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Patricia-<br>
Susan Fischer has provided the appropriate response to your comparison of
directional verbs in ASL and English: "This might be valid if you
are comparing signed languages to English, but there are lots of spoken
languages whose grammars bear striking resemblances to things that we
find in signed languages..." (posting 3/28/09). What is
required, of course, is to learn about languages that don't work like
English (or French or Japanese or Chinese...). There's a lot of
wonderful diversity out there among the thousands of spoken
languages.<br><br>
Let me give a single example of a spoken language that works like ASL
rather than English. The language is Iroqouian and the structure is
typical of hundreds of native languages spoken in the Western
Hemisphere. These languages, like ASL, pack a lot of information
into the verb: who did what to whom, who moved in what direction, and so
forth. For example, in English we say "I went to the
store," using the elements you mentioned in your message. This
is how it's done in Iroquoian: you would first say a noun that
means 'store', just as you'd establish a location and label it with a
sign in ASL. Then you would provide a verb which means something
like 'I went in a direction'. That's a full sentence. Because
a spoken language lacks transparent means of tracing out a path, it has
to be inferred from the grammatical morphemes and contextual information
that the direction was toward the store. The verb also has some
other elements (factual, completed in the past); some such elements can
be simultaneously conveyed by nonmanual, morphemes in ASL. The verb
is <i>yahwa'kaet'</i> <i>. </i>To break it up into
morphemes:<br><br>
<i><x-tab> </x-tab>yah-
</i>TRANSLOCATIVE <i>-wa' </i>FACTUAL <i>-k-
</i>FIRST.PERSON.SINGULAR.AGENT <i>-ae- </i>GO <i>-t- </i>
DIRECTIONAL.APPLICATIVE <i>-' </i> PERFECTIVE.<br><br>
If we compare languages like this (technically, "head-marking"
languages) with ASL and other sign languages, we can learn about the
nature of such languages in general--such as what constitutes a
grammatical utterance, what sorts of information are required and what
sorts are optional, what sorts of concepts can be grammaticized, and so
on. ASL then falls into the typological group of head-marking
languages, along with both signed and spoken languages, using comparable
linguistic criteria. In the process, we also learn about influences
of the modality of communication on linguistic structures. Some
things can be done with movement in space that can't be easily done with
speech, and vice versa.<br><br>
-Dan Slobin<br><br>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
Subject: Re: [SLLING-L] Directional Verbs / signed vs. spoken
languages<br>
From: "Patricia Raswant"
<patricia.raswant@gallaudet.edu><br>
To: "A list for linguists...snip...
l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu><br><br>
At 06:59 AM 3/28/2009, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">[...]<br>
Now, considering the directional verb in ASL, depending on how it is<br>
expressed, it can be SVO or a combination of a action verb and a<br>
preposition phrase. It has an inflection when a continuing verb
is<br>
being used. And I can argue that this is a unique structure and
can't<br>
be compared to a spoken language. We should accept it for what it
is.<br><br>
[...]</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=1>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br>
Dan I. Slobin, Professor of the Graduate School<br>
Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics<br><br>
Department of Psychology email:
slobin@berkeley.edu<br>
3210 Tolman
#1650
phone (Dept): 1-510-642-5292<br>
University of
California
phone (home): 1-510-848-1769<br>
Berkeley, CA 94720-1650
fax: 1-510-642-5293<br>
USA
<a href="http://ihd.berkeley.edu/Slobin.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://ihd.berkeley.edu/Slobin.htm<br>
</a>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br>
<br>
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