Nonmanual clash of the lower face nonmanuals in American Sign Language

Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
Type
Thesis (B.A.)
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
en_US
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Terms of Use
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
Nonmanuals in American Sign Language (ASL) provide syntactic, lexical, prosodic, and affective information. While, in general, nonmanuals with different functions are expressed through different articulatory channels, allowing them to be layered and produced simultaneously, there are nonmanuals with different fimctions that involve the same articulator. Since a given articulator cannot be used in two ways at once, we have the potential for what I am calling, in this context, a "clash". The simultaneous articulation of certain nonmanuals of the lower face, those that are modifiers or obligatory parts of lexical items, has the potential to result in a clash. I present the theoretical potential for this particular clash, detailing the forms in which it can theoretically appear. This clash and its resolution are then examined in a pilot study, conducted with a native signer. In the pilot study, the signer used four methods to avoid or resolve a clash: a verb-sandwich construction, displacement of the lexical nonmanual, dropping of the lexical nonmanual and paraphrase of the elicited sentence. These methods are examined within the framework of autosegmental phonology, while compared to similar processes in tone languages.
Description
Subjects
Citation
Collections