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Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language
typology
Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Sign language typology is a fairly new research field and typological
classifications have yet to be established. For spoken languages, these
classifications are generally based on typological parameters; it would thus be
desirable to establish these for sign languages. In this paper, different typological
aspects of sign languages are described. With respect to their potential
contribution towards a typological classification, data from Inuit Sign Language
regarding verb agreement and classifiers will be considered. We will suggest two
classifications based on these morphosyntactic parameters.
1 Introduction
As appears from some of the earliest records on deafness and sign language, it
was generally thought in the seventeenth century that signing was not only a
universal, but also a primitive, form of communication (Rietveld-van Wingerden
& Tijsseling 2010). Over the centuries, this opinion has lingered on. Actually,
even after sign language research in the middle of the twentieth century had
proven beyond a doubt that these assumptions are far from true, some linguists
still suggested that sign languages were derived from spoken languages (see
review in Woll 2003). Similar views persist even today, not only among non-
linguists. As early as 1960, Stokoe (1960) showed that sign languages have their
own structure, as he demonstrated in his analysis of the phonology of American
Sign Language (ASL). ASL is the sign language that has received most attention
from linguists to date. In fact, until quite recently there were too few data from
other sign languages to allow for a study of the variation between sign languages.
Data from more sign languages of an increasingly diverse nature first had to
become available for sign language typology to become a feasible area of
research. This area is now in its early stages of development.
According to Croft (2002), typology has three different goals, namely (i)
typological classification on the basis of cross-linguistic comparison, (ii)
typological generalisation that entails “the study of patterns that occur across
languages” and the search for language universals (Croft 2002:1), and (iii)
typological explanation. Croft’s (2002) first goal of typological classification is
the one that is most relevant for the present paper. The aim of this paper is
2 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
twofold. Firstly we will review selected aspects of sign language typology based
on well-known morphological and syntactic properties
1
. Secondly, we will
present some data from Inuit Sign Language (IUR), an endangered sign
language which has not been subject to linguistic study, in order to examine
what these data can contribute to sign language typology.
In §2 an overview of sign language typology will be given. The
sociolinguistic background of Inuit Sign Language will be discussed in §3. This
will be followed by a discussion of selected aspects of spatial grammar in IUR
(§4) and their relation to sign language typology. Some tentative conclusions
will be drawn in §5.
2 Sign language typology
In this section, we will briefly discuss a number of morphological and syntactic
aspects that play a central role in the typology of spoken languages (§2.1). We
will then look at grammatical variation in sign languages and highlight different
aspects that have been studied (§2.2). Finally, we discuss the basis of
typological classification in sign languages (§2.3).
2.1 Aspects of typological classification in spoken languages
Typology can be defined as “the classification of languages or components of
languages based on shared formal characteristics.” (Whaley 1997:7).
Typological classification is thus based on the grammatical variation found
across languages. Data from a representative sample of languages is required in
order to allow for reliable generalizations (Whaley 1997; Payne 1997). Based on
a large amount of data from spoken languages, different typologies based on
syntactic and morphological properties have been proposed.
Word order, or basic constituent order to be more precise, is a very
common property on which a typological classification is based. Firstly,
languages can be classified as to whether they have a flexible or fixed
constituent order
2
(Dryer 2007; Whaley 1997). Cavineña (Tacanan; Bolivia) is
an example of a language with flexible word order, as is illustrated in (1) with
just two of the possible orders. However, languages with a fixed constituent
order may also allow for other orders under specific circumstances. It is for this
reason that the notion of basic word order is used. The most widespread order
among languages is Subject-Object-Verb as in Imbabura Quechua (Quechuan;
1
Obviously, typologies may also be based on phonological or semantic/conceptual categories,
but we will not discuss these aspects here.
2
Languages can also be partly flexible, for example, flexible at some level (e.g. clause level)
but have strict order within some other domain (e.g. the noun phrase).
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 3
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
Ecuador) (2), followed by Subject-Verb-Object as in English (Germanic; United
Kingdom), followed in turn by Verb-initial orders as in Maori (Polynesian; New
Zealand) (3). Languages with Object initial word order (OVS/OSV) exist, but
are extremely rare.
(1) a. Iba=ra
A
=tu
O
iye-chine takure
O
Cavineña
Jaguar=
ERG=3SG kill-REC.PAST chicken
S V O
b. Iye-chine=tu iba=ra
A
takure
O
V S O
‘The jaguar killed the chicken.’ (Guillaume 2008:91)
(2) Tayta-ka ruwana-ta awa-rka-mi Imbabura Quechua
Father-
TOP poncho-ACC weave-PAST.3-VALIDATOR
S O V
‘Father wove a poncho.’ (Cole 1982:103)
(3) E kai ana a Mere i ngaa kooura Maori
T/A eat T/A
PERS Mary DO the(PL) crayfish
V S O
‘Mary is eating the crayfish.’ (Bauer 1993:267)
To determine basic word order, linguists take into account which is the most
frequent occurring word order, the one that is least marked, and the one that is
pragmatically most neutral (Whaley 1997). Also, it has been proposed that there
are correlations between basic word order and other properties (Greenberg 1963).
When a language is of the SOV type, for instance, it is often found to have
postpositions and the genitive modifier following the noun. In contrast,
languages of the SVO type tend to have prepositions and genitives generally
preceding the noun.
In addition, languages are commonly classified based on their
morphological typology, i.e. the amount of affixation and fusion. A language
with monomorphemic words is called isolating, a language with polymorphemic
words is synthetic. If the morphemes in a word are easily segmented, the
language is called agglutinative; if not, it is called fusing (Payne 1997; Whaley
1997). The extreme case of agglutination also allows for noun incorporation,
that is, a word can contain several grammatical stems. Languages of this type
are called polysynthetic languages. The word order type of a language does not
appear to be related to its morphological typology. The free order language in (1)
and the SOV language in (2) are both agglutinative whereas the VSO language
in (3) is isolating.
