American Sign Language phonology

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Sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL) are characterized by phonological processes analogous to, yet dissimilar from, those of oral languages. Although there is a qualitative difference from oral languages in that sign-language phonemes are not based on sound, and are spatial in addition to being temporal, they fulfill the same role as phonemes in oral languages. [1]

Contents

Six types of signs have been suggested: one-handed signs made without contact, one-handed signs made with contact (excluding on the other hand), symmetric two-handed signs (i.e. signs in which both hands are active and perform the same action), asymmetric two-handed signs (i.e. signs in which one hand is active and one hand is passive) where both hands have the same handshape, asymmetric two-handed signs where the hands have differing handshapes, and compound signs (that combine two or more of the above types). [2] The non-dominant hand in asymmetric signs often functions as the location of the sign. Monosyllabic signs are the most common type of signs in ASL and other sign languages. [3]

Phonemes and features

Signs consist of units smaller than the sign. These are often subdivided into parameters: handshapes with a particular orientation, that may perform some type of movement, in a particular location on the body or in the "signing space", and non-manual signals. These last may include movement of the eyebrows, the cheeks, the nose, the head, the torso, and the eyes. Parameter values are often equalled to spoken language phonemes, although sign language phonemes allow more simultaneity in their realization than phonemes in spoken languages. Phonemes in signed languages, as in oral languages, consist of features. For instance, the /B/ and /G/ handshapes are distinguished by the number of selected fingers: [all] versus [one].

Most phonological research focuses on the handshape. A problem in most studies of handshape is the fact that often elements of a manual alphabet are borrowed into signs, although not all of these elements are part of the sign language's phoneme inventory. [4] Also, allophones are sometimes considered separate phonemes. The first inventory of ASL handshapes contained 19 phonemes (or cheremes [5] ).

In some phonological models, movement is a phonological prime. [6] [7] Other models consider movement as redundant, as it is predictable from the locations, hand orientations and handshape features at the start and end of a sign. [8] [9] Models in which movement is a prime usually distinguish path movement (i.e. movement of the hand[s] through space) and internal movement (i.e. an opening or closing movement of the hand, a hand rotation, or finger wiggling).

Allophony and assimilation

Each phoneme may have multiple allophones, i.e. different realizations of the same phoneme. For example, in the /B/ handshape, the bending of the selected fingers may vary from straight to bent at the lowest joint, and the position of the thumb may vary from stretched at the side of the hand to fold in the palm of the hand. Allophony may be free, but is also often conditioned by the context of the phoneme. Thus, the /B/ handshape will be flexed in a sign in which the fingertips touch the body, and the thumb will be folded in the palm in signs where the radial side of the hand touches the body or the other hand.

Assimilation of sign phonemes to signs in the context is a common process in ASL. For example, the point of contact for signs like THINK, normally at the forehead, may be articulated at a lower location if the location in the following sign is below the cheek. Other assimilation processes concern the number of selected fingers in a sign, that may adapt to that of the previous or following sign. Also, it has been observed that one-handed signs are articulated with two hands when followed by two-handed signs.

Phonotactics

As yet, little is known about ASL phonotactic constraints (or those in other signed languages). The Symmetry and Dominance Conditions [4] are sometimes assumed to be phonotactic constraints. The Symmetry Condition requires both hands in a symmetric two-handed sign to have the same or a mirrored configuration, orientation, and movement. The Dominance Condition requires that only one hand in a two-handed sign moves if the hands do not have the same handshape specifications, and that the non-dominant hand has an unmarked handshape. However, since these conditions seem to apply in more and more signed languages as cross-linguistic research increases, it is doubtful whether these should be considered as specific to ASL phonotactics.

Prosody

ASL conveys prosody through facial expression and upper-body position. Head position, eyebrows, eye gaze, blinks, and mouth positions all convey important linguistic information in sign languages.

Some signs have required facial components that distinguish them from other signs. An example of this sort of lexical distinction is the sign translated 'not yet', which requires that the tongue touch the lower lip and that the head rotates from side to side, in addition to the manual part of the sign. Without these features, it would be interpreted as 'late'. [10]

Though there are some non-manual signs that are used for a number of functions, proficient signers don't have any more difficulty decoding what raised eyebrows mean in a specific context than speakers of English have figuring out what the pitch contour of a sentence in context means. The use of similar facial changes such as eyebrow height to convey both prosody and grammatical distinctions is similar to the overlap of prosodic pitch and lexical or grammatical tone in a tone language. [11]

Like most signed languages, ASL has an analogue to speaking loudly and whispering in oral language. "Loud" signs are larger and more separated, sometimes even with one-handed signs being produced with both hands. "Whispered" signs are smaller, off-center, and sometimes (partially) blocked from sight to unintended onlookers by the speaker's body or a piece of clothing. In fast signing, in particular in context, sign movements are smaller and there may be less repetition. Signs occurring at the end of a phrase may show repetition or may be held ("phrase-final lengthening").

