<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">There are a few idioms in ASL, where I'm defining an idiom as an expression where the meaning is not derivable from the sum of its parts, but I don't know of anything formally written about them. A couple of examples:<div>TRAIN ZOOM (equivalent to "you missed the boat"; it's too late and I'm not going to repeat what I said)</div><div>PATIENT TOILET (I have to go to the bathroom)</div><div>ASL is not alone in having relatively few idioms; I remember someone saying that Greenlandic lacked them too.</div><div><br><div apple-content-edited="true">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Susan D. Fischer<br><a href="mailto:Susan.Fischer@rit.edu">Susan.Fischer@rit.edu</a></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Visiting Scholar, NYU</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><br></div></span></span>
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<br><div><div>On Mar 14, 2013, at 5:26 PM, Adam Schembri wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Myself and other linguists have made this point before - there is<br>relatively little evidence of idioms in sign languages (i.e., of<br>relatively invariant phrasal constructions with a non-componential<br>meaning). Many signs that are called idioms by sign language teachers are<br>not actually idioms but have idiomatic equivalents in the surrounding<br>spoken language - hence the confusion.<br>You can download an interesting paper by Trevor Johnston and Lindsay<br>Ferarra "Lexicalization in signed_languages: when is an idiom not an<br>idiom" from Trevor Johnston's <a href="http://www.academia.edu">www.academia.edu</a> page.<br>Thanks<br>Adam<br>-- <br>Assoc. Prof. Adam Schembri, PhD<br>Linguistics program | Humanities and Social Sciences<br>Interim director | Centre for Research on Language Diversity<br>(<a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/crld">http://www.latrobe.edu.au/crld</a>)<br>La Trobe University | Melbourne (Bundoora) | Victoria | 3086 | Australia<br>Tel : +61 3 9479 2887/6401 | Mob: +61 432 840 744<br>Secretary, Sign Language Linguistics Society: <a href="http://www.slls.eu">http://www.slls.eu</a><br>ALLY Network Member supporting GLBTIQ students and staff at La Trobe<br>University: <a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally">www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally</a><br><<a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally">http://www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally</a>><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>On 15/03/13 3:48 , "Rena Andrikopoulou" <<a href="mailto:rena_andrikopoulou28@YAHOO.GR">rena_andrikopoulou28@YAHOO.GR</a>><br>wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite">Does anybody have any idea about Phd/ paper/ dissertation / research, in<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Sign Languages' Idioms? Linguistic criteria of determination by simple<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">figurative/metaphorical language?<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">I am a Phd student of Deaf Studies Unit, University of Patras, Greece.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Thank you in advance...<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>