A corpus study of mouthing and fingerspelling in Russian Sign Language: description and implications for cross-modal contact

虽然最近对俄罗斯手语（RSL）的一些选定方面进行了研究，但RSL语法中的许多主题仍未得到研究，并且对RSL中的手指拼写或口齿表达一无所知。本项目旨在首次提供基于语料库的RSL中这两种现象的详细描述，并展示它们如何影响当前关于它们在手语中的语言地位的辩论。由于视觉-手势形态的特殊方面，拼写和口型是语言接触的特殊情况，在口语中没有直接的等同。由于手指拼写和口述构成了跨模态语言接触现象，本研究将进一步深入了解三种不同模态（符号、言语和文字）的相互作用以及这种相互作用背后的语法系统。该项目深入了解了口头和书面俄语，以口述和手指拼写的形式，如何与RSL结合并影响RSL。根据跨语言本土化模型，对俄语手写体拼词在手语词典中的本土化过程进行测试。通过在RSL中一组频繁出现的符号的基础上调查口型的共现和变化，该项目将阐明口型的语言地位。在最近创建的RSL语料库（2012-2015，俄罗斯新西伯利亚国立技术大学）中，将调查由59名本地RSL签名者提供的230个视频片段中超过10万个手势的手势语和口音的出现情况。该项目对RSL的文献资料有重要的补充，有助于讨论口型和手指拼写在手语语法中的语言地位，并讨论这两种现象如何适应现有的手语语音和形态模型以及双峰双语研究。

While some selected aspects of Russian Sign Language (RSL) have recently been researched, many topics in the grammar of RSL remain un(der)studied and nothing is known about fingerspelling or mouthing in RSL. This project aims at providing the first detailed corpus-based description of these two phenomena in RSL and showing how they bear on current debates regarding their linguistic status in sign languages. Due to particular aspects of the visual-gestural modality, fingerspelling and mouthing are specific cases of language contact that do not have a direct equivalent in spoken languages. Inasmuch as fingerspelling and mouthing constitute cross-modal language contact phenomena, this study will provide further insights into the interaction of three different modalities (sign, speech and writing) and the grammatical system(s) underlying this interaction. The project gains insights into how the spoken and written Russian, in the form of mouthing and fingerspelling, combines with and affects RSL. The processes of nativization of fingerspelled words of the Russian manual alphabet into the sign language lexicon will be tested according to the cross-linguistic nativization model. By investigating the co-occurrence and variation of mouthings on the basis of a set of frequently occurring signs in RSL, the project will shed light on the linguistic status of mouthings. The occurrences of fingerspelling and mouthing will be investigated as they are produced by and between native RSL signers in the recently created RSL Corpus (2012-2015, Novosibirsk State Technical University, Russia) containing more than 100,000 signs in 230 video clips presented by 59 native RSL signers. The project adds significantly to the documentation of RSL, contributes to the debate on the linguistic status of mouthing and fingerspelling in sign language grammar, and discusses how these two phenomena suit the existing phonological and morphological models in the sign language and bimodal bilingualism research.