Constructing signs: Place as a symbolic structure in signed languages

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherman Wilcox ◽  
Corrine Occhino
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Symbolic Structure ◽  
Pointing Device ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis paper presents a usage-based, Cognitive Grammar analysis of Place as a symbolic structure in signed languages. We suggest that many signs are better viewed as constructions in which schematic or specific formal properties are extracted from usage events alongside specific or schematic meaning. We argue that pointing signs are complex constructions composed of a pointing device and a Place, each of which are symbolic structures having form and meaning. We extend our analysis to antecedent-anaphora constructions and directional verb constructions. Finally, we discuss how the usage-based approach suggests a new way of understanding the relationship between language and gesture.

scholarly journals Advances in the study of signed languages within a cognitive perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 29-56
Author(s):  
Rocío Martínez ◽  
Sara Siyavoshi ◽  
Sherman Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Symbolic Structure ◽  
Pointing Device ◽  
The World ◽  
Using Data

In this paper we describe a cognitive grammar approach to the study of signed language grammar. Using data from different signed languages, we explore three broad topics. First, we examine pointing, Place, and placing. We analyze pointing as a construction consisting of a pointing device, a symbolic structure which directs the interlocutor’s conceptual attention, and a Place, a symbolic structure consisting of a spatial location and a meaning, the focus of attention. Placing is a construction in which non-body anchored signs are placed at a location in space, thereby creating or recruiting a Place structure which can be used in subsequent discourse. We examine how these structures work in nominal grounding and in extended discourse. Second, we examine a cognitive grammar approach to grammatical modality. Our analysis is based on the cognitive model called the control cycle, which posits two types of control: effective, which describes our striving to influence what happens in the world, and epistemic, which concerns how we make sense of the world. We explore how effective and epistemic modality are expressed in facial displays, focusing on the brow furrow and a display with down-turned corners of the mouth we call the horseshoe mouth. Finally, we offer a brief account of a cognitive grammar approach to the relation between sign and gesture.

scholarly journals Advances in the study of signed languages within a cognitive perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 29-56
Author(s):  
Rocío Martínez ◽  
Sara Siyavoshi ◽  
Sherman Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Symbolic Structure ◽  
Pointing Device ◽  
The World ◽  
Using Data

In this paper we describe a cognitive grammar approach to the study of signed language grammar. Using data from different signed languages, we explore three broad topics. First, we examine pointing, Place, and placing. We analyze pointing as a construction consisting of a pointing device, a symbolic structure which directs the interlocutor’s conceptual attention, and a Place, a symbolic structure consisting of a spatial location and a meaning, the focus of attention. Placing is a construction in which non-body anchored signs are placed at a location in space, thereby creating or recruiting a Place structure which can be used in subsequent discourse. We examine how these structures work in nominal grounding and in extended discourse. Second, we examine a cognitive grammar approach to grammatical modality. Our analysis is based on the cognitive model called the control cycle, which posits two types of control: effective, which describes our striving to influence what happens in the world, and epistemic, which concerns how we make sense of the world. We explore how effective and epistemic modality are expressed in facial displays, focusing on the brow furrow and a display with down-turned corners of the mouth we call the horseshoe mouth. Finally, we offer a brief account of a cognitive grammar approach to the relation between sign and gesture.

scholarly journals 'Parecen que lo olvidan': Plurals did it again

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-96
Author(s):  
María Mare ◽  
Enrique Pato
Keyword(s):  
Active Role ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Case Theory ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Spanish Dialects

The distribution of DDPP in raising constructions –depending on the embedded clause’s formal properties– has been essential for Case Theory and movement. Likewise, the behavior of DDPP, according to agreement facts, has given rise to relevant discussions about the kind of movement involved (A-Movement/A’-Movement). Nevertheless, this distribution is not so clear in certain Spanish dialects, which shows a double agreement effects. It means that the embedded verb as well as the raising verb (parecer ‘to seem’) present inflectional number (and person) morphology: Parece-n que lo olvida-n (seem.3PL that it forget.3PL ‘They seem to forget him’). The analysis of the data in these varieties allows us to define many characteristics which are relevant from a descriptive and a theoretical point of view. Descriptively, it is possible to identify some notable particularities, with respect to the position of the DP, which triggers agreement and the interaction of these constructions with dative experiencers as well (Me parece que... ‘It seems to me that...’). From a theoretical point of view, these data have consequences for approaches on agreement, on the relationship between Case and movement, and on the discussion regarding the Experiencer Paradox in Spanish. Additionally, they allow us to identify a new empirical domain in which a DP plural number feature has an active role in the Probe-Goal domain.