Phonological processing in the brain

The brain processes language phonologically by first identifying the smallest units in an utterance, then combining them to make meaning. In spoken language, these smallest units are often referred to as phonemes, and they are the smallest sounds we identify in a spoken word. In sign language, the smallest units are often referred to as the parameters of a sign (i.e. handshape, location, movement and palm orientation), and we can identify these smallest parts within a produced sign. The cognitive method of phonological processing can be described as segmentation and categorization, where the brain recognizes the individual parts within the sign and combines them to form meaning. [12] This is similar to how spoken language combines sounds to form syllables and then words. Even though the modalities of these languages differ (spoken vs. signed), the brain still processes them similarly through segmentation and categorization.

Measuring brain activity while a person produces or perceives sign language reveals that the brain processes signs differently compared to regular hand movements. This is similar to how the brain differentiates between spoken words and semantically lacking sounds. More specifically, the brain is able to differentiate actual signs from the transition movements in between signs, similarly to how words in spoken language can be identified separately from sounds or breaths that occur in between words that don't contain linguistic meaning. Multiple studies have revealed enhanced brain activity while processing sign language compared to processing only hand movements. For example, during a brain surgery performed on a deaf patient who was still awake, their neural activity was observed and analyzed while they were shown videos in American Sign Language. The results showed that greater brain activity occurred during the moments when the person was perceiving actual signs as compared to the moments that occurred during transition into the next sign [13] This means the brain is segmenting the units of the sign and identifying which units combine to form actual meaning.

An observed difference in location for phonological processing between spoken language and sign language is the activation of areas of the brain specific to auditory vs. visual stimuli. Because of the modality differences, the cortical regions will be stimulated differently depending on which type of language it is. Spoken language creates sounds, which affects the auditory cortices in the superior temporal lobes. Sign language creates visual stimuli, which affects the occipitotemporal regions. Yet both modes of language still activate many of the same regions that are known for language processing in the brain. [14]   For example, the left superior temporal gyrus is stimulated by language in both spoken and signed forms, even though it was once assumed it was only affected by auditory stimuli. [15] No matter the mode of language being used, whether it be spoken or signed, the brain processes language by segmenting the smallest phonological units and combining them to make meaning.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sign Language</span> Sign language used predominately in the US

American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expressed by employing both manual and nonmanual features. Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based creoles are used in many countries around the world, including much of West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. ASL is also widely learned as a second language, serving as a lingua franca. ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language center</span> Speech processing areas of the brain

In neuroscience and psychology, the term language center refers collectively to the areas of the brain which serve a particular function for speech processing and production. Language is a core system that gives humans the capacity to solve difficult problems and provides them with a unique type of social interaction. Language allows individuals to attribute symbols to specific concepts, and utilize them through sentences and phrases that follow proper grammatical rules. Finally, speech is the mechanism by which language is orally expressed.

In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones represent two separate phonemes in the language.

A phoneme is any set of similar speech sounds that is perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages contains phonemes, and all spoken languages include both consonant and vowel phonemes. Phonemes are primarily studied under the branch of linguistics known as phonology.

Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages systematically organize their phones or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a particular language variety. At one time, the study of phonology related only to the study of the systems of phonemes in spoken languages, but may now relate to any linguistic analysis either:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sign language</span> Language that uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning

Sign languages are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign languages are full-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and lexicon. Sign languages are not universal and are usually not mutually intelligible, although there are similarities among different sign languages.

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds, typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins. Syllables are often considered the phonological "building blocks" of words. They can influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic metre and its stress patterns. Speech can usually be divided up into a whole number of syllables: for example, the word ignite is made of two syllables: ig and nite.

Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable structure, consonant clusters and vowel sequences by means of phonotactic constraints.

The American Manual Alphabet (AMA) is a manual alphabet that augments the vocabulary of American Sign Language.

