Language · 1975 · 203 citations · 1 references
Language StudiesAmerican Sign LanguageLinguisticsNonverbal CommunicationPsycholinguisticsSyntaxSemioticsVerbal CommunicationInformation TransmissionPerson Reference SystemsSign Language MorphologySign Language SemanticsSigned Language LinguisticsSpatial GrammarSpatial LanguageVisual Language
Sign language research demonstrates that the modality of visual communication shapes language systems, particularly in how information is transmitted. This paper provides a comprehensive description of how time, space, and person reference are manifested in American Sign Language. The authors analyze how ASL’s visual modality supports deictic and anaphoric locative, temporal, and pronominal reference, the surface expression of temporal conceptualization, the specialized use of dominant and non‑dominant articulators, the contrast between segmental oral spatial terms and continuous locative expressions, and the incorporation of agent, patient, and manner adverbials into verbs.
The study of sign language reveals the effect of the modality of communication on the language system. This paper presents a comprehensive description and discussion of the manifestation of time, space, and person reference in American Sign Language. It is in this area that the effect of the modality on information transmission appears most clearly. Various aspects of space, time, and person are discussed: the manner in which visual language allows for deictic and anaphoric locative, temporal, and 'pronominal' reference, the surface manifestation of the conceptualization of time, the specialized use of the dominant and non-dominant articulators, the contrast between the 'segmental' nature of oral-language spatial terms and the continuous nature of locative expressions in ASL, and the manner in which verbs may incorporate agent and/or patient and manner adverbials.*
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