DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH: How American Sign Language Expresses Numerosity

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This project focuses on the use of space among plural forms in American Sign Language (ASL). Many researchers have noted that the pronominal and verb agreement systems of ASL are largely indexic - that is, these signs 'point to' locations established with their referents. This dissertation research will investigate the extent to which plural inflection in ASL is indexic, and the extent to which it is grammaticized.The study focuses on pronouns and agreement verbs, because both are considered highly indexic in their singular forms. Given that the use of singular forms is indexic, the goal for this project is to determine if plural inflection is also highly indexic (in which case, it could be considered an extension of locus marking), or if plural inflection is highly grammaticized (in which case, a separate category is needed for number). The main question is: To what extent is the form of a plural verb affected by the location associated with the referents of its argument?The researchers will collect kinematic data from three Deaf native signers of ASL, using two types of task: an elicitation task and a judgment task. In the elicitation task, informants will be presented with videotaped stimuli consisting of short skits, each one depicting different numbers of actors/things either performing or undergoing certain actions. Informants will be videotaped describing what is happening in each skit. The location of nominals will then be compared with the locations of the verbs that agree with them. The results of this study will have implications not only for linguists who work with sign languages, but also for syntacticians, morphologists, and psycholinguists in general.