albu 092014 pronouns in asl · 2020. 6. 12. · function as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases...
TRANSCRIPT
PRONOUNS IN ASL
AGENDA
1. Define pronoun 2. Explore phonological aspects 3. Group Activity: Look at examples and
identify various strategies used in ASL pronominal systems
Count the Pronouns
Jules glanced into the far room at the aquarium where the old woman kept
the big rattlesnake. He couldn’t figure out how he’d missed the thing
before. It was as though they had just appeared. When he did find it,
he asked her to cover it with an overturned end table, just to be sure.
Count the Pronouns
Chomsky’s Competency versus Performance
• Competency -- the linguistic knowledge that the native speaker has
• Performance -- the native speaker’s
use of the language
Soapbox • Degrees,
professionalism, and a shared body of knowledge
• Competence and performance
What is the definition of a pronoun?
• N. One of a class of words that function as substitutes for nouns
or noun phrases and denotes persons or things asked for,
previously designated, or understood from the context.
What is the function of a pronoun?
• A pronoun’s role is to make communications
efficient, reduce redundancy
The purpose of the pronoun is to make communication more efficiency
Jules glanced into the far room at the aquarium where the old woman kept the big rattlesnake. (Jules) couldn’t figure out how (Jules) had missed (the aquarium with the big rattlesnake) before. It was as though (the aquarium with the big rattlesnake) had just appeared. When (Jules) did find (the aquarium with the big rattlesnake), (Jules) asked (the old woman) to cover (the aquarium with the big rattlesnake) with an overturned end table, just to be sure.
The purpose of the pronoun is to make communication more efficiency
Jules glanced into the far room at the aquarium where the old woman kept the big rattlesnake. He couldn’t figure out how he’d missed the thing before. It was as though they had just appeared. When he did find it, he asked her to cover it with an overturned end table, just to be sure.
Theoretical Contradictions
• Not all languages have pronouns, or do they?
• Fact: Pronominal forms are not universal. – Does it follow second language
theory: the more divergent they are from your native language the more difficult to grasp?
How is efficiency accomplished?
There are 2 main ideas to get from this discussion:
1. Pronouns are created from the simplest of linguistic parts.
2. There are relaxed (weak) morphological
forms in the pragmatics of communication.
• D’jeet yet? • Can be/can go
• Cheese nacho mama • Ten percent
• Tell’em I’m home • Even though Bev was right there, she
still told her the story! • Shawn talked about Mike and his trip to
Jamaica.
Linguistics
Linguistics • Phonology • Morphology
• Syntax • Semantics • Pragmatics
Phonology
Smallest unit of linguistic study Unit is meaningless in and of itself Combines with other phonemes to create morphemes
Morphology Smallest unit of meaning; word/sign Combines with other morphemes to create sentences Also lexicon, lexemes
Syntax The study of sentential and phrasal organization of the communication Also referred to as the grammar of a language
blue sky sky blue
MOVIE FINISH FINISH, MOVIE
Semantics • The study of meaning; specifically
how meaning is grasped from a communication event
• Ambiguity -- a word, phrase, sentence, or other communication is called ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way.
Pragmatics
The study of language as it is used in a social context, including its effect on the interlocutors.
Pragmatics is concerned with bridging the gap between sentence meaning and speaker’s meaning. The study of how context influences the interpretation is then crucial.
Back to EFFICIENCY
• All morphemes are made up of phonological elements
• Pronouns fall into the very simple, most basic articulations.
LIST ENGLISH PRONOUNS
Consonants
Consonants
Unmarked versus Marked
Unmarked are simple fffffffvvvvvvvfffffffffvvvvvvv
Marked are more complex they/thick bath/break
Vowels
SHOW ASL PRONOUNS
Phonology of ASL
ASL has five major divisions on the phonological level:
– Handshape – Palm orientation – Location – Movement – Non-manual signals
Unmarked Handshapes
B A S 1 C 0 5
Strong versus Weak
Strong versus Weak Forms
Citation form – the way a morpheme is pronounced (articulated) in isolation
In connected speech, morphemes are often
produced in altered forms. Think of the difference between handwriting in print and cursive.
Strong versus Weak Forms
Cursive writing is a good example of the effects language and communication has on the micro-level and the variations are many and not always as distinguishable as a nice pretty print. Word and sign pronunciations go through the same permutations when they are put in the communication event.
Strong versus Weak Forms
Assimilation: – Anticipation
– Preservation
ASL Pronominal Systems
• The ASL pronominal system is sub-divided depending on whether the person/place/thing is present or not present in the communication environment
ASL Pronominal Systems
• ASL pronouns are different from English pronouns in several ways:
– In ASL (as in Chinese) the same pronouns can be used to refer to people or things, males or females
– The grammatical role (e.g. subject/object) of the pronoun in ASL does not change form as it does in English: He told them. They told him.
ASL Pronominal Systems • One way that ASL takes
advantage of the 3-dimensional nature of ASL is to set up or establish non-present referents in specific locations around his/her body.
• This way the signer can point to these locations and those points serve as pronouns.
Here is a list of lexemes that serve pronoun roles:
• Pointing or extending index finger (YOU,
ME, THEY, etc.) • Flat hand (YOUR, MY, etc.) – possessive • Closed fist (SELF) – reflexive • Y-handshape (THAT-ONE) • Semi-open, relaxed 5-handshape
(honorific YOU) • 2-hand, 3-hand, 4-hand, etc.
Here is a list of behaviors that serve pronoun roles:
• Head nods • Gaze behaviors • Facial movements
When using a pronoun to refer to non-present noun:
• Reality Principle,
where referents are placed according to their arrangement in real space.
• When reality principle cannot be used, there is often the use of patterns.
When using a pronoun to refer to non-present noun:
• Once a signer establishes a referent in space, all
future references should be consistent with that initial location unless the referent has clearly been moved.
• Once a signer has established a reference point, other signers in the conversation will also make consistent use of that space when referring to same person (with exceptions depending on the proximity of signers to each other).
Pronominal reference points can be made in the following ways:
Making the sign in a particular location. • Fingerspelling the name of the referent in a
particular location. • Directing head and eye movements toward a
particular location while making the sign or fingerspelling the name of the referent. This strategy can be used alone or paired with other markers.
• Using a pronoun (POSS-rt, SELF-lf) right after the sign is made.
• Using a classifier that represents the referent. • Using a directional verb (LOAN).
Non-dominant hand referents This is a modification of the listing technique and
there are several ways referents can be established:
• Pointing to a specific finger on the non-dominant hand and then fingerspelling with the dominant hand.
• Resting the butt of the dominant hand on the non-dominant finger while spelling the referent.
• Showing the non-dominant finger and then signing the referent, or vice versa.
Wikipedia.com
Pro-Drop • A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-
dropping") is a language where pronouns can be deleted when they
are in some sense pragmatically inferable
• The precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be
quite intricate.
Wikipedia.com
Pro-Drop • In everyday speech there are
often instances when who or what is being referred to can be
inferred from context.
• In a pro-drop language, the pronouns that in other languages would have those referents can be omitted, or be phonologically
null.
Wikipedia.com
Pro-Drop • Among major languages, a clear cut
case of a pro-drop language is Japanese (featuring pronoun deletion
not only for subjects, but for practically all grammatical contexts).
• Mandarin and American Sign Language also exhibit frequent pro-
drop features.
Group activity
Vowels Front Mid Back eve /i/ bird / R/ boot / u/ it / I/ up / A/ foot / U/ hate / e/ obey / o/
met / E/ all / c/
at / @/ father / a/