Home sign is a gestural communication system, often invented spontaneously by a deaf child who lacks accessible linguistic input. Home sign systems often arise in families where a deaf child is raised by hearing parents and is isolated from the Deaf community. Because the deaf child does not receive signed or spoken language input, these children are referred to as linguistically isolated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Segment (linguistics)</span> Distinct unit of speech

In linguistics, a segment is "any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech". The term is most used in phonetics and phonology to refer to the smallest elements in a language, and this usage can be synonymous with the term phone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stokoe notation</span> Phonemic script for sign languages

Stokoe notation is the first phonemic script used for sign languages. It was created by William Stokoe for American Sign Language (ASL), with Latin letters and numerals used for the shapes they have in fingerspelling, and iconic glyphs to transcribe the position, movement, and orientation of the hands. It was first published as the organizing principle of Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf (1960), and later also used in A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, by Stokoe, Casterline, and Croneberg (1965). In the 1965 dictionary, signs are themselves arranged alphabetically, according to their Stokoe transcription, rather than being ordered by their English glosses as in other sign-language dictionaries. This made it the only ASL dictionary where the reader could look up a sign without first knowing how to translate it into English. The Stokoe notation was later adapted to British Sign Language (BSL) in Kyle et al. (1985) and to Australian Aboriginal sign languages in Kendon (1988). In each case the researchers modified the alphabet to accommodate phonemes not found in ASL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plains Indian Sign Language</span> Endangered language of the Plains peoples

Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Hand Talk or Plains Sign Language, is an endangered language common to various Plains Nations across what is now central Canada, the central and western United States and northern Mexico. This sign language was used historically as a lingua franca, notably for trading among tribes; it is still used for story-telling, oratory, various ceremonies, and by deaf people for ordinary daily use.

The grammar of American Sign Language (ASL) has rules just like any other sign language or spoken language. ASL grammar studies date back to William Stokoe in the 1960s. This sign language consists of parameters that determine many other grammar rules. Typical word structure in ASL conforms to the SVO/OSV and topic-comment form, supplemented by a noun-adjective order and time-sequenced ordering of clauses. ASL has large CP and DP syntax systems, and also doesn't contain many conjunctions like some other languages do.

In sign languages, the term classifier construction refers to a morphological system that can express events and states. They use handshape classifiers to represent movement, location, and shape. Classifiers differ from signs in their morphology, namely that signs consist of a single morpheme. Signs are composed of three meaningless phonological features: handshape, location, and movement. Classifiers, on the other hand, consist of many morphemes. Specifically, the handshape, location, and movement are all meaningful on their own. The handshape represents an entity and the hand's movement iconically represents the movement of that entity. The relative location of multiple entities can be represented iconically in two-handed constructions.

In sign languages, location, or tab, refers to specific places that the hands occupy as they are used to form signs. In Stokoe terminology it is known as the TAB, an abbreviation of tabula. Location is one of five components, or parameters, of a sign, along with handshape, orientation, movement, and nonmanual features. A particular specification of a location, such as the chest or the temple of the head, can be considered a phoneme. Different sign languages can make use of different locations. In other words, different sign languages can have different inventories of location phonemes.

Language acquisition is a natural process in which infants and children develop proficiency in the first language or languages that they are exposed to. The process of language acquisition is varied among deaf children. Deaf children born to deaf parents are typically exposed to a sign language at birth and their language acquisition follows a typical developmental timeline. However, at least 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who use a spoken language at home. Hearing loss prevents many deaf children from hearing spoken language to the degree necessary for language acquisition. For many deaf children, language acquisition is delayed until the time that they are exposed to a sign language or until they begin using amplification devices such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. Deaf children who experience delayed language acquisition, sometimes called language deprivation, are at risk for lower language and cognitive outcomes. However, profoundly deaf children who receive cochlear implants and auditory habilitation early in life often achieve expressive and receptive language skills within the norms of their hearing peers; age at implantation is strongly and positively correlated with speech recognition ability. Early access to language through signed language or technology have both been shown to prepare children who are deaf to achieve fluency in literacy skills.

Protactile is a language used by deafblind people using tactile channels. Unlike other sign languages, which are heavily reliant on visual information, protactile is oriented towards touch and is practiced on the body. Protactile communication originated out of communications by DeafBlind people in Seattle in 2007 and incorporates signs from American Sign Language. Protactile is an emerging system of communication in the United States, with users relying on shared principles such as contact space, tactile imagery, and reciprocity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Brentari</span> American linguist

Diane Brentari is an American linguist who specializes in sign languages and American Sign Language in particular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonmanual feature</span> Sign language syntax

A nonmanual feature, also sometimes called nonmanual signal or sign language expression, are the features of signed languages that do not use the hands. Nonmanual features are grammaticised and a necessary component in many signs, in the same way that manual features are. Nonmanual features serve a similar function to intonation in spoken languages.