4 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
Other areas of grammar that have received considerable attention from
typologists are sentential negation and noun categorization. A typological
classification has been proposed for negation by, for instance, Dahl (1979) and
Payne (1985). They suggest three different strategies for encoding sentential
negation: negative affixes, negative particles, and negative auxiliaries. The first
two strategies are exemplified by the examples in (4) and (5). In Turkish (Altaic;
Turkey), sentential negation is expressed by the verbal suffix –mI (the vowel
harmonizes with the stem) while in Russian (Slavic; Russia), the negative
particle ne is used.
(4) Arkadaş-ım buluş-mu-du-m Turkish
friend-
POSS.1.SG meet-NEG-PAST-1.SG
‘I did not meet my friend at the university.’
(5) On ne igraet Russian
he
NEG plays
‘He doesn’t play.’
Aikhenvald (2000) describes a typology of noun categorization devices, where
she distinguishes six types of classifiers – noun, numeral, genitive, verbal,
locative and deictic classifiers. Noun classifiers are free morphemes, which
classify the noun in a specific, generic class. Numeral classifiers are devices of
quantification, which appear either as free or as bound morphemes while verbal
classifiers combine with verbs and classify one of the (nominal) arguments of
the verb. The Cherokee (Iroquoian; United States) examples in (6) show that the
verb néé’a (‘give’) combines with different classificatory morphemes depending
on physical properties of the object given (Aikhenvald 2000:161;
CL = classifier).
(6) a. Àma gà-nèèh-néé’a Cherokee
water 3.
SG.S/3.SG.O-CL(liquid)-give
‘She is giving him water.’
b. Àhnàwo gà-nvv-nèè’a
shirt 3.
SG.S/3.SG.O-CL(flexible)-give
‘She is giving him a shirt.’
Genitive classifiers appear in possessive constructions. For locative and deictic
classifiers, more examples seem to be needed “before their typological profile
could be fully established” (Aikhenvald 2000:172). This is probably the reason
why Grinevald (2000) leaves out these last two types, and bases her typology on
morphosyntactic properties of the classifiers.
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 5
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
One other grammatical phenomenon that has been studied extensively is
verbal agreement, and again, interesting typological variation has been found.
First, languages with verbal agreement have to be distinguished from languages
in which verbs do not agree (null agreement languages). Second, within the
former group, we find languages with a poor agreement system, e.g. Dutch
(Germanic; Netherlands), and languages with a rich agreement system, e.g.
Spanish (Romance; Spain). The difference between the two types of languages
is illustrated in (7). Note that only in Spanish is every feature combination
(person and number) spelled out by a different phonological form.
(7) Paradigm for the verb ‘to walk’ in Dutch and Spanish
Dutch Spanish
1SG wandel-ø camin-o
2SG camin-as
3SG
wandel-t
camin-a
1PL camin-amos
2PL camin-áis
3PL
wandel-en
camin-en
Languages with rich agreement, such as Spanish, commonly allow for pro-drop:
the pronominal subject can be dropped as “the information can be determined by
the agreement morphology on the verb” (Whaley 1997:289). However, pro-drop
may also be observed in languages without agreement, such as Chinese for
example (for a discussion, see Lillo-Martin 1986).
So far, we have only been concerned with subject agreement. However, in
addition to subject agreement – and independent of their classification as a poor
or rich agreement language – some languages also display verbal agreement
with the object. This is illustrated by the Itelmen (Chukotko-Kamchatkan;
Russia) example in (8), in which the verb agrees with its direct object by means
of the suffix –um.
(8) N-əlčqu-z-um Itelmen
3
PL-see-PRES-1SG.OBJ
‘They see me.’ (Bobaljik & Wurmbrand 2002:5)
6 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
Agreement typically operates “according to a hierarchy of relations (Whaley
1997:153). If the verb of a certain language agrees with only one of its nominal
arguments, this will typically be the subject. If it agrees with two arguments,
these will be the subject and the direct object. In the rare cases of languages
where the verb agrees with three arguments, the third argument it agrees with is
its indirect object. The agreement hierarchy (Whaley 1997), given in Figure 1
predicts this situation.
subject > direct object > indirect object > other
Figure 1: The agreement hierarchy.
A fully-fledged typology of agreement is still under development. Corbett (2006)
attempts to create a typology of agreement using grammatical relations, but
concludes that these are not nearly sufficient.
It is interesting to investigate whether the different morphological and
syntactic properties sketched above are also helpful in constructing a typology
of sign languages, or whether other (or additional) classifications are necessary.
In the following section, a brief overview of research on variation across sign
languages is given, focusing on a number of phenomena for which sufficient
data are available.
2.2 Grammatical variation in sign languages
The development of sign language typology has gone hand in hand with the
expansion of the body of sign languages studied. Obviously, the more sign
languages are investigated, the more typological studies can be carried out. In
the “mosaic of sign language data”, given in Figure 2 below, Zeshan (2008)
traces the development of knowledge about sign languages. Research started
with descriptions of western sign languages, followed by descriptions of non-
western sign languages. When the so-called village sign languages, i.e. sign
languages used in village communities with a high incidence of genetic deafness,
first started to receive attention, the first two groups both received the
contrasting label ‘urban sign languages’. More about this distinction will follow
in §2.3 below.
The range of sign languages studied to date is widening but still there are
many gaps. Nevertheless it is “increasingly giving us a clearer picture of the
range of diversity in sign languages” (Zeshan 2008:674). In face of this diversity,
a typological classification based on the attested grammatical variation might be
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 7
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
expected. However, despite the fact that grammatical variation has been
established, a classification on the basis of such variation has not yet been
suggested.
Figure 2: The mosaic of sign language data (from Zeshan 2008:675), tracing (from left to
right) the development of the state of knowledge about sign languages.
In the following sub-sections, we will address several grammatical aspects that
could form the basis of typological classifications of sign languages.
