Lecture 13

Question 1

who is sign language often the primary language of?

Answer 1

Deaf or Hard of Hearing
individuals

Question 2

true or false? In spoken language, the form of a word (its sound) is
generally unrelated to properties of its referent

Answer 2

TRUE

Question 3

Words in sign languages tend to be more __________ than are words in spoken languages

Answer 3

iconic

Question 4

the shape of signs is evoked in different ways, what is this?

Answer 4

arbitrary

Question 5

the shape of the signs is fixed, what is this?

Answer 5

conventional

Question 6

____________ trumps iconicity.

Answer 6

Conventionality

Question 7

Etymologically iconic signs become ____________ to native signers

Answer 7

opaque

Question 8

The origin of signs is often ___________.

Answer 8

iconic

Question 9

once a sign becomes conventional, the association with its referent can become ____________.

Answer 9

arbitrary

Question 10

the iconic properties of signs are subject to
___________ over time

Answer 10

erosion

Question 11

what is examples of spontaneous emergence of sign languages?

Answer 11

• home sign
• Nicaraguan Sign Language

Question 12

how do sign languagues arise?

Answer 12

1. spontaneous emergence
2. village sign
3. language movement, contact, and evolution

Question 13

what is ASL historically related to?

Answer 13

L(angue des) S(ignes)
F(rançaise) (French Sign Language)

Question 14

how did ASL develop in the early 1800s?

Answer 14

from contact between
LSF and early North American village sign systems.

Question 15

___________ is the grammatical system that
governs the combinations of abstract non-meaningful
sub-parts of words

Answer 15

Phonology

Question 16

____________ is how those units are expressed (externally).

Answer 16

Phonetics

Question 17

__________ of spoken language map to gestures made with the
muscles of the vocal tract, resulting in acoustic signals.

Answer 17

Phonemes

Question 18

The _____________ and ____________ in signed language map to
gestures made with other muscles (notably the arms and hands, but including others), resulting in visual signals

Answer 18

phonemes, morphemes

Question 19

does ASL have phonological minimal pairs?

Answer 19

YES

Question 20

what are the Phonological parameters of sign languages?

Answer 20

• Handshape
• Location
• Movement
• Orientation
• Non-manual features

Question 21

Position of fingers and thumbs and flexion / extension
of relevant joints

Answer 21

handshape

Question 22

_________________ show that handshape is part of a
morpheme’s lexical entry (i.e., it must be memorized)

Answer 22

Minimal pairs

Question 23

what are unmarked handshapes?

Answer 23

• Perceptually most distinct and salient
• Universal across sign languages
• Most frequently used in each sign language
• Acquired earliest
• Phonologically less restricted

Question 24

what are marked handshapes?

Answer 24

• 20+ in ASL
• Articulatory and
  perceptually more complex
• Less common in and across
  sign languages
• Acquired later
• Phonologically more
  restricted

Question 25

what does it mean by Crosslinguistic variation in handshapes?

Answer 25

- Each sign language uses a limited number of possible handshapes. - Handshapes may be grammatical in one sign language, but ungrammatical in another

Question 26

Place of articulation relative to face, torso, or non-dominant hand or arm

Answer 26

Location

Question 27

____________ show that location is part of a morpheme’s lexical entry

Answer 27

minimal pairs

Question 28

what is movement of sign language?

Answer 28

- Primary movements * Straight vs. arc vs. hook (“7”) * Vertical vs. horizontal * Towards vs. away from the body * Unidirectional vs. bidirectional - Secondary movements * Wiggling or hooking fingers

Question 29

in sign languages, is movement a type of minimal pair?

Answer 29

YES

Question 30

____________ can be used for morphological functions

Answer 30

Movement

Question 31

what is orientation of sign languages?

Answer 31

Various parts of the hand (palm, fingertips) can be oriented differently. - Up or down - In or out - Ipsilateral (right hand faces right) or contralateral (right hand faces left). Analogously for left hand

Question 32

what are non-manuals?

Answer 32

Non-manual gestures involve the head, eyebrows, mouth, position of body, etc. - Independent of expression of affect - Gestures with whole head or lower face can indicate adverbial modification - Gestures involving eyebrows and angle of upper body are comparable to spoken-language intonation

Question 33

how is sign language similar in regards of the brain?

Answer 33

sign language is processed by the linguistic (generally left) hemisphere. - trauma to the linguistic hemisphere results in either Broca’s aphasia or Wernicke’s aphasia.

Question 34

what is Deaf Broca's aphasia?

Answer 34

produce partial errors, resulting in nonsense words.