call for participation

[Ulrike Zeshan]

FIRST CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Project 'Interrogatives and Negatives in Signed and Spoken Languages'
Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, Australian National University,
 Canberra
Project Coordinator: Ulrike Zeshan

BACKGROUND
The Australian National Univeristy is going to start a cross-linguistic research
 project on signed and spoken languages within
the framework of their typological project 'The categories of human languages',
 headed by Prof. R.M.W. Dixon and Prof. A.Y.
Aikhenvald. This project has so far studied a number of grammatical categories
 in spoken languages only. Beginning in
April, a sign language section will be added to the project. This is the very
 first time that signed languages figure
in a large typological project, and it is a significant step towards making the
 results of sign language research known
to the larger linguistic community.

THE PROJECT
The typological project is going to investigate interrogatives and negatives in
 as many signed languages as possible, and to
compare the results to spoken language structures. The most important purpose is
 to gather comparative data in a limited
grammatical domain from various sign languages that are goegraphically and
 genetically unrelated. This would lead to a better
understanding and differentiation of modality-specific factors that are common
 to all sign languages and arbitrary factors
that are language specific and not shared across different sign languages. This
 issue is still largely unexplored.

YOUR PARTICIPATION
The success of the project is entirely dependent on the participation of sign
 linguists around the world. We invite everybody
who can provide information about how questions and negations are formed in a
 particular sign language to participate. The
results of the project will be published. Contributions from countries outside
 Europe and Northern America are especially
encouraged. Even a limited amount of information (from sign languages that have
 not been studies in detail) is valuable for
us. The information you provide can be stated informally, without reference to a
 particular theoretical framework.

HOW WE WILL PROCEED
Detailed questionnaires will be developed in April and May and will then be
 mailed to the participants. We will ask you to
provide information about questions such as the following:
- What are the question words (wh-words) that exist in your sign language?
- How many negative signs (no, not etc.) exist and how are they used?
- What kind of facial expressions (if any) are used with questions and
 negations?
- What are the possible positions of interrogative and negative signs in the
 sentence?
- We will ask you to provide example sentences.
Depending on the amount of information you will provide, you can expect from a
 few hours up to a week for completion of the
questionnaire. It is not necessary to fill out all sections, just do as much as
 you can.

CONTACT
If you are interested in the project, if you want to participate or want further
 information, please contact:

Ulrike Zeshan
Dienheimer Pfad 4
61169 Friedberg
Germany
Ph.: 0049-6031-771503
e-mail: zeshan at monet.fh-friedberg.de


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