Abstract
British Sign Language (BSL) is a visual-gestural language distinct from spoken languages used in the United Kingdom but in contact with them. One product of this contact is the use of fingerspelling to represent English words via their orthography. Fingerspelled loans can become “nativised”, adapting manual production to conform more closely to the native lexicon’s inventory of phonemic constraints. Much of the previous literature on fingerspelling has focused on one-handed systems but, unlike the majority of sign languages, BSL uses a two-handed manual alphabet. What is the nature of nativisation in BSL, and does it exhibit sociolinguistic variation? We apply a cross-linguistic model of nativisation to BSL Corpus conversation and narrative data (http://bslcorpusproject.org) obtained from 150 signers in 6 UK regions. Mixed effects modelling is employed to determine the influence of social factors. Results show that the participants’ home region is the most significant factor, with London and Birmingham signers significantly favouring use of fully nativised fingerspelled forms. Non-nativised sequences are significantly favoured in signers of increasing age in Glasgow and Belfast. Gender and parental language background are not found to be significant factors in nativisation. The findings also suggest a form of reduction specific to London and Birmingham.
References
Bailey, Guy, Tom Wikle, Jan Tillery & Lori Sand. 1991. The apparent time construct. Language Variation and Change 3(3). 241-64. doi: 10.1017/S0954394500000569.10.1017/S0954394500000569Search in Google Scholar
Battison, Robbin. 1978. Lexical borrowing in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstock Press.Search in Google Scholar
Bayley, Robert, Adam Schembri & Ceil Lucas. 2015. Variation and change in sign languages. In Adam Schembri & Ceil Lucas (eds.), Sociolinguistics and Deaf Communities, vol. 61-94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781107280298.004Search in Google Scholar
Brennan, Mary. 2001. Making borrowings work in British Sign Language. In Diane Brentari (ed.), Foreign vocabulary in sign languages: Cross-linguistic investigation of word formation, Sign, 49-86. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Search in Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane. 1995. Prosodic constraints in American Sign Language: Evidence from fingerspelling and reduplication. In H. Bos & T. Schermer (eds.), Sign language research 1994: Proceedings of the Fourth European Congress On Sign Language Research, Munich, September 1-3, 1994, 39-52. Hamburg: Signum.Search in Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane. 1998. A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/5644.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane & Carol Padden. 2001. Native and foreign vocabulary in American Sign Language: A lexicon with multiple origins. In Diane Brentari (ed.), Foreign vocabulary: A cross-linguistic investigation of word formation, 87-119. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.10.4324/9781410601513Search in Google Scholar
Cormier, Kearsy, Adam Schembri & Martha E. Tyrone. 2008. One hand or two? Nativisation of fingerspelling in ASL and BANZSL. Sign Language and Linguistics 11(1). 3-44. doi: 10.1075/sl&l.11.1.03cor.10.1075/slSearch in Google Scholar
Cormier, Kearsy, Jordan Fenlon, Trevor Johnston, Ramas Rentelis, Adam Schembri, Katherine Rowley, Robert Adam & Bencie Woll. 2012. From corpus to lexical database to online dictionary: Issues in annotation of the BSL Corpus and the development of BSL SignBank In Onno Crasborn et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on the representation and processing of sign languages: Interactions between corpus and lexicon [workshop part of 8th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, LREC 2012, Istanbul, Turkey], 7-12. Paris: ELRA.Search in Google Scholar
Cormier, Kearsy, Jordan Fenlon, Sannah Gulamani & Sandra Smith. 2015. BSL Corpus Annotation Conventions, v. 2.1, http://www.bslcorpusproject.org/wp-content/uploads/BSLCorpus_AnnotationConventions_v2.1_July2015.pdf. Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London.Search in Google Scholar
Department of Education and Science. 1968. The Education of Deaf Children: The Possible Place of Finger Spelling and Signing (The Lewis Report). London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.Search in Google Scholar
Emmorey, Karen. 2002. Language, Cognition, and the Brain: Insights from Sign Language Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.10.4324/9781410603982Search in Google Scholar
Guy, Gregory R. 1988. Advanced VARBRUL analysis. In Kathleen Ferrara (ed.), Linguistic change and contact, 124-36. Austin, Texas: University of Texas, Department of Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar
Janzen, Terry. 2012. Lexicalization and grammaticalization. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach & Bencie Woll (eds.), Sign language: An international handbook, 816-40. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110261325.816Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, Daniel Ezra. 2009. Getting off the GoldVarb Standard: Introducing Rbrul for Mixed-Effects Variable Rule Analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass 3(1). 359-83. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00108.x.10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00108.xSearch in Google Scholar