References

  1. ↑ Fenlon, Jordan; Cormier, Kearsy; Brentari, Diane (2017-12-14), Hannahs, S. J.; Bosch, Anna R. K. (eds.), "The phonology of sign languages", The Routledge Handbook of Phonological Theory (1 ed.), Routledge, pp. 453–475, doi:10.4324/9781315675428-16, ISBN   978-1-315-67542-8 , retrieved 2024-10-17
  2. ↑ Battison, Robbin (2011). "Analyzing Signs". Linguistics of American Sign Language (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. pp. 209–210. ISBN   978-1-56368-508-8.
  3. ↑ Sandler, Wendy (2008). "The Syllable in Sign Language: Considering the Other Natural Language Modality". Ontogeny and phylogeny of syllable organization, Festschrift in honor of Peter MacNeilage. New York: Taylor Francis. p. 384.
  4. 1 2 Battison, Robbin (1974). "Phonological Deletion in American Sign Language". Sign Language Studies. 1005 (1): 1–19. doi:10.1353/sls.1974.0005. ISSN   1533-6263. S2CID   143890757.
  5. ↑ Landar, Herbert; Stokoe, William C. (April 1961). "Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf". Language. 37 (2): 269. doi:10.2307/410856. ISSN   0097-8507. JSTOR   410856.
  6. ↑ Perlmutter, David M. (1993), "Sonority and Syllable Structure in American Sign Language **A slightly different version of this article appeared in Linguistic Inquiry, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 407–442 (1992). © 1992 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reprinted by permission.", Current Issues in ASL Phonology, Elsevier, pp. 227–261, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-193270-1.50016-9, ISBN   9780121932701 , retrieved 2022-04-14
  7. ↑ Sandler, Wendy (December 1999). "Diane Brentari (1999). A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Pp. xviii+376". Phonology. 16 (3): 443–447. doi:10.1017/s0952675799003802. ISSN   0952-6757. S2CID   60944874.
  8. ↑ van der Hulst, Harry (August 1993). "Units in the analysis of signs". Phonology. 10 (2): 209–241. doi:10.1017/s095267570000004x. ISSN   0952-6757. S2CID   16629421.
  9. ↑ Demey, Eline (2003-12-31). "Review of Van der Kooij (2002): Phonological Categories in Sign Language of the Netherlands. The Role of Phonetic Implementation and Iconicity". Sign Language & Linguistics. 6 (2): 277–284. doi:10.1075/sll.6.2.11dem. ISSN   1387-9316.
  10. ↑ Liddell (2003)
  11. ↑ Traci Weast, 2008. PhD dissertation: Questions in American Sign Language: A quantitative analysis of raised and lowered eyebrows
  12. ↑ Petitto, L. A.; Langdon, C.; Stone, A.; Andriola, D.; Kartheiser, G.; Cochran, C. (November 2016). "Visual sign phonology: insights into human reading and language from a natural soundless phonology". WIREs Cognitive Science. 7 (6): 366–381. doi:10.1002/wcs.1404. ISSN   1939-5078. PMID   27425650.
  13. ↑ Leonard, Matthew K.; Lucas, Ben; Blau, Shane; Corina, David P.; Chang, Edward F. (November 2020). "Cortical Encoding of Manual Articulatory and Linguistic Features in American Sign Language". Current Biology. 30 (22): 4342–4351.e3. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.048. PMC   7674262 . PMID   32888480.
  14. ↑ MacSweeney, M. (2002-07-01). "Neural systems underlying British Sign Language and audio-visual English processing in native users". Brain. 125 (7): 1583–1593. doi: 10.1093/brain/awf153 . ISSN   1460-2156. PMID   12077007.
  15. ↑ Petitto, Laura Ann; Zatorre, Robert J.; Gauna, Kristine; Nikelski, E. J.; Dostie, Deanna; Evans, Alan C. (2000-12-05). "Speech-like cerebral activity in profoundly deaf people processing signed languages: Implications for the neural basis of human language". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 97 (25): 13961–13966. doi: 10.1073/pnas.97.25.13961 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   17683 . PMID   11106400.

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