Doctoral Dissertation Research: Sign language spatial modulation across sociohiohistorical contexts

博士论文研究：跨社会历史背景的手语空间调制

基本信息

批准号：
2020713
负责人：
Diane Brentari
金额：
$ 1.27万
依托单位：
University of Chicago
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-09-01 至 2023-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2020713&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Doctoral Dissertation Research Sign language

项目摘要

Sign languages (SLs) are situated in the visual-spatial modality, and the body and hands are directly visible during communication. This affords SLs the use of three-dimensional space in fundamental ways. Space is used, or modulated, to refer to locations in an iconic way, allowing signers to place or move referents based on their real world locations or relative spatial configurations. Space is also modulated to track grammatical arguments—i.e., to introduce and maintain discourse referents. How signers weave both person and location referents throughout a discourse has been of great theoretical interest in the sign language linguistics literature. Among proposed frameworks, some reconcile these two uses of space within a single linguistic agreement analysis, while others employ both linguistic (morphemic) and non-linguistic (gestural) analyses rather than an entirely linguistic one.In order to better understand the origins and development of these two referent functions in differing linguistic environments, this research analyzes the distribution of spatial modulations (locative and argument) across three languages–American Sign Language (ASL) a well-established sign language over 300 years old, Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) young sign language of approximately 50 years old that is developing autonomously without outside influence, and Lengua de Señas Costarricense (LESCO) a young sign language that is developing in a situation with strong language contact with ASL. The student researcher will obtain language samples from three sub-groups of NSL and LESCO that represent earlier stages of grammatical development, using the “apparent time” hypothesis, and compare them with equivalent samples from the well-established sign language, ASL. The goal of this work is to tease apart the factors involved in deictic reference tracking in spatial events from its use in argument structure. The proposed research will also serve to further document under-studied sign languages, and to archive the data collected in a permanent, institutionally-maintained repository.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

手语（SL）位于视觉空间形态中，在交流过程中身体和手是直接可见的，这使得手语能够以基本方式使用或调制空间来指代。以标志性的方式定位到位置，允许手语者根据他们的现实世界位置或相对空间配置来放置或移动所指对象，空间也被调制以跟踪语法参数，即引入和维护话语所指对象。整个话语中的位置所指在手语语言学文献中具有很大的理论意义，一些框架在单一语言一致性分析中调和了这两种空间用法，而其他框架则同时采用语言（语素）和非语言（语素）。为了更好地理解这两种指称功能在不同语言环境中的起源和发展，本研究缝合了三种语言——美国手语（美国手语）已有 300 多年历史的成熟手语、拥有约 50 年历史、不受外界影响而自主发展的尼加拉瓜手语 (NSL) 年轻手语、以及在特定情况下发展的年轻手语 Lengua de Señas Costarricense (LESCO)学生研究人员将使用“表观时间”假设，从 NSL 和 LESCO 的三个子组中获取代表语法发展早期阶段的语言样本。将它们与成熟的手语 ASL 中的等效样本进行比较。这项工作的目标是将空间事件中指示参考跟踪所涉及的因素与其在论证结构中的使用分开。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。