Jennifer Miyaki - Current Research

A Base-Derivative Correspondence Account of Paradigmatic Leveling in ASL Compound Reduction

Abstract

For some kinship and relationship signs, American Sign Language (ASL) utilizes a phonological gender paradigm, where female signs (e.g. GIRL, AUNT) are produced on the lower half of the face, and male signs (e.g. BOY, UNCLE) are produced on the upper half of the face. ASL compound signs that undergo phonological reduction over time (e.g. GIRL^MARRY ‘wife’) abide by this paradigm in which the reduced form is signed at the place of articulation that corresponds to the gender of the sign. This can be analyzed as output-output faithfulness to bases (e.g. GIRL and MARRY) that also exist in the lexical inventory of the language. This paper proposes a modified model of Base-Derivative Correspondence Theory (Benua 1995, 1997, Burzio 1996, Kenstowicz 1996, Kager 1999) in order to derive a phonologically reduced compound from two bases and have constraints that enforce similarity in output-output correspondence. I propose that similarity to a particular base or to both bases can be used to account for paradigmatic leveling in ASL compounds. While the ranking of phonotactic constraints on syllable structure and handshape configurations can account for diachronic and regional variants, faithfulness to the bases can account for larger paradigmatic leveling over time. This study investigates phonological compound reduction in ASL through preliminary data gathered from 10 ASL-fluent Deaf signers, focusing on the phonological reduction of 8 ASL compounds (e.g. GIRL^ALIKE ‘sister,’ BOY^ALIKE ‘brother,’ GIRL^MARRY ‘wife,’ and BOY^MARRY ‘husband’) that follow the previously described gender paradigm. With the data being collected from Deaf signers across different age and regional groups, I propose that the observed variants over time is part of a larger language change that enforces faithfulness to bases and a phonotactic constraint for signs to be monosyllabic (Coulter 1982).

Keywords: Base-Derivative Correspondence, Paradigmatic Leveling, American Sign Language, Phonology, Compounds

Phonology of Compound Signs in American Sign Language

Abstract

While spoken languages utilize the oral-auditory modality, sign languages utilize the visual-gestural modality. The visual-gestural modality consists of spatial-visual parameters, such as handshape, place of articulation, movement, and palm orientation (Friedman, 1976). These parameters then interact with each other to form different phonological processes. There are two different type of movements in sign languages: path and internal. Internal movements are movements made by the wrist or fingers, while path movements are movements made by the elbow or shoulder (Brentari, 1998). Analogous to consonants and vowels in spoken languages, signs consist of holds and movements in which movements function as the nucleus of a syllable (Liddell and Johnson, 1986). While signs can be multisyllabic, such as in compound signs, signs tend to be monosyllabic, meaning that they tend to have just one movement feature (Coulter, 1982). Similar to compound words in spoken languages (e.g. “railroad” or “daydream” in English), compound signs in sign languages combine two individual signs (e.g. GIRL^FRIEND). In doing so, they become polymorphemic. This study investigates the phonological reduction of compound signs in 6 American Sign Language (ASL)-fluent Deaf signers, particularly the role of syllable structure and linear order of segments. I found that compound signs appear to retain only the path movement of the second sign and that in doing so, compounds tend to become monosyllabic over time. This paper argues that the phonotactic tendency for single-syllable signs exists in compounds just as it does in monomorphemes; though this tendency is not absolute across compound signs. In addition, I argue that the second path movement is preserved at the expense of the first because of reduction of the first member and an optional added stress on the second member of the compound. The observations in this paper lend themselves as support for the tendency for monosyllabicity and first stem reduction in ASL compounds.

Keywords: American Sign Language, Phonology, Compounds

Presented at the Seventh Annual Berkeley Undergraduate Linguistics Symposium - April 2023

How We SEE Sign: The Interplay Between Style-Shifting and Characteristics of Deaf Identity

Co-authors: Paige Escobar, Serena Gutridge, Matthew Issa Aboudi

Abstract

In the United States, signers use American Sign Language (ASL) and Signed Exact English (SEE) on a continuum (Woodward, 1972). This continuum has emerged due to competing methods in Deaf education over the years. The existence of this continuum has given rise to signers style-shifting—the practice of shifting linguistic styles to index different social alignments and stances (Jaffe, 2009) as a way of “[negotiating] one’s place in the local communicative context” (Campbell, 2001). This study provides an analysis of the relationship between agents’ signing styles and the intimacy of the conversational topic at hand. We investigated the relationship between different sociocultural factors (e.g. age, education, family) and a signer’s use of the linguistic features from ASL and SEE across various conversational topics unrelated and related to identity. Our results suggest a correlation between using ASL features and the discussion of more personal topics, particularly those related to identity. On the other hand, SEE features were more prominent when discussing more mundane topics (e.g. errands, opinions on cars). This indicates that certain topics can trigger style-shifting. In doing so, signers choose a set of linguistic features that index a particular identity in a given context. Existing results suggest more mundane topics seem to reflect a signer’s default style, while more personal topics may prompt a signing style with a strong socio-cultural association, in this case, ASL. This correlation between signing style and conversational topic aligns with the broader contemporary sociolinguistic theory of style-shifting found in spoken languages.

Keywords: American Sign Language, Signed Exact English, Style-Shifting