[Lingtyp] query: "come here" > "hey" grammaticalization in spoken and sign language

[Adam Schembri]

Thanks for an interesting bimodal typological observation.

In the sign languages I know well, Auslan and BSL, a sign which we gloss as HEY (consisting of a 5-handshape shaking side to side within the vision of the addressee) is used as means of gaining visual attention. It is also one of the most frequent signs in the conversational component of the BSL Corpus. It is similar to a gesture used by non-signers in the surrounding culture. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024384114000333#sec0055). 

The ‘come here’ gesture used in Australian and British English-speaking culture (with palm oriented upwards, not downwards) is used with a similar meaning in Auslan and BSL.

Note that in many signing cultures, signs like HEY are generally used instead of name signs to get someone’s attention. Name signs tend only to be used when the person they refer to is not actually present. This is something that English speakers take some time to get used to, because using someone’s name is seen as more polite than other ways of getting attention in speech.

 

Adam

 

 

---

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University of Birmingham

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of David Gil via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Reply to: David Gil <dapiiiiit at gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, 31 August 2024 at 21:20
To: "LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG" <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: [Lingtyp] query: "come here" > "hey" grammaticalization in spoken and sign language

 

Dear all,

 

I am interested in an apparent path of grammaticalization in which an expression meaning "come here" is reinterpreted as an exclamation whose effect seems to be to draw the interlocutor's attention to the speaker.  I am familiar with two such cases and would like to know if any of you happen to be familiar with others.

 

The first is from Hebrew, in which bo hena (come.IMP.2SGM here), reduced to boena, may be used to begin an utterance, with an effect rather like English hey, as in

 

Boena yored gešem

BOENA descend.PRS.SGM rain

'Hey it's raining'

 

The reduced nature of the form is often reflected by its orthographic representation as a single word: בוא הנה > בואנה.

 

The second case is from the home sign used by a single deaf child and his hearing friends in Sorong, on the western tip of New Guinea.  The signers make use of a "come here" gesture that is widespread in many parts of the world, in which the hand is extended forward with the palm facing downward, and then makes one or more sweeping downward motions, iconically suggesting movement from the interlocutor to the signer.  However, in this usage, the same gesture is used not to mean "come here", but rather to attract the interlocutor's attention, as a prelude to a further signed message.

 

I would appreciate any other examples you might be familiar with of similar paths of grammaticalization derived from "come here", in either spoken or signed language.  For what it's worth, Heine and Kuteva's (2002) World Lexicon of Grammaticalization provides examples of COME > HORTATIVE grammaticalization, which is perhaps in the same ballpark, but not quite the same thing.

 

Thanks,

 

David



-- 

David Gil
 
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
 
Email: dapiiiiit at gmail.com
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302
 

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