29Mar 2017

EXPRESSION OF PROPER NOUNS AND PRONOUNS BY DEAF SIGNERS OF INDIAN SIGN LANGUAGE (MUMBAI-DELHI DIALECT).

  • Lecturer in Speech Pathology, Department of Speech Language Pathology, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing Mysore ? 570006.
  • Former Professor of Speech Pathology, Department of Speech Language Pathology, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore ? 570006.
Crossref Cited-by Linking logo

  • Abstract
  • Keywords
  • References
  • Cite This Article as
  • Corresponding Author

The aim of the study was to investigate the expression of proper nouns and pronouns by deaf signers of Indian Sign Language (ISL) (Mumbai-Delhi dialect) in narration. Ten fluent Deaf signers of Indian Sign Language (5 Males & 5 Females), in the age range of 18-40 years using signs of Mumbai-Delhi dialect were included in the study. The picture cards of the story ?The snake and the mongoose? was used for the narration task. The participants were presented with the picture cards and instructed to narrate the story using sign language. The signed expressions of the participants were video recorded and later analyzed by two judges individually. The judges transcribed and coded the signed expression of the participants for proper nouns and pronouns types using ELAN software and the frequency of occurrence was calculated for the proper nouns and pronoun types. The results showed that the deaf signers of ISL used noun sign or fingerspelling to express the proper nouns; and used a combination of ?manual pointing and eye gaze? as a predominant strategy to indicate pronouns. Use of other strategies such as a) manual pointing/indexing alone and b) manual pointing/indexing using combination of non-manual markers were also used to express the pronoun types.