2.2.1 Word order
Since the 1970s and 1980s, the possibility of studying word order in sign
languages has been debated in many publications. Brennan (1994) argues that
the study of word order is a complex matter because sign language syntax is
simultaneous, iconic, and often pragmatically organized. Establishing basic
order is further complicated by the fact that alternative orders frequently occur
as a result of operations such as, for example, topicalisation and pronoun copy.
These operations have to be taken into account to be able to establish basic word
order
3
.
The criteria that have been established to determine basic word order in
spoken languages are not clearly applicable to sign languages. The first criterion,
the most frequent order of a verb, its subject and its object, is problematic in
sign languages. For one thing, sentences with an overt subject and an overt
object are quite rare in sign language discourse, as Nadeau (1993) points out for
Langue des Signes Québecoise (LSQ). Her investigation of a discourse corpus
of LSQ containing more than 1300 propositions revealed that only 11 sentences
included both an overt subject and an overt object. To complicate matters, seven
of these sentences had an SVO order and four SOV, making it impossible for the
researchers to determine basic word order (Nadeau 1993). Similar observations
have been made for other sign languages (Johnston et al. 2007).
3
See Neidle et al. (2000) for discussion.
8 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
Despite these methodological challenges, basic word order has been
determined for some sign languages. From the available studies, we can infer
that the two basic orders that are most frequently found in spoken languages –
SVO and SOV – are also the most frequent ones in sign languages. After some
debate, ASL was confirmed to have a basic SVO order (inter alia Fischer 1974;
Liddell 1980); the same has been argued for Hong Kong SL (Sze 2003) and
Brazilian Sign Language (De Quadros 1999), amongst others. In contrast, Sign
Language of the Netherlands (NGT; Coerts 1994) and German Sign Language
(DGS; Glück & Pfau 1998) are described as being underlyingly SOV, as are
Italian Sign Language (Cecchetto et al. 2006) and the more recently investigated
Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (Aronoff et al. 2008). The examples in (9)
and (10) illustrate the different basic word orders of ASL (Liddell 1980:19) and
NGT. It is interesting to note that the third most frequently occurring order in
spoken languages, VSO, has not yet been documented for sign languages.
4
(9)
WOMAN FORGET PURSE ASL
‘The woman forgot the purse.’
(10)
STUDENT APPOINTMENT FORGET NGT
‘The student forgot the appointment.’
Since a large amount of data is necessary and no foolproof method has been
found to determine a sign language’s basic word order, this topic will not be
further examined in this first study of Inuit Sign Language.
2.2.2 Morphological typology
Only a handful of researchers have attempted a typological classification based
on sign language morphology. Signs are known to be of considerable
morphological complexity but the fact that morphemes tend to be organized
simultaneously rather than sequentially makes a typological classification less
straightforward. Still, given the attested complexity, Bellugi and Klima (1982)
4
Notational conventions: As is common practice in the sign language literature, signs are
glossed in English small caps. A hyphen is used when a single sign gloss consists of more
than one English word (e.g. LONG-AGO). Subscript numbers represent points in the signing
space used in verbal agreement and pronominalization (see Figure 3); ‘++’ indicates
reduplication of a sign (e.g. in pluralisation). The sign glossed as INDEX is a pointing sign
towards the signer or a location in the signing space. Depending on the context, it can fulfil
the function of a locative adverbial (‘there’) or of a pronoun; in the former case, we gloss it as
INDEX-LOC in the IUR examples. CL refers to classifier, and the subscript indicates which
object is classified. A line above a gloss indicates the scope (i.e. onset and offset) of a
particular non-manual marker (e.g. a negative headshake – glossed as hs).
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 9
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
suggest that ASL is similar to polysynthetic spoken languages. Schwager (2004)
proposes an agglutinative analysis for Russian Sign Language based on the same
arguments. Erlenkamp (2000), on the other hand, proposes that the morphology
of DGS is partly isolating and partly fusing, but does not give clear arguments to
support her claim (see Keller, Pfau & Steinbach (2002) for a critique).
Based on the study of several morphosyntactic inflections, Schuit (2007)
suggests that sign languages are agglutinative languages, as the morphemes in a
sign are easily segmented, even though they usually have a phonomorphemic
status. For illustration, consider the NGT examples in (11). Example (11a)
shows the citation form of the verb
GIVE, which is articulated with a short
outward movement and with a ]-hand. In the inflected form in (11b), we observe
numerous phonological changes, all of which are realized simultaneously: the
beginning and end point of the movement change (thereby expressing agreement
with subject and indirect object; see §2.2.5), the handshape changes in order to
classify the direct object (e.g.
BOOK; see §2.2.4), the sign becomes two-handed,
and a non-manual morpheme (i.e. a facial expression) is added for adverbial
modification. The sign thus consists of (at least) six morphemes.
(11) a. b.
GIVE
2
GIVE
1
:CL
book
(e.g. ‘you give me a heavy
book with some effort’)
All sign languages described until now are of the same morphological type, but
with differences in the amount of simultaneity. Therefore, Schuit proposes to
add an index of simultaneity next to Comrie’s (1989) indexes of fusion and
synthesis. This index of simultaneity is not only applicable to sign languages,
also spoken languages, e.g. tone languages, can be typologically classified using
this index. Most important though, is the fact that the traditional morphological
types as established for spoken languages can also be applied to sign languages
(Schuit 2007). With regard to IUR, a first data analysis suggests that it does not
exhibit a large amount of non-manual simultaneity, but manual simultaneity
certainly exists. However, more IUR data have to be analysed before the
language can be placed on the index of simultaneity.
10 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
2.2.3 Negation
As mentioned briefly in §2.1, spoken languages have different ways to express
negation. Across sign languages, negation is expressed very similarly. Most
frequently, it is realized by an obligatory head movement (e.g. a headshake),
often in combination with a manual negative particle. In spoken languages,
negative structures involving two negative elements can be found as well (for
example, in French) and this typological pattern has been referred to as ‘split
negation’. Therefore, Pfau (2002, 2008) argues for DGS that the language fits
well in the suggested typology in that it exhibits split negation, with one element
being an (optional) negative particle and the other one a non-manual negative
affix.
