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Title:
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Issues in the Analysis of Polycomponential Verbs in Australian Sign Language
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Author:
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Adam Schembri
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/team/adam_schembri.html
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Sydney
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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2001
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Language Documentation
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Subject Language(s):
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Australian Sign Language
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Director(s):
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Michael Walsh
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Abstract:
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This dissertation examines problems in the current analysis of polycomponential verbs of motion and location in signed languages, with a focus on Australian Sign Language. Prior to the seminal work of Stokoe (1960), the signed languages of deaf communities were often considered by linguists to be gestural, and thus non-linguistic, forms of communication. Since 1960, however, attempts have increasingly been made to describe all aspects of the visual-gestural communication of signed languages as part of a linguistic system. Researchers since the late 1970s have endeavored to show that polycomponential verbs are polysynthetic, multimorphemic constructions. Evidence will be presented in this dissertation that calls this claim into question.
One part of this evidence comes from a detailed critique of the current analysis of polycomponential verbs as multimorphemic constructions. A second part of the evidence for this counterclaim comes from the detailed analysis of data collected from deaf signers of Australian Sign Language and Taiwanese Sign Language using stimulus material originally developed for American Sign Language.
This comparison illustrates important cross-linguistic differences in the use of handshape morphemes to represent referents in these signs. Uses of space and some features of movement in these signs appear, however, to be highly similar in these three unrelated signed languages. Moreover, the data from these three signed languages is compared to data collected from a group of hearing adult non-signers using the same stimulus material. This comparison highlights points of similarity in the responses from signers and gesturers, and suggests that many of the spatial and movement features of polycomponential verbs in signed languages appear to be transparently related to their meanings, rendering problematic attempts to analyze them as morphemes in the traditional sense This evidence supports the claim that polycomponential verbs of motion and location in signed languages represent combinations of linguistic and gestural components and are an important area in which signed languages differ from spoken languages.
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