The Use of Signing Space in a Shared Sign Language of Australia

305 Pages·2014·13 MB·English

by  Anastasia Bauer

Anastasia Bauer
The Use of Signing Space in a Shared Signing Language of Australia
Sign Language Typology 5
Editors
Marie Coppola
Onno Crasborn
Ulrike Zeshan
Editorial board
Sam Lutalo-Kiingi
Irit Meir
Ronice Müller de Quadros
Roland Pfau
Adam Schembri
Gladys Tang
Erin Wilkinson
Jun Hui Yang
De Gruyter Mouton · Ishara Press
The Use of Signing Space
in a Shared Sign Language
of Australia
by
Anastasia Bauer
De Gruyter Mouton · Ishara Press
ISBN 978-1-61451-733-7
e-ISBN 978-1-61451-547-0
ISSN 2192-5186
e-ISSN 2192-5194
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Acknowledgements
This book is the revised and edited version of my doctoral dissertation that I
defended at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Cologne,
Germany in January 2013. It is the result of many experiences I have encoun-
tered from dozens of remarkable individuals who I wish to acknowledge.
First of all, this study would have been simply impossible without its partici-
pants. The data that form the basis of this book I owe entirely to my Yolngu
family who taught me with patience and care about this wonderful Yolngu
language. My deepest gratitude goes to all Yolngu people from Galiwin’ku
and Mapuru who shared their language, their knowledge and their hospitality
with another Balanda coming to their land. I would like to express my very
great appreciation to Elaine L. Maypilama for her assistance with the collec-
tion of my data. I am particularly thankful for her taking care of me during
my stay in Galiwin’ku. I very much enjoyed our meals by the fire and our
conversations.
It gives me great pleasure in acknowledging the support and help of
Roland Pfau, who has been a quiet influence on my work even before I
started writing this book. I owe my sincere thanks to him, as his linguistic
and writing skills have contributed so much to this book. I very much appre-
ciate his willingness to give his time so generously.
The research was undertaken with the financial assistance of German
Research Foundation (DFG) as a part of EuroBABEL project (“Endangered
Sign Languages in Village Communities”) guided by Ulrike Zeshan. During
the research time, I was also fortunate to receive support from the Alfred
Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. The Northern Land Council facilitated the acquisi-
tion of the permit necessary to undertake fieldwork in Arnhem Land. I am
indebted to different people in Northern Territory for helping me before,
during and after the fieldwork. I would like to thank John Greatorex,
Anne Lowell, Brian and Nancy Devlin, Stephen Hill, Graig Danvers, Nia
Emmanouil and other great women from CERES Global for the adventurous
road trip to Mapuru.
I would like to acknowledge the sign language research groups at the
Radboud University of Nijmegen, University of Central Lancashire and
Georg-August University of Göttingen. My visits were always inspiring and
stimulating and have been critical to my being able to maintain my moti-
vation and enthusiasm. I am grateful to all the sign language researchers
and colleagues for their support and interest in my research. I am particu-
larly indebted to Inge Zwitserlood for her expertise and continuous support
throughout many years. Inge, thank you for bringing me to classifiers.
vi Acknowledgements
I consider it an honor to have been able to discuss my research with a
renowned pioneer of Australian Aboriginal sign languages, Adam Kendon.
Adam, thank you very much for your valuable and constructive comments
on my study. I enjoyed our long conversation in Cologne.
My gratitude and thanks also go to Marie Coppola, Pamela Perniss,
Victoria Nyst, Olivier Le Guen, Vadim Kimmelmann and Susanne Mohr
who gave productive feedback on previous drafts of the book. I owe thanks
to Irit Meir, Angela Nonaka, Connie de Vos, Jenny Green, Erin Wilkinson
and Joke Schuit for their insightful comments on various sign languages. I
also thank Getrud Boden, Juliane Kabisch-Lindenlaub, Anne Fehn, Nikolaus
Himmelmann, Patrick McConvell, Andrew Butcher, Suzannah O’Reilly,
Peter Bakker and Rolf Kuschel for providing insights into their research and
thus contributing to this book.
My colleagues Timo Klein and Anthony Bülow deserve my special
thanks for their support and encouragement during the challenging stages
of writing up this book. Timo, thank you for your invaluable technical assis-
tance in preparing the illustrations. During some of the more difficult stages
of my PhD studies at the University of Cologne, I wish to acknowledge the
help provided by Stefan Grohé, Norbert Finzsch, Thomas Kaul and Ulrich
Obst, who always provided me with a listening ear in a difficult situation.
Very special thanks are owed to my German Sign Language teachers: Reiner
Griebel und Christo Sailer. Thank you so much for teaching me your beau-
tiful language. I am also indebted to Christo for modeling some of the DGS
signs for this study. My gratitude goes to Camilo Gray and his colleagues
from the Multimedia Group at the University of Cologne for their assistance
with the digital archiving of the video files.
I would also like to thank Claudia Hunt, Kathryn Bausch, Russell Watson,
Amanda Hähn-Woods, Kelly Hähn-Hawrylyshyn for the English proof-
reading. Assistance provided by the editoral assistants of SLT Series, Nicola
Wright and Robin Arora was also greatly appreciated.
I also thank my friends, family and God, who gave me Maxim. He was
on his way during writing of this book and made me the happiest person on
earth. I thank my parents-in-law, Gertrud and Hartmut, who supported me in
this whole undertaking from the very beginning. Uli, words cannot express
how grateful I am for your unconditional love and support. I could not have
completed this book without you. Finally, I thank my mother, Valentina, who
made me curious and did everything possible for me: my school education in
Russia, my high school year in the USA and my master and PhD studies in
Germany. Мама, я тебе бесконечно благодарна.
Contents
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................v
List of figures .............................................................................................xiii
List of tables ..............................................................................................xvii