In addition, Zeshan (2004a, 2006) suggests a sign language specific
typology. She proposes that sign language negation comes in two different types:
manual dominant and non-manual dominant systems. Jordanian Sign Language
(LIU, Hendriks 2007) and Italian Sign Language (LIS, Geraci 2005) have been
argued to be of the former type. Manual dominant systems are characterized by
the fact that a manual negation sign is obligatory; that is, a sentence cannot be
negated by a non-manual marker only, irrespective of its scope, as is illustrated
by the LIS example in (12a). Additionally, the non-manual negative marker
commonly accompanies the manual marker, but is unlikely to spread beyond
this marker across (part of) the clause (12b).
( ( ( hs)
(12) a. * PAOLO CONTRACT SIGN LIS
hs
b. PAOLO CONTRACT SIGN NON
‘Paolo didn’t sign the contract.’ (Geraci 2005:221)
hs
(13) MAN BOOK BUY NGT
‘The man does not buy a book.’
In contrast, in non-manual dominant systems, a manual negative particle is
optional, whereas the non-manual negative marker is obligatory and capable of
spreading. Besides DGS, NGT, ASL, and Indopakistani Sign Language (IPSL)
display negation systems of the non-manual dominant type (Zeshan 2004a,
2006). The NGT example in (13) is representative of a non-manual dominant
negative system. Note the lack of a negative particle in this example as well as
the spread of the headshake over the verb phrase.
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 11
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
2.2.4 Classifiers
The grammatical elements referred to as “classifiers” here have been given
many different labels in the sign language literature (see Schembri (2003) for an
overview of the terms used). All the different terms refer to
“forms representing different classes of nominals in combination
with other elements. The noun class forms are represented by a set of
handshapes, and it is these handshapes that are […] called
classifiers” (Sandler & Lillo-Martin 2006:76).
Simplifying somewhat, there are three types of classifiers: (i) Size and Shape
Specifiers (SASSes) which indicate the size and shape of the referent; (ii) entity
classifiers
5
which refer to general semantic classes; and (iii) handling classifiers
which indicate how an object is handled or manipulated (inter alia Supalla 1986;
Engberg-Pedersen 1994; Schick 1990). Both handling and entity classifiers
combine with verb roots, that is, they can be considered predicate classifiers
(Aikhenvald 2000). Handling classifiers represent the direct object of a verb,
while entity classifiers classify the subject of a verb. Indeed, classifiers have
been analysed as agreement markers (Glück & Pfau 1998; Zwitserlood 2003)
and this analysis will be adopted here.
To date, classifiers have been described for many sign languages. Handling
classifiers appear to occur in all sign languages, although the degree of
consistent use may vary from sign language to sign language. It thus remains
debatable to what extent handling classifiers are grammaticalised items in
particular sign languages (see e.g. Zeshan (2003) for IPSL). An ongoing project
regarding handling constructions in British Sign Language might shed new
insights into the grammaticalisation process of handling classifiers (Sevcikova
2010).
Entity classifiers, too, have been described for many sign languages, but
with respect to this classifier type, more cross-linguistic variation exists. Some
sign languages allow only unmarked handshapes for entity classifiers, for
example NGT (Zwitserlood 2003), while others also allow marked handshapes,
for example LIU (Van Dijken 2004). Entity classifiers represent a semantic class
and refer to specific form characteristics of the referent class. Many sign
languages have, amongst others, dedicated classifiers that refer to vehicles, to
round objects, and to long, thin objects. Zwitserlood (2003) presents a
comprehensive study of the classifier system of NGT and describes 16 different,
frequently occurring entity classifiers: for instance, the ]-hand for vehicles, the
<-hand for round objects, and the B-hand for long, thin objects, and upright
5
Supalla (1986) refers to these as “semantic classifiers”.
12 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
people. In striking contrast to NGT and many other sign languages, Adamorobe
Sign Language (AdaSL), a sign language used in a village in Ghana, makes very
little use of entity classifiers and uses directional signs with lax handshapes
instead (Nyst 2007). A typological classification based on entity classifiers
would therefore best be represented as a continuum, with sign languages with a
large repertoire of entity classifiers (e.g. NGT) at one end of the continuum and
sign languages with few entity classifiers like AdaSL towards the other end.
Sign languages with no entity classifiers would be at the extreme other end, but
no such sign language has yet been documented. In §4.2, we will show that IUR
does employ a set of entity classifiers.
2.2.5 Verb agreement
Verb agreement in sign languages has been analysed in many different ways. A
discussion of the competing analyses (e.g. stem-internal changes versus
affixation) – not to mention the question whether agreement even exists in sign
languages – is outside the scope of this paper (inter alia Liddell 2000; Neidle et
al. 2000; Meir 2002; Rathmann & Mathur 2002; Aronoff, Meir & Sandler 2005).
In the present context, it is sufficient to sketch some basic properties of sign
language agreement.
Agreement inflection is realised manually in signing space. Signers
localise referents in the signing space, usually by means of pointing signs
(indexes) which identify locations in signing space. Indexes may occur before,
after, before and after, or simultaneously with the referent that is localised.
These locations (or the location of referents present in the discourse) are used in
pronominalisation and verb agreement. To that end, the signing space is usually
divided into ‘sections’ analogous to the grammatical category of person. As for
pronominalisation, pointing to the signer thus reflects first person, pointing to
the addressee second person, and pointing towards any other location in signing
space third person (Figure 3). Similarly, the movement of some verbs can be
modulated such that the beginning and end point of the movement coincide with
previously established locations, thereby expressing agreement with the subject
and object. The NGT verb
VISIT, for instance, when describing a movement
trajectory from 3a to 1, would be interpreted as ‘s/he visits me’.