Korean Syntax

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Hye Suk Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Auxiliary Verb ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Important Evidence

The syntax of Korean is characterized by several signature properties. One signature property is head-finality. Word order variations and restrictions obey head-finality. Korean also possesses wh in-situ as well as internally headed relative clauses, as is typical of a head-final language. Another major signature property is dependent-marking. Korean has systematic case-marking on nominal dependents and very little, if any, head-marking. Case-marking and related issues, such as multiple case constructions, case alternations, case stacking, case-marker ellipsis, and case-marking on adjuncts, are front and center properties of Korean syntax as viewed from the dependent-marking perspective. Research on these aspects of Korean has contributed to the theoretical understanding of case and grammatical relations in linguistic theory. Korean is also characterized by agglutinative morphosyntax. Many issues in Korean syntax straddle the morphology-syntax boundary. Korean morphosyntax constitutes a fertile testing ground for ongoing debates about the relationship between morphology and syntax in domains such as coordination, deverbal nominalizations (mixed category constructions), copula, and other denominal constructions. Head-finality and agglutinative morphosyntax intersect in domains such as complex/serial verb and auxiliary verb constructions. Negation, which is a type of auxiliary verb construction, and the related phenomena of negative polarity licensing, offer important evidence for crosslinguistic understanding of these phenomena. Finally, there is an aspect of Korean syntax that reflects areal contact. Lexical and grammatical borrowing, topic prominence, pervasive occurrence of null arguments and ellipsis, as well as a complex system of anaphoric expressions, resulted from sustained contact with neighboring Sino-Tibetan languages.

The relationship between spontaneous gestures of the hearing and American Sign Language

Gesture ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn McClave
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Electronic Edition ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Spontaneous Movements ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

This paper presents evidence of non-manual gestures in American Sign Language (ASL). The types of gestures identified are identical to non-manual, spontaneous gestures used by hearing non-signers which suggests that the gestures co-occurring with ASL signs are borrowings from hearing culture. A comparison of direct quotes in ASL with spontaneous movements of hearing non-signers suggests a history of borrowing and eventual grammaticization in ASL of features previously thought to be unique to signed languages. The electronic edition of this article includes audio-visial data.

5 Structure of the Site Defined by the Cultural Features and Correlation with the Surface Distribution of Cultural Items

1970 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 70-71
Author(s):  
Lewis R. Binford ◽  
Sally R. Binford ◽  
Robert Whallon ◽  
Margaret Ann Hardin
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Surface Distribution ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Recovery Techniques ◽  
Fair Sample ◽  
Sampling Procedures ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cultural Features

It has previously been argued (Binford 1964) that because of the differences in the formal properties of cultural items (as distinguished from cultural features) that there are different problems associated with obtaining an adequate and representative sample of both items and features. Excavation and recovery techniques which might be adequate to the recovery of a fair sample of cultural items might not be sufficient for supplying similar information regarding a population of cultural features.The investigation of Hatchery West was conducted with an eye to this problem, and the methods employed were aimed toward insuring an adequate and representative sample of both cultural items and cultural features. These sampling procedures allowed us to investigate the relationship between these two classes of archaeological data and to assess the degree to which the formal-spatial structure of a population of items is correlated with the formal-spatial structure of a population of features.

The Use of Myths as an Advertisement Strategy at the Age of Social Media

2015 ◽  
pp. 406-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugur Kilinc
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Consumer Behaviour ◽  
Transfer Model ◽  
Collective Unconscious ◽  
Narrative Style ◽  
Narrative Structures ◽  
Symbolic Structure ◽  
Meaning Transfer ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter has been focused on how the myths, which have a narrative style by using symbols, have been used in the advertising sector. Based on this scope, “the myth” concept is considered within Jung's archetype and collective unconscious approach. The idea that advertising, just like the myths, is based on symbolic structure and archetypes, is analyzed in terms of “Meaning Transfer Model” and consumer behaviour. In the praxis of this study, to support the relationship between the myth and the commercial, the latter that is in the sample field is thorougly examined under the light of iconographic analysis. The results of the analysis and the praxis show that myths seem to exist in modern-day mass mediums. The myths in the advertising sector that are used to attract attention and to awaken the feelings of the consumer have symbolic narrative structures, which gives way that they're very likely to be used in the advertising.

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