Abbreviations ...........................................................................................xviii
Sign language acronyms ............................................................................xix
Glossary .....................................................................................................xxi
Notational conventions .............................................................................xxii
Part I: Introduction
1 Introduction ...............................................................................................3
1.1 Research aims and objectives ...........................................................5
1.2 Outline of the book ...........................................................................7
2 Sign language types ................................................................................10
2.1 Deaf community sign languages .....................................................12
2.2 Emerging sign languages ................................................................13
2.3 Village sign languages ....................................................................15
2.3.1 Socioeconomic and demographic settings ...........................15
2.3.2 Social homogeneity ..............................................................16
2.3.3 (Socio-)Linguistic context ...................................................17
2.3.4 Degree of endangerment .....................................................18
2.4 Alternate sign languages ................................................................19
2.4.1 Sawmill Sign Language .......................................................20
viii Contents
2.4.2 Monastic sign languages ......................................................21
2.4.3 Plains Indian Sign Language ...............................................22
2.4.4 Keresan Pueblo Indian Sign Language ................................23
2.4.5 Australian Aboriginal sign languages ..................................23
2.5 Shared sign languages .....................................................................28
2.6 Summary .........................................................................................30
Part II: Sociolinguistic Background & Methodology
3 Cultural and sociolinguistic context ........................................................35
3.1 Previous studies ..............................................................................35
3.2 Historic & demographic background ..............................................37
3.3 Cultural background .......................................................................40
3.4 Linguistic context ...........................................................................41
3.5 The use of YSL in Yolngu communities .........................................46
3.5.1 Communication with deaf Yolngu .......................................47
3.5.2 Interaction over distance ......................................................50
3.5.3 Further aspects of YSL origin and use ................................50
4 Data collection ........................................................................................54
4.1 Fieldwork ........................................................................................54
4.1.1 Fieldwork sites .....................................................................54
4.1.2 Cultural issue .......................................................................57
4.2 Stimulus materials ...........................................................................58
4.2.1 Spontaneous signing ............................................................59
4.2.2 Elicited signing ....................................................................59
4.2.2.1 Visual materials .................................................................59
4.2.2.2 Questionnaires and games ...............................................62
4.2.2.3 Translation from English and Djambarrpuyŋu .................63
Contents ix
4.3 Participants ......................................................................................64
4.4 Data annotation ...............................................................................67
Part III: Selected Aspects of YSL Grammar
5 Phonological aspects ...............................................................................75
5.1 Handshapes .....................................................................................75
5.1.1 Basic handshapes .................................................................78
5.1.1.1 Token frequency .....................................................79
5.1.1.2 Type frequency .......................................................80
5.1.1.3 Non-dominant hand frequency ..............................80
5.1.2 Marginal handshapes ...........................................................82
5.2 Sign types: preference for one-handedness ....................................84
5.3 Nonmanual markers ........................................................................90
5.3.1 Mouth gestures .....................................................................90
5.3.2 Mouthings ............................................................................94
5.3.3 Head movements ..................................................................96
5.3.3.1 sleep vs. exist .................................................96
5.3.3.2 bäyŋu vs. yaka.................................................98
5.4 Summary .......................................................................................100
6 Syntactic aspects ...................................................................................101
6.1 Negation ........................................................................................101
6.1.1 Negation in Djambarrpuyŋu ..............................................101
6.1.2 Negation in YSL ................................................................102
6.1.3 Summary ............................................................................106
6.2 Interrogatives ................................................................................106
6.2.1 Content questions ...............................................................107
6.2.1.1 Question word paradigm ......................................107