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 13
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
Figure 3: Locations of grammatical person in signing space, indicated by the dotted line.
Whereas this form of verb agreement is attested in many sign languages from all
parts of the world, there are also several sign languages in which no, or only a
few, verbs can be modified to show agreement. In Kata Kolok, a sign language
from Bali, for instance, the only verb that is spatially inflected with some
regularity is the verb
BAANG (‘give’) (Marsaja 2008). AdaSL also shows an
infrequent use of verb agreement; it occurs with verbs such as
MARRY and
INSULT (Nyst 2007). In other sign languages, like NGT or ASL, many verbs
inflect.
It is important to note, however, that even in those sign languages that
make frequent use of agreement verbs, not all verbs inflect. In analysing ASL,
Padden (1988) refers to the class of non-agreeing verbs as plain verbs. These
verbs cannot be modified in the way described above to express agreement with
their arguments, mainly due to phonological restrictions. Since Padden’s (1988)
work, the distinction between agreeing and plain verbs has been found in many
other sign languages (see e.g. Bos (1993) for NGT). Interestingly, even for those
verbs that can inflect for agreement, the realization of agreement appears to be
optional (see e.g. de Beuzeville et al. (2009) for Australian Sign Language).
Furthermore, agreement verbs do not automatically agree with all of their
arguments. Transitive verbs may agree with only the object, and the same holds
for ditransitive verbs (Padden 1988; Meier 1987). Whereas in spoken languages,
agreement with the subject is the unmarked case (see Figure 1), in sign
languages, object agreement seems to be less marked and more common.
Across spoken languages, the relevant agreement features are spelled out
in many different ways (see e.g. the table in (7)). In contrast, across sign
languages, the (phonological) realization of verb agreement is strikingly
homogenous: it always involves similar spatial modulations. There is
typological variation in the use of agreement auxiliaries which are capable of
realizing agreement in the context of plain verbs (see Steinbach & Pfau (2007)
for an overview). Some languages have such an auxiliary, for example NGT and
DGS, while others do not, for example ASL. Still, overall, the typological
14 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
variation in the realisation of verb agreement among sign languages is limited.
We conclude that, as far as agreement is concerned, sign languages fall into two
types: those that that make frequent use of manual verb agreement and those that
show minimal (or no) use of the agreement mechanism. In §4.1, we will show
that IUR does not fall neatly in either of these two groups, as it shows agreement,
but only to a limited extent.
2.3 Typological classification of sign languages?
The discussion in the previous sections has shed light on some of the attested
grammatical variation amongst sign languages. We have seen, for instance, that
some sign languages have (almost) no verb agreement, while others make
extensive use of this grammatical device. Similarly, some sign languages
employ only few entity classifiers, while others have a large set of such
classifiers. The attentive reader may have noticed that some sign languages with
little verb agreement also have few classifiers. Such sign languages found to
date are all used in small village communities, such as Adamorobe in Ghana and
the Al-Sayyid Bedouin community in Israel. Sign languages that manifest an
abundance of agreement and classifiers are typically used in urban societies. It
might therefore be tempting to simply group sign languages into two classes:
village and urban sign languages. Several authors have indeed made this
distinction, although different labels have been used (cf. Nyst (in press) for an
overview of the terms used by different authors). A closer look, however,
reveals that such a division is too simplistic. It is not the case that all so-called
village sign languages have little verb agreement and few entity classifiers. Kata
Kolok, a sign language from a village in Bali, for instance, has a wide array of
entity classifiers, though only one verb that can take agreement (Marsaja 2008).
AdaSL, on the other hand, has been shown to have a small set of agreeing verbs,
but not many entity classifiers (Nyst 2007). Zeshan (2008) therefore concludes
that, although structures of village sign languages might differ from those found
in urban sign languages, structures found in one village sign language are not
necessarily attested in all other village sign languages. Consequently, it is not
justifiable to relate differences in sign language structure to a homogenous
“village sign language type” (Zeshan 2008:689).
Moreover, there is no clear causal relationship between a sign language’s
sociolinguistic setting and its typological features. For spoken languages,
Kusters (2003) found a correlation between community size and language
features. Interestingly, he found that a decrease in language complexity
correlated with an increase in the size of the community: isolated small
communities tended to have more complex languages than larger communities
that have more contact with other communities. The study by Lupyan and Dale
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 15
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
(2010) represents a similar effort to relate language structure to social structure.
Based on a large sample of languages, they found that socio-demographic
factors are of influence on language structure. In particular, languages spoken in
a large area, with a large population, and many linguistic neighbours tend to be
isolating, nominative/accusative languages with fewer case markings and less
agreement than languages spoken in smaller areas, with smaller populations, and
fewer linguistic neighbours. Lupyan and Dale hypothesise that a language
changes under influence of geographic spread and an increasing number of
second language learners. Changes (that is, simplifications) are taken to be
caused by learnability biases of adult second language learners.
For sign languages, such a correlational study has not yet been conducted.
Based on the above observations, we could tentatively claim that the opposite
holds for sign languages, as sign languages with a large community tend to
exhibit grammatically more complex structures than sign languages with a small
community. However, other influences play a role, too, and therefore, we do not
opt for a distinction between sign languages based on their sociolinguistic
setting.
An extensive typological classification of sign languages, based on
linguistic features, is not yet available. Zeshan (2004a, b), in her cross-linguistic
studies on negation and interrogatives, made an initial attempt in the direction of
a sign language typology for these structure
6
. However, it is certainly
worthwhile to consider the classification of sign languages based on other
linguistic aspects. We have discussed a number of morphosyntactic and
syntactic aspects that have been described for different sign languages, but a
thorough cross-linguistic study regarding verb agreement and classifiers has not
been conducted yet. In the remainder of this paper, data from IUR regarding
verb agreement and classifiers will be considered with respect to their potential
contribution towards a typological classification of these two morphosyntactic
aspects. As IUR has only recently entered the stage of sign linguistic research,
some basic demographic and sociolinguistic facts will briefly be described in the
next section. In §4, preliminary data of IUR verb agreement and classifiers will
be presented.
