The Paradox of Sign Language Morphology

TLDR

Sign languages exhibit two distinct morphological systems: sequential and simultaneous. The study finds that simultaneous morphology in American and Israeli Sign Language is largely inflectional and similar, whereas sequential morphology is derivational and limited, with inflectional forms iconically grounded in spatiotemporal cognition and sequential patterns arising from historical development, suggesting that the relative youth of sign languages explains the paucity of sequential morphology and that sign languages are morphologically closer to spoken languages than previously thought.

Abstract

Sign languages have two strikingly different kinds of morphological structure: sequential and simultaneous. The simultaneous morphology of two unrelated sign languages, American and Israeli Sign Language, is very similar and is largely inflectional, while what little sequential morphology we have found differs significantly and is derivational. We show that at least two pervasive types of inflectional morphology, verb agreement and classifier constructions, are iconically grounded in spatiotemporal cognition, while the sequential patterns can be traced to normal historical development. We attribute the paucity of sequential morphology in sign languages to their youth. This research both brings sign languages much closer to spoken languages in their morphological structure and shows how the medium of communication contributes to the structure of languages.