LINGUIST List 23.3346
Wed Aug 08 2012
Diss: Pragmatics: Altimira: 'The meaning of space in Catalan Sign Language...'
Editor for this issue: Lili Xia
<lxialinguistlist.org>
Date: 08-Aug-2012
From: Gemma Barberà Altimira <gemma.barbera
upf.edu>
Subject: The meaning of space in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). Reference, specificity and structure in signed discourse.
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Institution: Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Program: Cognitive Science and Language
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2012
Author: Gemma Barberà Altimira
Dissertation Title: The meaning of space in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). Reference, specificity and structure in signed discourse.
Dissertation URL:
http://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/81074
Linguistic Field(s):
Pragmatics
Dissertation Director:
Josep Quer
Dissertation Abstract:
This dissertation is concerned with the semantic and pragmaticproperties of sign space in Catalan Sign Language (llengua de signescatalana, LSC). It offers a description and analysis of how spatiallocations are integrated in the discourse grammar of LSC concerningthe dynamic nature of discourse and taking into account dynamicsemantic theories. The dissertation offers new evidence in favour ofthe r-locus view (Lillo-Martin & Klima, 1991), according to which spatiallocations stand for the representation of discourse referents. Myworking hypothesis is that spatial locations are integrated into thegrammar of LSC and they need to be analysed with respect to the rolethey play in the denotation of specificity and discourse structure. Theanalysis is framed under the formalisation of Discourse RepresentationTheory, on the basis of a small-scale LSC corpus.
I argue that non-descriptive locations are established in the threespatial planes and the grammatical features contained within them arecomprehensibly described. Spatial locations are morphophonologicallymarked with an abstract point in space which does not have a specificdirection on the horizontal plane and which is categorically interpretedin the linguistic system. Discourse referents attached to narrow scopequantifiers, exemplified by non-argumental NPs, donkey sentences,distributivity and quantification contexts, genericity and reference tokinds, do not occupy a spatial location in LSC. Only discourse referentsattached to wide scope quantifiers (i.e. those discourse referents notbound by any operator) are formally represented by a spatial locationin actual signing.
Once strong arguments are provided showing that spatial locations inLSC stand only for referential entities, the dissertation also shows thatthe frontal plane is grammatically relevant for specificity marking: lowerspatial locations correlate with specificity, whereas upper locationscorrelate with non-specificity. The three properties ascribed tospecificity, namely scope, partitivity and identifiability are associatedwith the two directions on the frontal plane. The analysis is completedwith instances of discourse referents embedded in modal subordinationcontexts, which are associated with locations established on the lowerfrontal plane. Lower spatial locations correspond to discourseprominence, defined as variables with backward looking properties aswell as forward looking properties, independently of the scope of thequantifier attached to the variable.
Page Updated: 08-Aug-2012