6
Padden (2010) suggests that in different sign languages nouns referring to the same object
may be lexicalized in different ways, based on their iconic properties. The phonological form
of nouns referring to objects held by hand (e.g. a toothbrush or a comb) can be motivated
either by how the object is handled or by shape properties of the object (the instrument). Six
sign languages showed a clear preference for either the handling or the instrument pattern, but
the preference was not as strong in all languages (ranging from 60-85%).
16 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
3 Inuit Sign Language
In the following sections, some background information on IUR will be
provided and the methodology will be described.
3.1 Background
Inuit Sign Language is a language of the Inuit people. It is possible that IUR is
used from Greenland to Alaska, as these are regions where the Inuit people live,
but this hypothesis has yet to be confirmed. In the current descriptive project,
the focus is on Nunavut, Canada’s Arctic territory (see Figure 4), where the sign
language is used by an estimated 47 people (MacDougall 2000). Although
Nunavut encompasses almost two million km
2
, it has less than 30,000
inhabitants (Canadian Census 2006). Most of the people (85%) are Inuit, and it
is from their language, Inuktitut, where Nunavut ‘our land’ got its name in 1999.
Nunavut is thinly populated and the population is geographically spread. There
is contact between communities, but it does not occur regularly because of the
distances involved. In the past, the Inuit lived a nomadic life, travelling across
the Arctic. When nomadic life was abandoned, the extensive contact between
people from different regions decreased considerably, as people from different
backgrounds settled in the same community (Condon 1983; Wachowich 1999).
Contact between deaf native IUR signers was also reduced as it became
practically limited to those who happened to live in the same community. Due to
decreased contact between IUR signers, the sign language is now endangered.
It is estimated that the prevalence of deafness in Nunavut is 5.7/1000, a
percentage that is almost six times higher than in southern Canada (Stamos-
Destounis 1993; MacDougall 2000). Deaf individuals have been identified in
many of Nunavut’s communities, and many of them use a form of sign language.
Those who use sign language are generally surrounded by a network of family
and friends who use sign language, too. MacDougall (2000:13) found “little or
no evidence of “social stigma” associated with deafness in the communities […]
and there was no apparent social exclusion because of deafness”.
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 17
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
Figure 4: Map of Nunavut, with fieldwork locations indicated. (Adapted from Nat.
Resources Canada.)
The sign language used varies from a mix of ASL and Manually Coded English
(MCE) to pure IUR (MacDougall 2000). The use of ASL/MCE as opposed to
IUR is mainly related to the degree of formal education. Those aged between 20
and 50 who went to school have been to residential schools for the deaf in
southern Canada where ASL/MCE was used. Some of these people do know
some IUR signs, but do not use the language regularly. Deaf Inuit children
nowadays attend the regular school in their home community, with the aid of a
qualified ASL interpreter, and do not know IUR. This is a major contributing
factor to the endangerment of IUR. In fact, IUR is only used as a primary
language by those deaf individuals who have not been to school, or only for a
18 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
short period. Data collection is aggravated by the fact that these people are
spread out across many different communities in Nunavut.
3.2 Methodology
In the following section, preliminary results from fieldwork conducted by the
first author in 2009 and 2010 in Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet (see Figure 4) will
be presented. Five deaf Inuit live in each of these communities, but most of them
use ASL/MCE.
3.2.1 Participants
In Rankin Inlet, the data were collected from two deaf men and one hearing
woman. PU is in his early forties and bilingual in IUR and ASL/MCE. He has
three deaf and five hearing siblings. The language used in the family is a
combination of ASL, MCE, and fingerspelling. PU learned IUR from the age of
12 from YS, a man in his late sixties who grew up with a deaf brother, and about
five hearing siblings. YS is monolingual in IUR, but as he and PU have been
friends for over 25 years, he has learned some fingerspelling and now uses some
ASL signs. Both men are skilled artists and work in a ceramic workshop. The
hearing informant SS, the wife of YS, was only able to take part in two
recording sessions.
In Baker Lake, the data comes from one deaf and one hearing man, both
in their early forties. BS was deafened at the age of seven and therefore acquired
Inuktitut and English as first languages. From the age of seven he learned IUR,
which is now his main means of communication. He does not use spoken or
written Inuktitut and English. He has no deaf relatives. Since the late 1990s, BS
has also learned some ASL/MCE, and some IUR signs have now been replaced
by their ASL counterparts. DK is a hearing friend of BS, and has been using
IUR with him since they were in their mid-teens. DK also speaks Inuktitut and
English. An overview of the participants’ characteristics is provided in Table 1.
3.2.2 Data collection
Recording in Rankin Inlet was all done in the large kitchen of Kivalliq Hall, the
campus building of Nunavut Arctic College. In Baker Lake, recording took
place either in the home of one of the two informants or in the apartment where
the researcher was staying. The researcher was present during all recording
sessions. Both spontaneous and elicited data were recorded. The spontaneous
data come from an unstructured interview setting. The researcher usually asked
some prompting questions about Inuit culture. This led the informants to narrate
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 19
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
stories about past and present life. In Rankin Inlet, the monolingual informant
YS was dominant in the conversation.
Table 1. IUR study: Participants’ characteristics
location subject gender age deaf relatives? languages
PU male early 40s 3 deaf siblings IUR, ASL/MCE
YS male late 60s deaf brother IUR
Rankin Inlet
SS female late 50s --- IUR, Inukt., En.
BS male early 40s --- IUR (Inukt., En.)
Baker Lake
DK male early 40s --- IUR, Inukt., En.
