FW: Proforms vs. Classifiers

[Adam Schembri]

Dan's correct about the term 'proform'. The term is used in some grammatical
theories to refer collectively to items which substitute for other items and
constructions, such as pronouns substituting for noun phrases, pro-verbs
such as 'do' as in 'I like movies and Mary does too', pro-adjectives like
'so' as in 'John is tall and so is Mary' etc etc.

However, there is another usage that may not be found in many dictionaries
of linguistics, and may not be widely known in North America. In the
European tradition of sign language research, a number of researchers used
the term 'proform' (and some still do) to refer to a subset of 'classifier'
handshapes- specifically those that substitute for referents in 'classifier'
verbs of motion and location. This terminology has gained some acceptance in
Europe, and is used, for example, by sign language instructors in their
teaching at the University of Bristol. You can find an example of this usage
in 'The linguistics of British Sign Language' by Sutton-Spence & Woll
(1999).

Adam

Adam Schembri, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Renwick College
University of Newcastle/
Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children
Private Bag 29
Parramatta NSW 2124
AUSTRALIA
Tel (voice/TTY): +(61 2) 9872 0281
Fax: (+61 2) 9873 1614
Email: adam.schembri at ridbc.org.au

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Parvaz [mailto:dparvaz at UNM.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, 9 April 2003 12:47 AM
> To: SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
> Subject: Proforms vs. Classifiers
>
> > As I'm not a linguist (yet), please forgive me for this question if the
> > answer is evident for everybody on this list: what is the real ifference
> > between the terms proform and classifier?
>
> (Dredging up forgotten syntax lessons...)
>
> As far as I recall, proforms can replace phrasal level stuff; in the
> quoted sentence above, "the terms proform and classifier" can be replaced
> with "them." It's one of the tests for constituency, and one of the
> reasons for positing phrasal constituents like N' and V' (much of the rest
> of the X-bar madness having something to do with "theoretical elegance"
> :-)
>
> Classifiers, at the broadest level, are words that stand for semantic
> classes of objects, so the "3" classifier (thumb, index, and middle
> fingers extended) in ASL represents vehicles, Japanese "hon" has something
> to do with measure (although it's more complicated than that), and so on.
> Different languages use classifiers in different morphosyntactic
> environments, and Colette Grinevald (at one point, Craig) has created a
> typology of classifiers based on those environments.
>
> I guess there is a commonality: proforms stand for syntactic entities, and
> classifiers for semantic categories.
>
> I welcome any refinements to this really sketchy beginning.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dan.