a Linguistics of ASL question -- grammar

[Kearsy Cormier]

Amen, Dan! ASL really does need a corpus to help address questions such as these. We are hoping to begin syntactic analyses of the BSL corpus within the next year or two (depending on when we get further funding). 
-Kearsy
-- 
Kearsy Cormier, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher
Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL)
University College London
Phone: +44 (0)20 7679 8674 (internal 28674)
http://kearsy.com



On 7 Mar 2011, at 05:00, SLLING-L automatic digest system wrote:

> There are 2 messages totalling 65 lines in this issue.
> 
> Topics of the day:
> 
>  1. a Linguistics of ASL question -- grammar (2)
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Date:    Sun, 6 Mar 2011 06:22:28 -0500
> From:    Dan Parvaz <dparvaz at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: a Linguistics of ASL question -- grammar
> 
>>    topic_____
>>    RECENTLY, EAT-FINISH DADDY.
> 
> I have no "instincts", but years of observation have me thinking that if the above 
> is an example of a VS structure, then it is infelicitious. It is possible to construe 
> it as such, to find a context in which it can be so, but I'll bet the temptation 
> would be to interpret that as "Not that long ago, I ate my father." That this 
> sentence might be as likely, or more so, than the VS interpretation should say 
> something about the former interpretation's likelihood. Or about me, but that's a 
> little more disturbing.
> 
> <soapbox>
> This is one more reason why we need a good ASL corpus, preferably including 
> spontaneous dialogue and not simply those utterances we wheedle out of our 
> consultants. Then we may have some idea of the distribution of these 
> constructions.
> </soapbox> 
> 
> -Dan.
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Date:    Sun, 6 Mar 2011 23:18:53 -0500
> From:    Adam Frost <adam at FROSTVILLAGE.COM>
> Subject: Re: a Linguistics of ASL question -- grammar
> 
> I wasn't planning on saying anything on the matter, but as a native signer the sentence RECENTLY, EAT-FINISH DADDY to follow a VS structure feels wrong. The only way I can see DADDY being a subject in this sentence is if it were a rhetorical statement. I don't know if that would mean it's still a VS structure with that way of signing, but I don't think it would be. 
> 
> Adam
> 
> On Mar 6, 2011, at 6:22 AM, "Dan Parvaz" <dparvaz at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
>>>   topic_____
>>>   RECENTLY, EAT-FINISH DADDY.
>> 
>> I have no "instincts", but years of observation have me thinking that if the above 
>> is an example of a VS structure, then it is infelicitious. It is possible to construe 
>> it as such, to find a context in which it can be so, but I'll bet the temptation 
>> would be to interpret that as "Not that long ago, I ate my father." That this 
>> sentence might be as likely, or more so, than the VS interpretation should say 
>> something about the former interpretation's likelihood. Or about me, but that's a 
>> little more disturbing.
>> 
>> <soapbox>
>> This is one more reason why we need a good ASL corpus, preferably including 
>> spontaneous dialogue and not simply those utterances we wheedle out of our 
>> consultants. Then we may have some idea of the distribution of these 
>> constructions.
>> </soapbox> 
>> 
>> -Dan.
>> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> End of SLLING-L Digest - 5 Mar 2011 to 6 Mar 2011 (#2011-15)
> ************************************************************
>