic negative constructions similar to early ASL. Moreover, our fieldwork and analyses of a historically unrelated but mature sign language – Japanese Sign Language – reveal a distinct structure for complex gender morphology as a result of the differing nature and sequential order of the earlier analytic forms. I will also discuss examples of culturally salient gestures which result in different evolutionary paths for unrelated sign languages.
Abstract
It has frequently been claimed that a synthetic typology is a hallmark of sign language. However, this view is challenged by our historical reconstruction of early forms and subsequent changes in the expression of negation and gendered kinship in American Sign Language. Early rule-governed phrases provided an environment for the formation of analytic paradigms and then cliticization, enabling gradual processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization. These conclusions are reinforced by our fieldwork on young sign languages on Amami Island and in international contact situations among deaf European signers. These data show, respectively, consistent proto-word formation and analytic negative constructions similar to early ASL. Moreover, our fieldwork and analyses of a historically unrelated but mature sign language – Japanese Sign Language – reveal a distinct structure for complex gender morphology as a result of the differing nature and sequential order of the earlier analytic forms. I will also discuss examples of culturally salient gestures which result in different evolutionary paths for unrelated sign languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and Acknowledgements vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
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Part I. Grammaticalization
- The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change 15
- On the origin of Niger-Congo nominal classification 43
- A closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals 67
- Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min 83
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Part II. Problems in historical comparison and reconstruction
- Emergence of the tone system in the Sanjiazi dialect of Manchu 101
- Searching for undetected genetic links between the languages of South America 115
- Reconstructing the category of “associated motion” in Tacanan languages (Amazonian Bolivia and Peru) 129
- The mirage of apparent morphological correspondence 153
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Part III. Historical development of morphosyntactic features
- Analogy as a source of suppletion 175
- The rise and demise of possessive classifiers in Austronesian 199
- Immediate-future readings of universal quantifier constructions 227
- The historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English 243
- Recycling “junk” 267
- Sapirian ‘drift’ towards analyticity and long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian 289
- Language index 329
- Index of terms 333
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and Acknowledgements vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Grammaticalization
- The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change 15
- On the origin of Niger-Congo nominal classification 43
- A closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals 67
- Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min 83
-
Part II. Problems in historical comparison and reconstruction
- Emergence of the tone system in the Sanjiazi dialect of Manchu 101
- Searching for undetected genetic links between the languages of South America 115
- Reconstructing the category of “associated motion” in Tacanan languages (Amazonian Bolivia and Peru) 129
- The mirage of apparent morphological correspondence 153
-
Part III. Historical development of morphosyntactic features
- Analogy as a source of suppletion 175
- The rise and demise of possessive classifiers in Austronesian 199
- Immediate-future readings of universal quantifier constructions 227
- The historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English 243
- Recycling “junk” 267
- Sapirian ‘drift’ towards analyticity and long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian 289
- Language index 329
- Index of terms 333
