Perspective Shift Across Modalities

Languages offer various ways to present what someone said, thought, imagined, felt, and so on from their perspective. The prototypical example of a perspective-shifting device is direct quotation. In this review we define perspective shift in terms of indexical shift: A direct quotation like “Selena said, ‘Oh, I don't know.’” involves perspective shift because the first-person indexical ‘I’ refers to Selena, not to the actual speaker. We then discuss a variety of noncanonical modality-specific perspective-shifting devices: role shift in signed language, quotatives in spoken language, free indirect discourse in written language, and point-of-view shift in visual language. We show that these devices permit complex mixed forms of perspective shift which may involve nonlinguistic gestural as well as visual components. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

‘Unfocused groups’: lessons learnt amid remote focus groups in the Philippines

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has required tremendous shifts in data collection techniques. While an emerging body of research has described experiences conducting remote interviews, less attention has been paid to focus group discussions (FGDs). Herein, we present experiences conducting remote FGDs (n=9) with healthcare workers and caretakers of small children in the Philippines. We used ‘Facebook Messenger Room’ (FBMR), the preferred platform of participants. Despite some success, we generally encountered considerable challenges in terms of recruiting, retaining and moderating remote FGDs, particularly among caretakers of small children. Finding a quiet, private place proved unfeasible for many participants, who were juggling family demands in tight, locked down quarters. Connectivity issues and technological missteps compromised the flow of FGDs and minimised the ability to share and compare opinions. For the research team, remote FGDs resulted in a dramatic role shift for notetakers—from being passive observers to active tech supporters, chatbox referees and co-moderators (when audio disruptions occurred). Finally, we note that remote FGDs via FBMR are associated with ethical complexities, particularly as participants often chose to use their personal Facebook accounts, which can compromise anonymity. We developed and continuously refined strategies to mitigate challenges, but ultimately decided to forgo FGDs. We urge fellow researchers with more successful experiences to guide the field in terms of capturing high-quality data that respond to research questions, while also contending with privacy concerns, both in online spaces, as well as physical privacy despite lockdowns in tight quarters.

The emergence of systematic argument distinctions in artificial sign languages

Word order is a key property by which languages indicate the relationship between a predicate and its arguments. However, sign languages use a number of other modality-specific tools in addition to word order such as spatial agreement, which has been likened to verbal agreement in spoken languages, and role shift, where the signer takes on characteristics of propositional agents. In particular, data from emerging sign languages suggest that, though some use of a conventional word order can appear within a few generations, systematic spatial modulation as a grammatical feature takes time to develop. We experimentally examine the emergence of systematic argument marking beyond word order, investigating how artificial gestural systems evolve over generations of participants in the lab. We find that participants converge on different strategies to disambiguate clause arguments, which become more consistent through the use and transmission of gestures; in some cases, this leads to conventionalized iconic spatial contrasts, comparable to those found in natural sign languages. We discuss how our results connect with theoretical issues surrounding the analysis of spatial agreement and role shift in established and newly emerging sign languages, and the possible mechanisms behind its evolution.

“It’s a sea-change”: Understanding the role the racial and socio-political climate play on the role-shift of the American college presidency

This inquiry is part of a larger study focused on whether white male presidents in higher education can respond to racism. In the initial study, the author concluded that while presidents were responsive, their responses were not void of privilege, and highlighted the need to further address white Fragility amongst this group. In an effort to advance our understanding of the American college presidency, particularly how the racial and socio-political climate has shaped their leadership, in the current study, the author analyzed data using the perspective offered by the presidents – higher education is in a sea-change, which was also a finding, as well as specific facets of Astin and Astin’ (2000) and Buller’s (2015) respective frames of change. The analysis yielded the importance of naming that higher education is in a sea-change, grappled with the reality of power within the presidency, and articulated the value of being willing over being ready to incite change. In light of these findings, these leaders recognized that not only is higher education due for a change, but so is the postsecondary presidency. Such an understanding expands both the organizational leadership and diversity in higher education literature, respectively.

Reference switching in sign and speech: grammatical and discourse features across modalities within signed-to-spoken language interpretation

Human languages contain a variety of tools for referencing agents, locations, arguments of predicates, and other entities that are introduced, described, and attributed actions within sentences. While there are similarities across modalities, there also exist notable differences. For example, signed languages are articulated with two hands, and sometimes one of them serves referencing functions while the other produces complementary signs. Additionally, signers use role shift and constructed action extensively, whereas there is comparatively less use of reported speech and co-speech enactment in spoken language discourse. Differences across modalities such as these provide areas of focus for studies of interpretation, since a common theoretical premise is that interpreters should disengage from the form of a source-language message in order to provide the meaning in the target language (with its own form). It is open to debate whether an interpretation can achieve complete semantic equivalence, given differences in the grammars, lexical items, and discourse features of the source- and target-languages. We use Libras texts interpreted into Brazilian Portuguese to examine various types of referencing in language and how it occurs in such texts. Our analysis is intended to raise questions about referencing and interpretation that merit in-depth study.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------ALTERNÂNCIA DE REFERÊNCIA NAS LÍNGUAS DE SINAIS E LÍNGUAS FALADAS: CARACTERÍSTICAS GRAMATICAIS E DISCURSIVAS ENTRE MODALIDADES EM INTERPRETAÇÕES DE LIBRAS PARA LÍNGUA PORTUGUESAAs línguas humanas contêm uma variedade de ferramentas para referenciar agentes, locais, argumentos de predicados e outras entidades que são introduzidas, descritas e atribuídas com ações nas sentenças. Embora existam semelhanças entre as modalidades, também existem diferenças notáveis. Por exemplo, as línguas de sinais são articuladas com duas mãos, e às vezes uma delas tem funções de referência enquanto a outra produz sinais complementares. Além disso, o sinalizador usa a alternância de referência e a ação construída extensivamente, enquanto há comparativamente menos uso de cotação e ação construída que co-ocorre com discurso da língua falada. Diferenças entre modalidades como essas fornecem áreas de foco para estudos da interpretação, uma vez que uma premissa teórica comum é que os intérpretes devem se desvincular da forma de uma mensagem na língua de origem a fim de fornecer o significado na língua de destino (com sua própria forma). É possível debater se uma interpretação pode alcançar equivalência semântica completal, dadas as diferenças nas gramáticas, itens lexicais e características do discurso das línguas-fonte e as línguas-alvo. Usamos textos de Libras interpretados para o português brasileiro para examinar vários tipos de referência nessas línguas e como ela ocorre nesses textos. Nossa análise pretende levantar questões sobre referenciação e interpretação que merecem um estudo aprofundado.---Origina em inglês.