  1. Alibasic Ciciliani, T., & Wilbur, R. B. (2006). Pronominal system in Croatian Sign Language. Sign Language and Linguistics, 9(1-2): 95-132.
  2. Baker, C., & Cokely, D. (1980). American Sign Language: A teacher?s resource text on grammar and culture. Silver Spring, MD: T. J. Publishers.
  3. Bangerter, A. (2004). Using pointing and describing to achieve joint focus of attention in dialogue. Psychological Science 15(6): 415-419.
  4. Bellugi, U. & Fischer, S. D. (1972). A comparison of sign language and spoken language, Cognition, 1: 173-200.
  5. N. (1996).? Person and Deixis in Brazilian Sign Language.?Advisor: Eve Sweetser.
  6. Bergman, B. (1980). On localisation in the Swedish Sign Language. In I. Ahlgren & B. Bergman (Eds), Papers from the First International Symposium on Sign Language Research (pp. 81-92). Leksand. Swedish National Association of the Deaf.
  7. Bos, H.F. (1995). Pronoun Copy in Sign Language of the Netherlands. In Bos, H. & Schermer, T. (Eds.), Sign Language Research 1994. Proceedings of the 4th European Congress on SLR. 121-147.
  8. Brentari, D. (1998). A Prosodic Model of Sign Language Phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  9. Clark, H. H. (2003). Pointing and placing. In S. Kita (Ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture and cognition meet (pp. 243?268). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  10. Cormier, K. (2005). Exclusive Pronouns in American Sign Language. In: E. Filimonova (Ed.), Clusivity: Typology and Case Studies of Inclusive-Exclusive Distinction (pp. 241-268). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
  11. Cormier, K. (2007). Do All Pronouns Point? Indexicality of First Person Plural Pronouns in BSL and ASL. In M. Perniss, Pamela, R. Pfau, & M. Steinbach (Eds.), Visible Variation: Comparative Studies on Sign Language Structure (pp. 63-101). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  12. Cormier, K., & Fenlon, J., (2009). Possession in the visual--gestural modality: how possession is expressed in British Sign Language. In W. McGregor (Eds.), The Expression of Possession (pp. 389-422). Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin.
  13. Cormier, K., Fenlon, J., Rentelis, R., & Schembri, A. (2011). Lexical frequency in British Sign Language conversation: A corpus-based approach. In P. K. Austin, O. Bond, L. Marten & D. Nathan (Eds.), Proceedings of the Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory 3. London: SOAS.
  14. Crasborn, O., Mesch, J., Waters, D., Nonhebel, A., Van der Kooij, E, Woll, B., & Bergman, B. (2007). Sharing sign language data online. Experiences from the ECHO project. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 12(4): 535-562.
  15. Folstein, M. F.,Folstein, S. E.,?& McHugh, P. R. (1975). Mini-mental state. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12(3): 189-98.
  16. Friedman, L. A. (1975). Space, Time and Person Reference in ASL. Language, 51, 940-61. Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness (vol. 1). (1986). New York, McGraw-Hill.
  17. R., Jr. (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, (15th ed.), Dallas, Texas: SIL international.
  18. Hatzopoulou, M., (2008). Acquisition of Reference to Self and Others in Greek Sign Language: From Pointing Gesture to Pronominal Pointing Signs. Stockholm University, Stockholm.
  19. Haviland, J. B. (2000b). Pointing, Gesture Spaces, and Mental Maps. In D. McNeill (ed.), Language and Gesture (pp. 13?46). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  20. Hellwig, B & Van Uytvanck, D. (2007). EUDICO Linguistic Annotator (ELAN) version 4.7.3 manual: http://www.lat-mpi.eu/tools/elan/manual
  21. Janis, W. D. (1992). Morphosyntax of the ASL Verb Phrase. (PhD Dissertation). State University of New York at Buffalo.
  22. Johnston, T. & Crasborn, O. (2006). The use of ELAN annotation software in the creation of signed language corpora, in ?Proceedings of the EMELD?06 Workshop on Digital Language Documentation: Tools and Standards: The State of the Art\' (pp. 20-22). Lansing, MI.
  23. Johnston, T & Schembri, A. (2006). Issues in the creation of a digital archive of a signed language. In L. Barwick & N. Thieberger (Eds.), Sustainable data from digital fieldwork: Proceedings of the conference held at the University of Sydney, (pp. 7-16), University of Sydney: Sydney University Press.
  24. Johnston, T, and Schembri, A. (2007). Australian Sign Language. An Introduction to Sign Language Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  25. Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  26. Kita, S., (2003a). Interplay of gaze, hand, torso orientation, and language in pointing. In S. Kita (Ed.), Pointing: Where Language, Culture and Cognition Meet (pp.307-328). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
  27. Kita, S., (2003b). Pointing: a foundational building block of human communication. In: S. Kita (Ed.), Pointing: Where Language, Culture and Cognition Meet (pp. 1-8). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
  28. Kita, S., (2003c). Pointing: Where Language, Culture and Cognition Meet. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
  29. Kita, S., (2009). Cross-cultural variation of speech-accompanying gesture: a review. Language and Cognitive Processes, 24: 145-167.
  30. Klima, E., & Bellugi. U. (1979). The Signs of Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  31. Kyle, J. G. & Woll, B. (1985). Sign Language: The Study of Deaf People and Their Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  32. Liddell, S. K., & Metzger, M., (1998). Gesture in sign language discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 30: 657--697.
  33. Liddell, S. K., (2000b). Indicating verbs and pronouns: Pointing away from agreement, in: Emmorey, K., Lane, H. (Eds.), The Signs of Language Revisited: An Anthology to Honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima. (pp. 303- 320). Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
  34. Liddell, S. K., (2003). Grammar, gesture and meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  35. Lillo-Martin, D. & Klima, E. (1990). Pointing out Differences: ASL Pronouns in Syntactic Theory. In S. D. Fischer & P. Siple (Eds.), Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Vol. 1: Linguistics (pp. 191?210). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  36. Lyons, J. (1979). Deixis and anaphora. In: T. Myers (Ed.), The Development of Conversation and Discourse (pp. 88?103). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  37. MacLaughlin, D. (1997). The structure of determiner phrases: Evidence from American Sign Language. (Ph.D. Doctoral Dissertation), Boston University, Boston, MA.
  38. Mathur, G. (2000). Verb Agreement as Alignment in Signed Languages. (Ph.D. Doctoral Dissertation), MIT.
  39. McBurney, S. L. (2002). Pronominal reference in sign and spoken language: Are grammatical categories modality-dependent? In R. P. Meier, K. Cormier & D. Quinto-Pozos (Ed.), Modality and structure in sign and spoken languages (pp. 329-369). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  40. Meier, I. (2003). Modality and Grammaticalization: The emergence of a case marked pronoun in ISL.Journal of Linguistics,?39(1): 109-140.
  41. Meier, R. (1990). Person Deixis in ASL. In S. D. Fischer & P. Siple (Eds.), Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Vol. 1: Linguistics (pp. 175? 190). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  42. Neidle, C., Kegl, J., MacLaughlin, D., Bahan, B., & Lee, R. G. (2000). The Syntax of American Sign Language: Functional Categories and Hierarchical Structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  43. C. (2002). SignStream? Annotation: Conventions used for the American Sign Language Linguistic Research Project. Boston University, retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/
  44. Padden, C. (1983). Interaction of morphology and syntax in ASL (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). University of California, San Diego.
  45. Padden, C. (1988). Interaction of Morphology and Syntax in American Sign Language. New York: Garland.
  46. Prajapati, N., & Asai, T. (2010). Implementation of universal design and its opportunities in Indian market. Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan.
  47. Sandler,W. (1989).?Phonological representation of the sign: Linearity and nonlinearity in American?Sign??Dordrecht, Holland:?Foris?Publications.
  48. Tang, G., & Sze, F. (2002). Nominal expressions in Hong Kong Sign Language: Does modality make a difference?. In R. P. Meier, K. Cormier & D. Quinto-Pozos (Eds.),Modality and structure in signed and spoken languages?(pp. 296-321). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  49. Vasishta, M., Woodward, J., & Wilson, K. L. (1978). Sign Languages of India: Regional variations within the deaf populations. Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics 4(2): 66?74.
  50. Zeshan, U. (2000).Sign Language of Indo-Pakistan: A description of a Signed Language. Philadelphia, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
  51. Zeshan, U., Vasishta, M. M., & Sethna, M. (2004). Implementation of Indian sign language in educational settings. Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, 15(2): 15-35.
  52. Zwitserlood, I., Ozyurek, A. & Perniss, P. (2008). Annotation of Sign and Gesture Cross-linguistically. In O. Crasborn, T. Hanke, E. Efthimiou, I. Zwitserlood & E. Thoutenhoofd (Eds.), Construction and Exploitation of Sign Language Corpora. 3rd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages (pp. 185-190). ELDA, Paris.

[Yashomathi and R. Manjula. (2017); EXPRESSION OF PROPER NOUNS AND PRONOUNS BY DEAF SIGNERS OF INDIAN SIGN LANGUAGE (MUMBAI-DELHI DIALECT). Int. J. of Adv. Res. 5 (Mar). 1413-1427] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com

Yashomathi
Lecturer in Speech Pathology, Dept. of Speech Language Pathology, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Naimisham Campus, Manasagangothri, Mysuru - 570006

DOI:

Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/3649      
DOI URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/3649

Download Full Paper

Download PDF No. of Downloads: 14 | No. of Views: 122