Modality and Structure in Signed and Spoken Languages

by Edited by Richard P. Meier , Kearsy Cormier , David Quinto-Pozos

• ISBN13: 9780521803854
• ISBN10: 0521803853
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-09
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The realization that signed languages are true languages is one of the great discoveries of the last 30 years of linguistic research. The work of many sign language researchers has revealed deep similarities between signed and spoken languages in their structure, acquisition, and processing, as well as differences, arising from the differing articulatory and perceptual constraints under which signed languages are used and learned. This book provides a crosslinguistic examination of the properties of many signed languages, including detailed case studies of Hong Kong, British, Mexican, and German sign languages. The contributions to this volume, by some of the most prominent researchers in the field, focus on a single question: to what extent is linguistic structure influenced by the modality of language? Their answers offer particular insights into the factors that shape the nature of language and contribute to our understanding of why languages are organized as they are.

Table of Contents

List of figures	viii
List of tables	xi
List of contributors	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
Why differnt, why the same? Expleining effects and non-effects of modality upon linguistic structure in sign and speech	1	(26)
Richard P. Meier
Part I Phonological structure in signed languages	27	(140)
Modality differences in sign language phonology and morphophonemics	35	(30)
Diane Brentari
Beads on a string? Representations of repetition in spoken and signed languages	65	(23)
Rachel Channon
Psycholinguistic investigations of phonological structure in ASL	88	(24)
David P. Corina
Ursula C. Hildebrandt
Modality-dependent aspects of sign language production: Evidence from slips of the hands and their repairs in German Sign Language	112	(31)
Annette Hohenberger
Daniela Happ
Helen Leuninger
The role of Manually Coded English in language development of deaf children	143	(24)
Samuel J. Supalla
Cecile Mckee
Part II Gesture and iconicity in sign and speech	167	(70)
A modality-free notion of gesture and how it can help us with the morpheme vs. gesture question in sign language linguistics (Or at least give us some criteria to work with)	175	(24)
Arika Okrent
Gesture as the substrate in the process of ASL grammaticization	199	(25)
Terry Janzen
Barbara Shaffer
A crosslinguistic examination of the lexicons of four signed languages	224	(13)
Anne-Marie P. Guerra Currie
Richard P. Meler
Keith Walters
Part III Syntax in sign: Few or no effects of modality	237	(84)
Where are all the modality effects?	241	(22)
Diane Lillo-Martin
Applying morphosyntactic and phonological readjustment rules in natural language negation	263	(33)
Roland Pfau
Nominal expressions in Hong Kong Sign Language: Does modality make a difference?	296	(25)
Gladys Tang
Felix Y. B. Sze
Part IV Using space and describing space: Pronouns, classifiers, and verb agreement	321	(148)
Pronominal reference in signed and spoken language: Are grammatical categories modality-dependent?	329	(41)
Susan Lloyd McBurney
Is verb agreement the same crossmodally?	370	(35)
Christian Rathmann
Gaurav Mathur
The effects of modality on spatial language: How signers and speakers talk about space	405	(17)
Karen Emmorey
The effects of modality on BSL development in an exceptional learner	422	(20)
Gary Morgan
Neil Smith
Ianthi Tsimpli
Bencie Woll
Deictic points in the visual-gestural and tactile-gestural modalities	442	(27)
David Quinto-Pozos
Index	469