Two-verb predicates in sign languages: Typological Variation and Emergence

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The sign languages used by Deaf communities around the world are still somewhat understudied when compared to their spoken language counterparts. This research will answer two related questions about sign language verbs. Specifically, we ask when and why signers use one verb (e.g., [she-puts-planes-in-a-row]) vs. two verbs (e.g., [she-puts] [planes-in-a-row]) to describe a particular event. This structure is commonly studied in spoken languages, sometimes expressed as serial verb constructions, but it has not been studied in sign languages. Project researchers will examine how signers produce this structure and also how they understand it. In a series of studies, researchers will investigate whether certain language-specific differences about two-verb predicates in sign languages are attributable to typological class (rather than to random variation or historical relatedness). Data from three well-established, national sign languages that are unrelated to one another will be studied: American Sign Language, Hong Kong Sign Language, and Turkish Sign Language. Typology has been an important tool in predicting variation among spoken languages, and it is hypothesized to have the same explanatory power in signed languages. Project investigators will also examine how two-verb predicates emerge in sign languages and what factors are the first to trigger two-verb predicates in historical time. To address these issues, the research team will analyze data from homesigners (individuals who have not acquired a conventional language but develop their own gestural communication systems) and signers from Nicaragua. Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) is an emerging sign language that is roughly 40 years old. The results of these analyses will shed light on the "nature" vs. "nurture" question, since the specific factors that trigger two-verb predicates in homesigners (phonological, morphological, semantic) are more likely to be ubiquitous in human language, both spoken and signed. Although it is no longer possible to trace spoken languages back to their roots in this way, the emergence of sign language in homesign provides a window onto language creation, more broadly.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.