Language Variation and Historical Change in Sign Languages

手语的语言变异和历史变迁

• 批准号: 1455756
• 负责人: Ted Supalla
• 金额: $ 52万
• 依托单位: Georgetown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-01 至 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1455756&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Language; Variation; Historical; Change; Sign

A central question in the study of signed and spoken languages is where languages display universal properties, and where the modalities of production and perception alter the structure and processing of language. Signed languages arise wherever there are profoundly deaf individuals who communicate using vision and gesture. It has been thought that, due to their modality, signed languages display much simultaneous structure (compared with the predominantly sequential structure of spoken languages). However, the present research shows striking similarities between signed and spoken languages in their earliest forms and also in their processes of historical change. In the U.S., the sign language used throughout the Deaf community is American Sign Language (ASL), a natural language that began in 1817 when the first school for the deaf was formed and brought deaf adults and children together. Prior NSF funding supported transcribing films of Early ASL from 1910 to 1921 (some of the earliest films of ASL in existence); making these linguistic materials publicly available as a Historical Sign Language Database (HSLDB); and analyzing the structure and change in Early ASL from these films through modern ASL in 3 generations of contemporary signers. Historical materials from Old French Sign Language (LSF), the antecedent of many ASL forms, have also been collected. This research has shown that Early ASL and Old LSF were highly sequential, with separate words in phrases as the antecedents of many modern simultaneous word forms. These findings suggest that the principles of historical change in spoken languages, including the common shift from separate words to complex morphology, apply to signed languages as well. In the upcoming funding period, the researchers will continue collecting and analyzing historical and modern linguistic data in American and French native signers, and will expand their work to include Japanese Sign Language, an unrelated sign language, to examine the universality of these linguistic processes. The research team is headed by a principal investigator who is a Deaf native signer of ASL and who will train Deaf native users of American, French, and Japanese Sign Language to conduct linguistic research, contributing to the diversity and span of research in cognitive science and linguistics. This research is the first major historical linguistic work on lexicon, syntax, and morphology in ASL and French Sign Language during the full course of their 250-year history, and also comparing them to Japanese Sign Language (JSL) historical lexicon and grammar, a language unrelated to ASL and LSF. The specific aims are to expand data on modern ASL, by adding forms and phonological notation and by collecting data on variation and change in three generations of modern ASL users; to expand data on early and contemporary LSF; and to begin historical and contemporary work on JSL, a mature language with 150 years of history. This project will provide data and infrastructure for comparative work on sign language structure, variation and historical change, and typology. All materials, including linguistic transcription and coding, will be available in a digital format so that they are preserved and available to other researchers.

在签名和口语的研究中，一个核心问题是语言显示通用属性，以及生产和感知的方式改变了语言的结构和处理。签名的语言都会出现在有深刻聋哑的人以视觉和手势交流的地方。人们认为，由于其模式，签名的语言显示出许多同时的结构（与口语的主要顺序结构相比）。但是，本研究表明，在其最早的形式以及历史变化的过程中，签名语言和口语之间的相似之处。在美国，整个聋人社区中使用的手语是美国的手语（ASL），这是一种自然语言，始于1817年，当时聋人的第一所学校成立，并将聋人的成人和儿童聚集在一起。在1910年至1921年（现有的一些最早的ASL电影）中，NSF资金前资助支持了早期ASL的抄录电影；将这些语言材料公开作为历史手语数据库（HSLDB）公开提供；并在3代现代签名者中通过这些电影从这些电影中分析早期ASL的结构和变化。还收集了许多ASL形式的先决条件的法国旧手语（LSF）的历史材料。这项研究表明，早期的ASL和旧LSF是高度顺序的，在短语中单独的单词是许多现代同时单词形式的前提。这些发现表明，口语的历史变化原则，包括从单独的单词到复杂形态的共同转变，也适用于签名的语言。在即将到来的资金期间，研究人员将继续收集和分析美国和法国本地签名者的历史和现代语言数据，并将扩大其作品，包括日语手语，一种无关的手语，以研究这些语言过程的普遍性。研究团队由ASL的聋哑人签名人领导，他将培训美国，法语和日本手语的聋人本地用户来进行语言研究，从而促进了认知科学和语言学的多样性和研究。这项研究是在其250年历史的整个过程中，关于ASL和法语手语中有关词典，语法和形态的第一部主要历史语言学，也将它们与日本手语（JSL）历史词典和语法进行了比较，这是一种与ASL和LSF无关的语言。具体目的是通过添加表格和语音符号来扩展现代ASL的数据，并通过收集有关三代现代ASL用户的变化和变化的数据；扩展有关早期和现代LSF的数据；并开始对JSL的历史和当代作品，这是一种具有150年历史的成熟语言。该项目将提供数据和基础架构，以进行手语结构，差异和历史变化以及类型学的比较工作。包括语言转录和编码在内的所有材料都将以数字格式提供，以便将其保存并提供给其他研究人员。