Johnson, Daniel Ezra. 2010. Rbrul Manual. http://www.danielezrajohnson.com/Rbrul_manual.htmlSearch in Google Scholar
Johnston, Trevor. 2003. BSL, Auslan and NZSL: Three signed languages or one? In Anne Baker, Beppie van den Bogaerde & Onno Crasborn (eds.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, 47-69. Hamburg: Signum Verlag.Search in Google Scholar
Mayberry, Rachel. 2010. Early language acquisition and adult language ability: What sign language reveals about the critical period for language. In M. Marschark & P. Spencer (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language and Education: Volume 2, 281-91. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195390032.013.0019Search in Google Scholar
McKee, David & G. Kennedy. 2006. The distribution of signs in New Zealand Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 6(4). 373-90. doi: 10.1353/sls.2006.0027.10.1353/sls.2006.0027Search in Google Scholar
McKee, David & Rachel McKee. 2011. Old signs, new signs, whose signs?: sociolinguistic variation in the NZSL lexicon. Sign Language Studies 11(4). 485-527. doi: 10.1353/sls.2011.0012.10.1353/sls.2011.0012Search in Google Scholar
Mitchell, Ross E. & Michael Karchmer. 2004. Chasing the mythical ten percent: Parental hearing status of deaf and hard of hearing students in the United States. Sign Language Studies 4(2). 138-63. doi: 10.1353/sls.2004.0005.10.1353/sls.2004.0005Search in Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics (ONS). 2013. Key Statistics and Quick Statistics for local authorities in the United Kingdom. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_330610.pdfSearch in Google Scholar
Rickford, John R., Thomas A. Wasow, Norma Mendoza-Denton & Juli Espinoza. 1995. Syntactic variation and change in progress: Loss of the verbal coda in topic-restricting as far as constructions. Language 71. 102-31. doi: 10.2307/415964.10.2307/415964Search in Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy. 1989. Phonological representation of the sign: Linearity and nonlinearity in American Sign Language. Dordrecht: Foris.10.1515/9783110250473Search in Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy. 1993. A sonority cycle in American Sign Language. Phonology 10(2). 243-79. doi: 10.1017/S0952675700000051.10.1017/S0952675700000051Search in Google Scholar
Schembri, Adam, Kearsy Cormier, Trevor Johnston, David McKee, Rachel McKee & Bencie Woll. 2010. Sociolinguistic variation in British, Australian, and New Zealand sign languages. In Diane Brentari (ed.), Sign Languages: A Cambridge Language Survey, Sign, 476-98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511712203.022Search in Google Scholar
Schembri, Adam & Trevor Johnston. 2007. Sociolinguistic Variation in the Use of Fingerspelling in Australian Sign Language (Auslan): A Pilot Study. Sign Language Studies 7(3). doi: 10.1353/sls.2007.0019.10.1353/sls.2007.0019Search in Google Scholar
Schembri, Adam & Trevor Johnston. 2012. Sociolinguistic aspects of variation and change. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach & B. Woll (eds.), Sign language: an international handbook, 788-816. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110261325.788Search in Google Scholar
Schembri, Adam, David McKee, Rachel McKee, Sara Pivac, Trevor Johnston & Della Goswell. 2009. Phonological variation and change in Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages: The location variable. Language Variation and Change 21(02). 193. doi: 10.1017/s0954394509990081.10.1017/S0954394509990081Search in Google Scholar
Stokoe, William. 1960. Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf. Studies in linguistics: Occasional papers (No. 8). Buffalo, NY: Dept. of Anthropology and Linguistics, University of Buffalo.Search in Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, Rachel. 1994. The role of the manual alphabet and fingerspelling in British Sign Language. University of Bristol dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, Rachel & Bencie Woll. 1999. The linguistics of British Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139167048Search in Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, Rachel, Bencie Woll & Lorna Allsop. 1990. Variation and recent change in fingerspelling in British Sign Language. Language Variation and Change 2. 313-30. doi: 10.1017/S0954394500000399.10.1017/S0954394500000399Search in Google Scholar
Tasci, Suleyman S. 2013. Hand reversal and assimilation in TID lexicalized fingerspelling. In Engin Arik (ed.), Current Directions in Turkish Sign Language Research, 72-100. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Search in Google Scholar
Valli, Clayton & Ceil Lucas. 1992. Linguistics of American Sign Language: A Resource Text for ASL Users. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Wilcox, Sherman. 1992. The phonetics of fingerspelling. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/sspcl.4Search in Google Scholar
Woll, Bencie & Paddy Ladd. 2011. Deaf communities. In M. Marschark & P. Spencer (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language and Education, 159-72. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199750986.013.0012Search in Google Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike. 2000. Sign Language in Indo-Pakistan: A Description of a Signed Language. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.101Search in Google Scholar
© 2017
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
