Doctoral Dissertation Research: Sign language spatial modulation across sociohiohistorical contexts

手语是一种视觉-空间模态，在交流过程中身体和手是直接可见的。这使得SL能够以基本的方式使用三维空间。空间被用来或被调制，以一种图标的方式指代位置，允许签名者基于他们的真实的世界位置或相对空间配置来放置或移动参照物。空间也被调制以跟踪语法论点，即，来引入和保持话语所指。手语者如何在整个语篇中编织人称和位置指称一直是手语语言学文献中的一个重要理论问题。在提出的框架中，有些在一个单一的语言一致性分析中调和这两种空间使用，而另一些则使用两种语言一致性分析。（词素）和非语言为了更好地理解这两种指称功能在不同语言环境中的起源和发展，本研究分析了空间调制的分布（方位格和论元）跨越三种语言-美国手语（ASL）是一种有300多年历史的成熟手语，哥伦比亚手语（NSL）是一种大约50年前的年轻手语，在没有外界影响的情况下自主发展，Lengua de Señas Costarricense（LESCO）是一种年轻手语，在与美国手语密切接触的情况下发展。学生研究人员将获得语言样本从NSL和LESCO的三个小组代表语法发展的早期阶段，使用“明显的时间”假设，并将它们与来自成熟的手语，ASL的等效样本进行比较。本研究的目的是梳理出空间事件中的指示照应追踪与其在论元结构中的使用之间的关系。拟议的研究还将进一步记录研究不足的手语，并将收集的数据存档在一个永久的，机构维护的存储库中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Sign languages (SLs) are situated in the visual-spatial modality, and the body and hands are directly visible during communication. This affords SLs the use of three-dimensional space in fundamental ways. Space is used, or modulated, to refer to locations in an iconic way, allowing signers to place or move referents based on their real world locations or relative spatial configurations. Space is also modulated to track grammatical arguments—i.e., to introduce and maintain discourse referents. How signers weave both person and location referents throughout a discourse has been of great theoretical interest in the sign language linguistics literature. Among proposed frameworks, some reconcile these two uses of space within a single linguistic agreement analysis, while others employ both linguistic (morphemic) and non-linguistic (gestural) analyses rather than an entirely linguistic one.In order to better understand the origins and development of these two referent functions in differing linguistic environments, this research analyzes the distribution of spatial modulations (locative and argument) across three languages–American Sign Language (ASL) a well-established sign language over 300 years old, Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) young sign language of approximately 50 years old that is developing autonomously without outside influence, and Lengua de Señas Costarricense (LESCO) a young sign language that is developing in a situation with strong language contact with ASL. The student researcher will obtain language samples from three sub-groups of NSL and LESCO that represent earlier stages of grammatical development, using the “apparent time” hypothesis, and compare them with equivalent samples from the well-established sign language, ASL. The goal of this work is to tease apart the factors involved in deictic reference tracking in spatial events from its use in argument structure. The proposed research will also serve to further document under-studied sign languages, and to archive the data collected in a permanent, institutionally-maintained repository.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.