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Charles University Guest Lecture Kate Mesh, 10-24-14

Classifying Signed Languages: `Urban Sign’, ` Village Sign’, ` Home Sign’, and an I nstructive Border Case. Charles University Guest Lecture Kate Mesh, 10-24-14. How are Sign Languages Classified?. Urban. Village. Home Sign. Urban / National / “Deaf Community” Sign Languages.

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Charles University Guest Lecture Kate Mesh, 10-24-14

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  1. Classifying Signed Languages:`Urban Sign’, `Village Sign’, `Home Sign’, and an Instructive Border Case Charles University Guest Lecture Kate Mesh, 10-24-14

  2. How are Sign Languages Classified? • Urban • Village • Home Sign

  3. Urban / National / “Deaf Community” Sign Languages • Originated and maintained in educational institutions. • Deaf people maintain the language. WFD (2014); Meir et al (2010); Woodward (1996, 2000)

  4. Urban / National / “Deaf Community” Sign Languages • e.g., Českýznakovýjazyk: • 1st deaf school founded 1786

  5. Village Sign Languages • Originated and maintained in villages where the rate of deafness is high. • Deaf and hearing villagers sign. • There are few distinctions between deaf and hearing people in the society. Meir et al (2010); Nonaka (2012; 2009)

  6. Village Sign Languages E.g., Adamorobe Sign Langauge (Ghana) 41 deaf signers; “many” (of pop. 3500) hearing signers Deaf and hearing villagers are (nearly all) farmers (Kusters 2012; Nyst 2009)

  7. Village Sign Languages E.g., Al-SayyidBedoin Sign Langauge (Israel) • 140 deaf signers; “many” (of pop. 3000) hearing signers • Deaf and hearing: similar work, dissimilar education. (Sandler et al 2005; Kisch 2004)

  8. Village Sign Languages E.g.,Ban Khor Sign Language (Thailand) • 16 deaf signers; ~500 hearing signers • Deaf and hearing: similar work (rice farming); similar education (until recently) (Nonaka 2012, 2007)

  9. Village Sign Languages E.g.,Kata Kolok (North Bali) • 50 deaf signers; “most” (pop. 2,200) hearing signers • Deaf and hearing: similar jobs, similar marriage opportunities (de Vos 2011; Marsaja 2008)

  10. How are Sign Languages Classified? • Home Sign • Exactly one deaf person signs. Hearing family members may sign, but do not match the deaf person’s signs. (Goldin-Meadow et al 2011, 2003; Coppola 2002; Frishberg 1987)

  11. How are Sign Languages Classified? • Home Sign E.g., “David” and his hearing family • 1 deaf signer • parents and sister use gestures unlike “David’s (Goldin-Meadow et al 2011, 2003)

  12. Chatino Sign Language (CSL):What kind of signed language could this be? CSL investigated during 3.5 months of fieldwork in 2012 and 3 months of fieldwork in 2014 (and counting…)

  13. Oaxaca City

  14. Oaxaca to Field Site

  15. Oaxaca to Field Site

  16. San Juan Quihije& Cieneguilla

  17. San Juan Quiahije & Cieneguilla

  18. What is the Rate of Deafness? • Combined Pop. 3,628 (INEGI 2012) • Deaf individuals: 10 • 6 adults (2 female) • 4 children (all female)

  19. Are Deaf and Hearing People ‘Equal’? • Employment: similar farming work (some exceptions) • Education: no deaf education (but one deaf child goes to school, anyway) • Marriage patterns: deaf men marry hearing women

  20. Who Uses the Language? • 11 Deaf people • Their immediate family members • Is their signing similar to that of deaf people? • Extended family members • Not always: what factors motivate family members to sign? • Others? • “Associates” (= friends and co-workers)

  21. Who is ‘Signing’ and who is ‘Gesturing’? • Many hearing people are willing to gesture with one another—when they can’t hear one another and when they don’t share a language. • Is there anything different about how they gesture with deaf people?

  22. We stopped asking:What kind of signed language could this be?…and started asking:What supports communication between deaf and hearing people here?

  23. What Communication Looks Like:

  24. An Early Project on the Language Structure:Exploring Negation among deaf and hearing signers

  25. Project 1: Negation in CSL • 6 independent manual negative particles in Chatino Sign (Hou & Mesh 2013) • For basic clause negation: • TWIST-Y • TWIST-5 • WAG • 3 other semantically negative signs • FINISH • DEAD • WAG

  26. (1) TWIST-Y This sign functions as: • an existential negator • a basic clausal negator

  27. (1) TWIST-Y

  28. (2) TWIST-5 • This sign functions as: • a basic clause negator • an existential negator • a negative interjection

  29. (2) TWIST-5

  30. (3) WAG • This sign functions as: • a basic clause negator • a negative interjection

  31. (3) WAG

  32. (4) FINISH • With a headshake and other non-manual markers, this functions as an emphatic negative • Without a headshake, this denotes an event completion marker and also a discourse marker

  33. (4) FINISH

  34. (5) DEAD • With a headshake and other non-manual signals, this denotes an aspectual function, meaning `no more’ • Without the headshake, this is a lexical item denoting `dead’

  35. (5) DEAD

  36. (6) SHRUG • A semantically negative item that means `I don’t know’ when produced with raised eyebrows, hunched shoulders, and lips turned down • Also functions as a discourse marker

  37. (6) SHRUG

  38. Where deaf and hearing signers differ: deaf use of multiple distinct contiguous negators

  39. Where deaf and hearing signers differ: deaf use of multiple distinct contiguous negators

  40. Where deaf & hearing signers look the same: all use negators at the ends of sentences

  41. Where deaf & hearing signers look the same: all use verb- & clause-final negation

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