Source of headnod as copula

[Ronnie Wilbur]

Lynn,

I have talked about 3 kinds of head nods in several places.  The one which
you refer to as an overt copula was discussed originally by Liddell in his
thesis (1977) and the pulished version (1980). It is discussed in my 1987
book - see head movement in the Index. In his SLS studies article on
conditionals (1986), Liddell mentions small repetitive head nods in a
conditional example that is counterfactual. In a paper that I have in press,
I mention briefly Cynthia Patschke's and my impression that "a repetitive
head nod that has a higher frequency of repetition and small movement
amplitude than other nods signals 'hedging' {'sort of,' 'kind of')."  In an
unpublished manuscript by Liz Nowell (1988; Master's Research) she
identifies lexical, discourse, and affirmative head nods. The latter appears
to be related to forward body leans that Cynthia and I discuss in a recent
(this month!!) publication in Journal of Pragmatics entitled "Body leans and
marking of contrast in ASL."

Hope this helps.

Ronnie



At 12:20 PM 8/13/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I read an article or a chapter in a book some time back which discussed
>three different types of head nods in ASL. It indicated that one type of
>head nod was, in fact, an overt copula. I'd like to lay hands on that text
>again; but unfortunately, I can't recall much more about it than that.
>
>If anyone could provide me with citation information, I would be most greatful.
>
>Regards, Lynn Messing  messing at asel.udel.edu
>
>
Ronnie Wilbur, Ph.D., Professor of Linguistics                  wilbur at omni.cc.purdue.edu
ASL Linguistics Research Laboratory                             (765) 494-3822
Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics and                    fax (765) 494-0771
        Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1353