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Sign languages change, too: The evolution of SELF in ASL

Date:
June 6, 2022
Source:
Linguistic Society of America
Summary:
一项新的研究表明American Sign Language (ASL) is more linguistically complex than previously understood. In particular, new research documents the emergence of the copula --- a word meaning to be (e.g. is, was, are, were) --- in ASL, something that has been overlooked in previous linguistic analyses.
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FULL STORY

一项新的研究表明American Sign Language (ASL) is more linguistically complex than previously understood. In particular, research appearing in the June 2022 issue of the journalLanguage, authored by Tory Sampson (UC San Diego) and Rachel Mayberry (UC San Diego), documents the emergence of the copula -- a word meaningto be(e.g.is,was,are,were)--in ASL, something that has been overlooked in previous linguistic analyses.

In English, copulas serve to connect the subject of a sentence with an adjective or noun that describes it. Some languages do not always require a copula, including some dialects of English, and ASL had previously been thought to be such a language. According to this study, a copula does exist in ASL, and takes the form of the sign termed 'SELF'. The authors found that SELF was predominantly used to express that two individuals are the same entity, as inDiana PrinceisWonder Woman, and to express group membership, as inMariaisdeaf, in which Maria is understood to be a member of the set of deaf people. However, when asking an ASL signer what SELF means, they typically give a definition similar to the Englishhimself, herself, themself, as used in sentences likeShe likes herselforOnly the doctor himself can operate. This conflicts with the frequent appearance of SELF as a copula.

To resolve this discrepancy, Sampson and Mayberry (2022) pioneered a novel historical linguistics approach, drawing upon the Historical Sign Language DataBase, which contains historical records of ASL and its predecessor, French Sign Language (LSF). They extracted hundreds of uses of SELF from LSF dictionary entries dating to the 1860's, Old ASL black and white films dating to the 1910's, and social media videos of modern ASL dating to the early 21st century. The authors were able to track the evolution of SELF through history, revealing a pattern termed the "copula cycle" that encompassed 150 years and continues today. In this cycle, which has been observed in spoken languages such as Hebrew, Finnish, and Mandarin, a word undergoes a series of meaning changes to eventually become a copula.

This finding contradicted prior assumptions that there is no copula in ASL, and showed that copula use in ASL is more linguistically diverse than previously thought. The study also showed that the evolution of sign language grammar extends well beyond the initial formation once a deaf community becomes established, as seen in Nicaraguan Sign Language. Rather, sign languages are subject to the same linguistic processes that drive language change in spoken languages.

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故事来源:

Materialsprovided byLinguistic Society of America.注意:内容可能被编辑风格d length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Tory Sampson, Rachel I. Mayberry.An Emerging Self: The Copula Cycle in American Sign Language.Language, 2022

Cite This Page:

Linguistic Society of America. "Sign languages change, too: The evolution of SELF in ASL." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 June 2022. .
Linguistic Society of America. (2022, June 6). Sign languages change, too: The evolution of SELF in ASL.ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 23, 2023 from www.koonmotors.com/releases/2022/06/220606181215.htm
Linguistic Society of America. "Sign languages change, too: The evolution of SELF in ASL." ScienceDaily. www.koonmotors.com/releases/2022/06/220606181215.htm (accessed July 23, 2023).

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