For the elicitation, picture and video materials were used. The video material
consisted of clips of Canary Row depicting various efforts of Sylvester the Cat
to catch Tweety the Bird. Both cat and bird are personified and walk and talk
like human beings. In previous studies on various sign languages, these clips
have been successfully used for the elicitation of motion verbs, classifier
constructions, and the use of space. The task’s design is that the signer watches
the clip, then recounts the story to the addressee, i.e. the other IUR signer. In
both Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake, the signer started signing while the clip was
still running, probably because the clips are rather long to remember (23 seconds
for the shortest clip, 1:15 for the longest).
Another elicitation task was designed to elicit sentences with the verbs
GIVE and/or TAKE, thereby focusing on person agreement and classifiers. A short
clip was shown in which three persons are visible; one of them gives something
to or takes something from one of the others. Objects given (or taken) include a
rose, a notebook, a red and a white light bulb. Interestingly, the informants in
Baker Lake omitted the object in all sentences they produced and showed some
variation in the handshapes of the verb. In Rankin Inlet, the white bulb was
taken to be an ice-cream cone, and the red bulb was seen as some object.
Obviously, it was not clear to the signers what this object was, possibly due to a
vision problem (glaucoma) of one of the signers.
The Volterra Picture task (Volterra et al. 1984) was used to elicit word
order and/or agreement. A selection was made of six images. Only the data from
Rankin Inlet has thus far been transcribed and is available for the present study.
20 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
In 2009, the bilingual informant PU translated what the monolingual
informant signed into MCE for the researcher, and this was also recorded on
video. In 2010, a translation for stories signed in IUR was no longer necessary in
most cases, as the researcher understood most of the IUR stories of YS. In Baker
Lake, the bilingual informant DK translated what the monolingual informant BS
signed into English for the researcher. During both fieldwork trips, the
translation was necessary, as the researcher was not able to understand all of the
IUR of BS. This was due to a rather short first visit in 2009, caused by financial
limitations.
During the two fieldwork trips, about 21 hours of material have been
recorded, which also include the translations in 2009. Data presented in the
following section comes from a total of two hours that have been translated and
glossed, including data from the elicitation tasks described above.
4 Spatial grammar of Inuit Sign Language: preliminary results
In this section, two of the grammatical aspects discussed in §2, classifiers and
verb agreement, will be described for IUR. Basic word order is a debatable issue
as discussed in §2.2.1. Furthermore, the description of IUR word order is still in
its primary stages. This aspect will therefore not be included in the present study.
Also, we will leave morphological typology and negation for future
investigation. Verb agreement in IUR will be addressed in §4.1, while handling
and entity classifiers will be subject to discussion in §4.2.
4.1 Verb agreement in Inuit Sign Language
The three-way distinction of plain, agreement, and spatial verbs as found for
many sign languages (see §2.2.5 above) is also attested in IUR. Verbs such as
THINK, COMMUNICATE, SIT, CALL-ON-PHONE, DRINK, and EAT do not show spatial
agreement with any of their arguments, as illustrated for the transitive verb
CALL-ON-PHONE in (14), and thus probably belong to the class of plain verbs.
(14)
OTTAWA INDEX-LOC
Ottawa
CALL-ON-PHONE LONG-AGO
‘Long ago, I phoned Ottawa.’ (referring to a shop in Ottawa)
Even though there is a locative
INDEX in (14), which points in the direction in
which Ottawa is located (i.e. absolute reference), the verb is not modulated such
that it would move and/or be oriented towards this location (also see
COMMUNICATE in example (16)).
Still, IUR also has several predicates that can take agreement. Subject
agreement can be found on intransitive predicates like, for instance,
ICE-FISHING,
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 21
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
BE-LOUSY, and USE-ICE-AUGER. These verb signs can be executed at different
locations in the signing space, thereby agreeing with (the location of) the subject,
as can be seen in (15), where the verb
USE-ICE-AUGER is articulated twice at
different locations.
(15)
USE-ICE-AUGER
1
INDEX
3a
USE-ICE-AUGER
3a
INDEX
3a
‘I use an ice auger, and so does he.’
Object agreement occurs with transitive verbs like
HATE, BULLY, SEE, SHOOT, and
GIVE. These verbs follow the agreement patterns described for other sign
languages: some verbs move through signing space towards the locus associated
with the direct object while others change their orientation (of fingertips or palm)
to agree with the object. However, agreement of a verb with both its subject and
object is only rarely observed. The verb
SEE in (16), for instance, only agrees
with its object. The starting point of the movement is close to the signer’s face,
despite the fact that it is a third person who is performing the action.
(16)
INDEX
1
COMMUNICATE INDEX
3a
SEE
3b
INDEX
3b
PAY-ATTENTION
‘I tell him to watch this (the fishing), to pay attention.’
IUR also has spatial verbs that agree with locative arguments. Verbs such as
GO,
WALK
, PLANE-FLY, and COME, as well as classifier constructions indicating
moving objects may either agree with locations set up in signing space, as with
WALK in (17), or with actual locations, as PLANE-FLY-WITH-STOPS in (18). In the
latter example, the locative index points in the geographical direction of
Winnipeg and subsequently, the verb starts its movement at this location. The
end location of
PLANE-FLY-WITH-STOPS is the location of HERE, which is always
near the signer, hence the use of first person agreement.
(17)
INDEX-LOC
3a
SCOOP DRILL-HOLE-WITH-AUGER FINISH.
3a
WALK
1
TAKE-
LONG-ITEM
1
WALK
3a
WHITE-MAN CHISEL
V
. DROP LONG-THIN-OBJECT-
MOVES-BELOW-SURFACE
‘Over there they started a hole with a scoop, and then drilled it with
an ice-auger. Someone walked from there towards me and took my
chisel. The white man walked back (to the hole) and used the chisel.
Then he dropped it, and it went all the way to the bottom (of the
sea).’
22 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
(18) NEXT-DAY NEXT-DAY
3a
PLANE-FLY
3b
. WINNIPEG INDEX-LOC
Winnipeg
W’peg
PLANE-FLY-WITH-STOPS
1
HERE
‘In two days, they take a plane that flies them to Winnipeg, followed by
the plane from Winnipeg, that flies with some stops to here (Rankin
Inlet).’
