Mouth Actions In Sign Languages

Mouth actions in sign languages have been controversially discussed but the sociolinguistic factors determining their form and functions remain uncertain. This first empirical analysis of mouth actions in Irish Sign Language focuses on correlations with gender, age, and word class. It contributes to the linguistic description of ISL, research into non-manuals in sign languages, and is relevant for the cross-modal study of word classes.

Mouth actions in sign languages have been controversially discussed but the sociolinguistic factors determining their form and functions remain uncertain. This first empirical analysis of mouth actions in Irish Sign Language focuses on correlations with gender, age, and word class. It contributes to the linguistic description of ISL, research into non-manuals in sign languages, and is relevant for the cross-modal study of word classes.

Mouth actions in sign languages have been controversially discussed but the sociolinguistic factors determining their form and functions remain uncertain. This first empirical analysis of mouth actions in Irish Sign Language focuses on correlations with gender, age, and word class. It contributes to the linguistic description of ISL, research into non-manuals in sign languages, and is relevant for the cross-modal study of word classes.

While most natural languages rely on speech, humans can spontaneously generate comparable linguistic systems that utilize manual gestures. This collection of papers examines the interaction between natural language and its phonetic vessels—human speech or manual gestures. We seek to identify what linguistic aspects are invariant across signed and spoken languages, and determine how the choice of the phonetic vessel shapes language structure, its processing and its neural implementation. We welcome rigorous empirical studies from a wide variety of perspectives, ranging from behavioral studies to brain analyses, diverse ages (from infants to adults), and multiple languages—both conventional and emerging home signs and sign languages.

In addition to the hands, sign languages make extensive use of nonmanual articulators such as the body, head, and face to convey linguistic information. This collected volume focuses on the forms and functions of nonmanuals in sign languages. The articles discuss various aspects of specific nonmanual markers in different sign languages and enhance the fact that nonmanuals are an essential part of sign language grammar. Approaching the topic from empirical, theoretical, and computational perspectives, the book is of special interest to sign language researchers, typologists, and theoretical as well as computational linguists that are curious about language and modality. The articles investigate phenomena such as mouth gestures, agreement, negation, topicalization, and semantic operators, and discuss general topics such as language and modality, simultaneity, computer animation, and the interfaces between syntax, semantics, and prosody.Originally published in Sign Language & Linguistics 14:1 (2011)

This grammar of Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) phonology adds to a sparse literature on the units of categorical form in the world’s sign languages. At the same time, it brings descriptive and theoretical research on sign language phonology into better alignment by systematically evaluating current models of sign language phonology for each of the main parameters – handshape, location, and movement – against the KSL data. This grammar also makes a methodological contribution by using a unique dataset of KSL minimal pairs in the analysis, demonstrating that minimal pairs are not as infrequent in sign languages as previously thought. The main content of the book is found in five chapters on handshape, location, core articulatory movement, manner of movement, and other distinctive features (e.g., orientation, mouth actions). The book also contains two large appendices that document the phonological evidence for each of the 44 handshapes and 37 locations. This book will be a key reference for descriptive and typological studies of sign phonology, as well as a helpful resource for linguists interested in understanding the similarities and differences between current models of sign phonology and identifying promising avenues for future research.

This volume represents the first time that researchers on signed language and gesture have come together with a coherent focus under the framework of cognitive linguistics. The pioneering work of Sherman Wilcox is highlighted throughout, scaffolding much of the research of these contributors. The five sections of the volume reflect critical areas of Dr. Wilcoxs own research in cognitive linguistics: Guiding research principles in signed language, gesture, and cognitive linguistics, iconicity across signed and spoken linguistics, multimodality, blending, depiction and metaphor in signed languages, and specific grammatical constructions as form-meaning pairings. The authors of this volume exemplify and continue Dr. Wilcoxs work of bridging signed and spoken language disciplines by contributing chapters that represent a multiplicity of perspectives on signed, spoken, and gesture data. This volume presents a unified collection of cognitive linguistics research by leading authors that will be of interest to readers in the fields of signed and spoken language linguistics, gesture studies, and general linguistics.