On accent in SL

[Boris Fridman Mintz]

Dear Nedelina,

I understand what you mean. Polysyllabic words with relatively complex syllabic structures probably do require additional cognitive effort to be properly articulated.  More coordinative structures need to be synchronized, and attention (stress) needs to be precisely administered. These kinds of complexities have been described in terms of syllabic weight and morphologic complexity.

To deal with this matter in your research, you would have to confront two circumstances:

1) The grammatical formalism that most of our colleagues love is incapable of dealing with sensory-motor coordination issues.
2) The nature of the complexity involved in the articulation of PM + HIM signs. 

Forget about the first. Do the second by using Johnson and Liddell´s phonetic model, and keep an open mind to the notion of syllables or rhythmic units in sign languages. A longitudinal acquisition study on this matter would be wonderful.

Good Luck,

Boris Fridman Mintz.


On Feb 21, 2013, at 10:20 AM, Mark A. Mandel <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU> wrote:

> I don't understand. Are you looking for manifestations of vocal pitch accent in sign language? 
> 
> --
> Mark A. Mandel
> Linguistic Data Consortium
> University of Pennsylvania
> 
> 
> 
> On 13.02.16, at 03:14, Nedelina Stoyanova Ivanova wrote:
> 
>> Dear Adam,
>> many thanks for the answer. 
>> No, I do not mean the aspect of Swedish fingerspelling.
>> 
>> In spoken Swedish, stressed syllables differentiate two tones, often described as pitch accents, or tonal word accents by Scandinavian linguists.These accents are called acute and grave accent, tone/accent 1 and tone/accent 2, or Single Tone and Double Tone.Generally, the grave accent is characterized by a later timing of the intonational pitch rise as compared with the acute accent. The main tendency for tone is that the acute accent appears in monosyllables (since the grave accent cannot appear in monosyllabic words) while the grave accent appears in polysyllabic words. Polysyllabic forms resulting from declension or derivation also tend to have a grave accent except when it is the definite article that is added. 
>> 
>> I have been assessing sign language skills of children aged 1-12 years for three years now. In all my data, I find  very similar mistakes on path and hand internal movement. I was looking for an explanation, why this is the case. Then I thought about the phonology of Swedish, where words have accent one and accent two. For a foreigner (from my personal experience), is very difficult to master specially accent two. The deaf children whose skills I assess, are non-native late-learners. All of them, have difficulties with PM and HIM. Then I thought, that it might be possible to look at PM and HIM as kind of accent one and accent two on the phonological level. Having only PM or HIM in the sign, there would be than accent one; having both, accent two. The sign is kind of more complicated having both, PM and HIM than having only PM or HIM; my data show that it is more difficult for children to master signs with PM and HIM, than signs with only PM or HIM as it is more difficult t
 o
>  m
>> aster accent two than accent one.
>> I was just trying to find explanation of the errors on the phonological level I see. Than I thought that it might be possible to compare PM and HIM with accent one and accent two to a certain level. I do not know. This was just a thought. 
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Nedelina
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Með kveðju / Best regards
>> ___________________________________
>> Nedelina Ivanova
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>> 
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>> ________________________________________
>> Frá: linguists interested in signed languages [SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU] Fyrir hönd Adam Schembri [A.Schembri at LATROBE.EDU.AU]
>> Sent: 16. febrúar 2013 00:43
>> Viðtakandi: SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU
>> Efni: Re: On accent in SL
>> 
>> 
>> On 15/02/13 23:51 , "Nedelina Stoyanova Ivanova" <nedelina at SHH.IS> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hallo,
>>> 
>>> Is someone familiar with papers/researches or something regarding  acute
>>> and grave accent as known from Swedish f.ex. but related to sign
>>> languages, and in particular to path movement and hand internal movement?
>>> When only one movement (path or hand internal) is presented, than the
>>> accent is acute; when both presented, than the accent is grave?
>>> I know, quite far-fetched ...
>>> 
>>> Nedelina Ivanova
>>> 
>