Pointing, reference, explicitness

Transcription

1 UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL CENTRE FOR DEAF STUDIES Introduction and maintenance of reference in narratives: Evidence from native and non-native signers of British Sign Language Kearsy Cormier Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London, Sandra Smith Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Bristol, Pointing, reference, explicitness Pointing in signed languages: highly explicit for reference Pronouns: INDEX WALK she walks Determiners: WOMAN INDEX WALK the woman walks Locative points: BOOK INDEX the book is there Morgan (2006) on British Sign Language (BSL) narratives Noun phrases (with or without points) as highly explicit Constructed action/role shift as least explicit Constructed action (CA) Signer uses his/her head, face and body to describe what a person/character does, says, thinks or feels Also known as role shift Events are told from perspective of referent; signer becomes referent CA alone is extremely low in explicitness of reference Constructed action depicting a) a bear which is about to attack a person, and b) the person who is about to be attacked pretending to be dead Lille, 4-5 June

2 Reference establishment with CA Typically use of noun phrase before CA to establish referent - esp for introduction of a referent in a discourse [BEAR INDEX] NP CA:bear-about-to-attack [MAN] NP CA:man-pretend-to-be-dead This is claimed widely throughout the literature, for ASL and other signed languages (e.g. Engberg-Pedersen 1993, Emmorey & Reilly 1995, Liddell 2003, Sandler & Lillo-Martin 2006, Morgan 2006) Noun phrase generally considered not necessary if referent understood in context Emmorey & Reilly (1998) claim that reintroduction of NP referent before CA within a discourse is not only unnecessary but infelicitous However this topic has not been examined empirically Sign language acquisition Unique language experience of deaf people 5-10% of deaf people are native signers: born to deaf, signing families 90-95% of deaf people are non-native signers: born to hearing parents Age of acquisition effects have been found at phonological, morpholog, and lexical levels in deaf adults (Emmorey et al. 1995, MacSweeney et al. 2008, Mayberry & Fischer 1989) Acquisition of constructed action Begins at about 3 years of age but progresses slowly for all deaf children (Reilly 2000) Even by ages 9-10 some deaf children still struggle (Slobin et al. 2003) Research questions How is reference established for constructed action (CA) in British Sign Language (BSL)? Introduction versus maintenance - i.e. first mention of a referent versus later mentions within the same discourse? Deaf native versus deaf non-native signers? Deaf adults versus deaf children? Lille, 4-5 June

3 Adult participants native early late Language background N Deaf from Deaf, signing families 6 native signers Deaf from hearing families who learned BSL 3-8 years old non-native signers Deaf from hearing families who learned BSL after age 12 non-native signers 6 6 Child participants 12 children aged between 5;1 and 7;5 (most around age 6) DD DH-bi DH-TC/oral Language background deaf children from Deaf, signing families native signers deaf from hearing families in bilingual school non-native signers deaf from hearing family in Total Communication/oral school non-native signers N Task Participants were shown video clip and were asked to describe clip to a deaf adult native signer Stimulus video clip: Pink Panther cartoon Signed narratives were coded for CA and lexical signs using ELAN software Lille, 4-5 June

4 Coding NPs: Noun phrases in the gloss tiers e.g. MAN man, MAN INDEX the man, INDEX he For each instance of CA, we coded preceding NP identifying referent of CA NP/CA sequences identified NP i CA i NP i CA i CA no NP Immediate reference Noun phrase followed immediately by constructed action of same referent Local but not immediate reference Noun phrase followed by constructed action of same referent, but with intervening material in between (e.g. verb phrase or classifier construction) No local reference Constructed action with no local NP identifying that referent beforehand Lille, 4-5 June

5 NP CA NPi CAi Immediate reference: Noun phrase followed immediately by constructed action of same referent [DOG]NP CA:dog The dog thinks Great! and approaches. NP CA NPi CAi Local but not immediate reference Noun phrase followed by constructed action of same referent, but with predicate in between (VP or CL) [INDEX MAN]NP [COME BRING FROM TENT OUT]VP CA:man The man comes out of the tent with his saucepan; confused, he picks up the wet stick. CA no NP CA no NP e.g. NPi NPj CAi No local reference Constructed action with no local NP identifying that referent beforehand - i.e. any previous NP or classifier construction has different referent [INDEX:dog]NP [CL:dog SEE]VP CA:man The dog is walking along and sees (the man) chopping the sign down and lighting the wood. Lille, 4-5 June

