Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T13:06:01.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Negative incorporation in French and American sign language1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

James Woodward  and
Susan Desantis
James Woodward
Affiliation:
Linguistics Research Laboratory, Gallaudet College
Susan Desantis
Affiliation:
Linguistics Research Laboratory, Gallaudet College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines Negative Incorporation in various lects of two historically related sign languages, French Sign Language and American Sign Language. Negative Incorporation not only offers interesting insights into the structure of French and American Sign Language, but also into the descriptive and explanatory power of variation theory. By viewing Negative Incorporation in a dynamic framework, we are able to describe the variable usage of Negative Incorporation as a phonological process in French Sign Language and as a grammatical process in American Sign Language, to argue for possible early creolization in American Sign Language, to show the historical continuum between French Sign Language and American Sign Language despite heavy restructuring, and to demonstrate the influences of social variables on language variation and change, especially illustrating the progressive role of women in sign language change and the conservative forces in French Sign Language as compared with American Sign Language. (Sociolinguistics, sign language, creolization, linguistic changes.)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , December 1977 , pp. 379 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bailey, C. (1973). Variation and linguistic theory. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Battison, R. (1974) Phonological deletion in American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies (SLS) 5. 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickerton, D. (1975) Dynamics of a creole system. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Croneberg, C. (1965) The linguistic community. In Stokoe, W., Casterline, D. & Croneberg, C., A dictionary of American Sign Language. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet College Press.Google Scholar
Fasold, R. (1975). The Bailey wave model. In Fasold, R. & Shuy, R. (eds), Analyzing variation in language. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Fasold, R. (1976). One hundred years from syntax to phonology. In Diachronic Syntax. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Frake, C. (1971) Lexical origins and semantic structure in Philippine Creole Spanish. In D. Hymes (1971), 223–242.Google Scholar
Frishberg, N. (1975) Arbitrariness and inconicity: Historical change in American Sign Language. Lg 51 (3). 696–719.Google Scholar
Gejl'man, I. F. (1957). The manual alphabet and the signs of the deaf and dumb. Moscow: Vsesojuznoe Kooperativnoe Izdatel'stvo.Google Scholar
Gudinschinsky, S. (1964). The ABCs of lexicostatistics (glottochronology). In Hymes, D. (ed), Language in Culture and Society. New York: Harper and Row. 612–23.Google Scholar
Hall, R. (1959) Neo-Melanesian and glottochronology. IFAL 25. 265–7.Google Scholar
Hotchkiss, J. B. (1913). Memories of Old Hartford. National Association of the Deaf film. Gallaudet College Library, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1971). Pidginization and creolization of languages. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). A modified model for the description of language acquisition in a deaf child. M.A. thesis, California State University, Northridge.Google Scholar
Siple, P. (1973). Constraints for sign language from visual perception data. Working paper, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California.Google Scholar
Southworth, F. (1971). Detecting prior creolization: An analysis of the historical origins of Marathi. In Hymes, D. (ed.) Pidginization and creolization of languages. New York: Cambridge University Press. 255–74.Google Scholar
Stokoe, W. (1960). Sign language structure: an outline of the visual communication system of the American deaf. Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Paper 8.Google Scholar
Woodward, J. (1973). A report on Montana—Washington implicational research. Sign Language Studies 4. 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. (1974). Implicational variation in American Sign Language: negative incorporation Sign Language Studies 5. 20–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. (1976a). Signs of change: historical variation in American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 10. 81–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. (1976b). Historical bases of American Sign Language. A paper presented at the Conference on Sign Language and Neurolinguistics,Rochester, New York,September 1976.Google Scholar
Forthcoming in Siple, P. (ed), Understanding language through sign language research. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, J. & DeSantis, S. (1975). Two to one it happens. A paper presented at the 50th annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America,San Francisco,December, 1975. Forthcoming in Sign Language Studies.Google Scholar
Woodward, J. & Erting, C. (1975). Synchronic variation and historical change in American Sign Language. Language Sciences 37. 9–12.Google Scholar