Idioms in Sign Languages

[Adam Schembri]

The former idiom is perhaps the most widely cited example of an ASL idiom that fits the linguistic definition. In fact, it appears to have been translated into Auslan, and has a number of variations here, e.g., PRO-2 MISS TRAIN or simply X-P-T ('Express passenger train') etc.
Adam

From: Fischer Susan <susan.fischer at RIT.EDU<mailto:susan.fischer at RIT.EDU>>
Reply-To: linguists interested in signed languages <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU<mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>>
Date: Friday, 15 March 2013 8:57
To: "SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU<mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>" <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU<mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>>
Subject: Re: Idioms in Sign Languages

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:
TRAIN ZOOM (equivalent to "you missed the boat"; it's too late and I'm not going to repeat what I said)
PATIENT TOILET (I have to go to the bathroom)
ASL is not alone in having relatively few idioms; I remember someone saying that Greenlandic lacked them too.

Susan D. Fischer
Susan.Fischer at rit.edu<mailto:Susan.Fischer at rit.edu>

Visiting Scholar, NYU



On Mar 14, 2013, at 5:26 PM, Adam Schembri wrote:

Myself and other linguists have made this point before - there is
relatively little evidence of idioms in sign languages (i.e., of
relatively invariant phrasal constructions with a non-componential
meaning). Many signs that are called idioms by sign language teachers are
not actually idioms but have idiomatic equivalents in the surrounding
spoken language - hence the confusion.
You can download an interesting paper by Trevor Johnston and Lindsay
Ferarra "Lexicalization in signed_languages: when is an idiom not an
idiom" from Trevor Johnston's www.academia.edu<http://www.academia.edu> page.
Thanks
Adam
--
Assoc. Prof. Adam Schembri, PhD
Linguistics program | Humanities and Social Sciences
Interim director | Centre for Research on Language Diversity
(http://www.latrobe.edu.au/crld)
La Trobe University | Melbourne (Bundoora) | Victoria |  3086 |  Australia
Tel : +61 3 9479 2887/6401 | Mob: +61 432 840 744
Secretary, Sign Language Linguistics Society: http://www.slls.eu
ALLY Network Member supporting GLBTIQ students and staff at La Trobe
University:  www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally<http://www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally>
<http://www.latrobe.edu.au/equality/ally>








On 15/03/13 3:48 , "Rena Andrikopoulou" <rena_andrikopoulou28 at YAHOO.GR<mailto:rena_andrikopoulou28 at YAHOO.GR>>
wrote:

Does anybody have any idea about Phd/ paper/ dissertation / research, in
Sign Languages' Idioms? Linguistic criteria of determination by simple
figurative/metaphorical language?
I am a Phd student of Deaf Studies Unit, University of Patras, Greece.
Thank you in advance...



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/slling-l/attachments/20130314/be670650/attachment.htm>