6 Introduction of reference before CA (adults) NP CA preferred by all groups All introductions of CA preceded by local NP for all groups Maintenance of reference before CA (adults) Native signers continue preference for NP CA in maintenance, contrary to Emmorey & Reilly (1998) Early & late learners prefer long distance reference instead Introduction of reference before CA (children) NP CA preferred by all groups (like adults) Some introductions of CA with no local NP for all groups (unlike adults) Lille, 4-5 June

7 Maintenance of reference before CA (children) General similarity across all groups of children, unlike adults (here, only 1 token of NP CA in native signers) Discussion (1) NP CA (noun phrase followed by constructed action of that referent) is preferred by native signer adults, both for introduction and maintenance Consistent with claims in literature about reference with CA for introduction, but against assumptions for maintenance Differences between native and non-native signers: possible age of acquisition effect (cf. Mayberry & Fischer 1989, Newport 1990) Discussion (2) Participants in all groups of children produced CA no NP (constructed action with no local referent) in introduction, but no adults did this Appropriate/adult-like use of explicit reference with CA takes some time for deaf children to acquire CA/enactment in deaf and hearing children relatively early Consistent with notion of symbol formation (Werner & Kaplan 1963; Piaget 1954) Before (hearing) children begin to gesture symbolically, they describe objects and events in the world by actually using the objects themselves or performing the action itself Highlights CA s clear gestural roots - ie. functional actions and/or pantomimic gesture Reference with CA requires language Lille, 4-5 June

8 Still to come Current work Exploring differences across groups with NP CA (local but not immediate reference) Few tokens of CA in this narrative, need to examine more data (more narratives, other stimulus types) Exploring reference with entity classifier constructions Longitudinal data from children For future CA use with L2 learners of sign language Reference and CA/enactment in co-speech gesture Acknowledgements PALM project team Ramas Rentelis Kate Rowley Musaab Garghouti Raychel Hills All deaf adult participants, also child participants involved in this project and to their schools and parents for allowing them to be involved More info about PALM project: References Emmorey, K. et al. (1995). Effects of age of acquisition on grammatical sensitivity: Evidence from on-line and off-line tasks. Applied Psycholinguistics, 16, Emmorey, K., & Reilly, J. (Eds.). (1995). Language, Gesture & Space. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Emmorey, K., & Reilly, J. (1998). The Development of quotation and reported action: Conveying perspective in ASL. In E. Clark (Ed.), Proceedings of the Twenty-ninth Annual Child Language Research Forum (pp ). Stanford, CA: CSLI Press. Engberg-Pedersen, E. (1993). Space in Danish Sign Language. Hamburg: Signum Press. Liddell, S. K. (2003). Grammar, Gesture and Meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MacSweeney, M. et al. (2008). Phonological processing in deaf signers and the impact of age of first language acquisition. Neuroimage, 40(3), Mayberry, R. I., & Fischer, S. D. (1989). Looking through phonological shape to lexical meaning: The bottleneck of non-native sign language processing. Memory and Cognition, 17, Lille, 4-5 June

9 References Morgan, G. (2006). The development of narrative skills in British Sign Language. In B. S. Schick, M. Marschark & P. Spencer (Eds.), Advances in the Development of Sign language by Deaf Children (pp ). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Newport, E. L. (1990). Maturational constraints on language learning. Cognitive Science, 14, Piaget, J. (1954). The Construction of Reality in the Child. New York: Basic Books. Reilly, J. (2000). Bringing affective expression into the service of language: Acquiring perspective marking in narratives. In K. Emmorey & H. Lane (Eds.), The signs of language revisited: An anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima (pp ). Mahwah, NJ: LEA Sandler, W., & Lillo-Martin, D. (2006). Sign language and linguistic universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Slobin, D., Hoiting, N., Kuntze, M., Lindert, R., Weinberg, A., Pyers, J., et al. (2003). A cognitive/functional perspective on the acquisition of "classifiers". In K. Emmorey (Ed.), Perspectives on classifier constructions in sign languages. Mahwah, NJ: LEA Werner, H., & Kaplan, B. (1963). Symbol formation: An organismicdevelopmental approach to language and the expression of thought. London: Wiley. Lille, 4-5 June