Phonetic Diversity in Internal Movement Across Sign Languages: A study of ASL, BSL, LIS, LSF, and Auslan
Date
2009
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Advisor
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
Type
Thesis (B.A.)
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
en_US
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Terms of Use
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
While research concerning the phonology of sign languages has been abounding, the phonetics of sign languages has not been as well elucidated and few cross-linguistic studies have emerged. Moreover, the nature of internal movement, signs which contain movement of the hand only, has not been well studied. In this thesis, I follow up on previous work focusing on primary movements in five different sign languages – American, British, Italian, French, and Australian – and look at signs containing only internal movement. Perhaps surprisingly, internal movement contributes an average of 15% of all the signs in certain languages, not including signs that have a combination of primary and internal movement. Thus, internal movement is an important force in a sign language’s lexicon that must not be overlooked.
To analyze internal movement, I developed an anatomical classification system based on combinations of possible joints and muscle contractions resulting in movement of the hand, which maintains its same absolute location in the signing space. Using this coding system, I mapped the frequency of internal movement types across a language’s set of internal movement signs. These results allowed me to speculate on the properties of the articulator that most readily allow sign languages to change or innovate. In addition, I looked at the prevalence of marked and unmarked hand configurations and how markedness correlates to their appearance within a given language. Overall, both language specific and universal trends emerge. Based on observations from the data, I propose a few universal tendencies: the Distal Joint Limitation, the Proximal Joint Preference, the Immobile Base Limitation, and the Internal Movement Weak Reduction. This thesis provides an alternative system of viewing internal movement, as well as a sign perspective for the phonetic diversity across languages.