Frequently, the set-up of locations in signing space seems to reflect how the
signer experienced the original event described, staying as close to the actual
situation as possible. The actual locations may be close-by, but often they are
outside of the community, as can be seen in (18), where the signer points
towards Winnipeg, which is almost 1500 kilometres south of Rankin Inlet,
where this sentence was signed. The absolute frame of reference used in these
situations reflects the importance of knowing directions among the Inuit.
Furthermore, the specification and spatial localization of locations is not
obligatory, as can be seen in (19). The end point of the movement of
GO remains
unspecified. Based on world knowledge, the addressee should know that the
goal of the journey is Landing Lake.
(19)
WHITE-MAN INUK INDEX
1
MOVE-CL
two-vehicles
SNOW-MOBILE GO
3a
‘A white man and me, an Inuk, go by snow mobile (to Landing Lake).’
Not only locations can remain unspecified, also the subject argument is not
always specified overtly. Transitive verbs generally agree with the object but
leave the subject unspecified. While subject marker omission has been described
for other sign languages, too (see §2.2.5), it appears to be much more common
in IUR. The data we collected so far suggest that subject agreement is almost
never specified on transitive verbs. It might be the case that omission of the
subject NP and of subject agreement on the verb reflects a culture-specific
pragmatic strategy. In Inuit culture, it is common not to be too explicit. For
instance, instead of teaching a child how to hunt by means of instruction, it has
to observe how it is done. (Wachowich 1999). Subject drop might thus be the
IUR strategy to cope with this cultural tendency. An example is given in (20),
where the subject of the verb
BULLY remains unspecified in both instances. We
might be dealing with a passive construction here (‘He was bullied’), but further
analysis is required to confirm this hypothesis.
(20)
INDEX
3a
BULLY
3a
INDEX
3a
LONG-AGO INDEX-LOC DON’T-KNOW INDEX
3a
.
INDEX
1
BULLY
1
NEG
‘(They) bullied him, long ago over there [back at school]. Don’t
know why. (They) didn’t bully me.’
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 23
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
Summarizing, we have seen that, with respect to verb types, IUR patterns with
other sign languages. The IUR lexicon contains plain verbs, as well as locative
verbs. In addition, IUR has intransitive and transitive verbs that show agreement
in most instances. Intransitive verbs agree with the location of the subject;
transitive verbs agree with their object.
4.2 Classifiers in Inuit Sign Language
Just like many other sign languages, IUR has handling and entity classifiers.
Handling classifiers appear on transitive verbs and mark the direct object, as for
instance in
MOVE
up
:CL
box
in (21). The two-handed (-classifier refers to the
handling of a box. Other examples are
PICK-UP:CL
egg
and TAKE:CL
chip-of-ice
. In all
these examples, the underlying verb is unspecified for handshape; in a given
context, the handshape which surfaces reflects shape properties of the handled
object, thereby agreeing with the direct object.
(21)
SODA BOX SODA BOX MANY MOVE
up
:CL
box
SHELFS MOVE
up
:CL
box
MOVE
up
:CL
box
‘I put boxes with soda onto the shelves.’
Entity classifiers appear in the spontaneous IUR texts collected. So far, we have
found entity classifiers for the semantic class of vehicles, animals, two-legged
beings, and flying birds. This latter classifier is used only to refer to groups of
birds, as can be seen in (22).
(22)
TWO THREE THREE-WEEKS WARM MOVE
3a
:CL
birds
GOOSE SHOOT++
3a
‘In two or three weeks, when it’s warmer, the geese will come flying in,
and I’ll shoot them (out of the air).’
In the elicited IUR data, the informants make more use of the character
perspective, that is, they take on the role of one of the story’s character (in this
case, that of the cat). As has also been observed by Perniss (2007) for DGS, in
character perspective, handling classifiers are used more frequently. In contrast,
entity classifiers are more likely to appear when the signer tells a story from the
observer’s perspective. Imagine, for instance, Sylvester the Cat climbing up a
pipe. In character perspective, the signer will use a two-handed handling
classifier showing how Sylvester holds on to the pipe. In observer perspective,
the same event will be described by an entity classifier which represents the cat
(or the legs of the cat).
24 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
As found for other sign languages, for example for DGS (Perniss 2007),
IUR makes more use of the character perspective when describing the events in
the cartoons. However, entity classifiers can be used, as can be seen in (23).
(23)
CAT WINDOW SWING-ON-ROPE BUMP-INTO:CL
wall
-CL
person
. BIRD TALK.
FALL
:CL
person
‘The cat swings from the window on a rope, and bumps into the wall.
The bird talks. The cat falls.’
The shift from character to observer perspective occurs fluently. First the signer
takes on the role of the cat in the sign
SWING-ON-ROPE, which is a handle
classifier construction. For the next sign, glossed as
BUMP-INTO-WALL:CL
person
the
signer takes the observer’s perspective as the cat is now represented with the
upside down Y-classifier for people, which bumps into the ]-classifier for wall.
Given that in the elicitation clip, the cat is shown walking on two legs, the entity
classifier for two-legged beings is used, which is usually reserved for human
beings. Since spontaneous texts are usually narrated from the signer’s
perspective, it is not surprising that entity classifiers are prevalent, for example
to refer to moving vehicles or animals.
4.3 The contribution of the IUR data to sign language typology
Summarizing, the data we discussed suggests that IUR verb agreement and
classifiers constructions correspond to patterns that have been described for
many other sign languages. The well-known three-way distinction between plain,
agreement, and spatial (or locative) verbs is also attested in IUR. That is, verbs
can inflect spatially to agree with their subject, their object, or a location.
Interestingly, in IUR the subject argument of transitive verbs often remains
unspecified. In our data, subject agreement is never found on transitive verbs,
but this does not mean that the subject argument always needs to be expressed.
Not expressing the subject argument might be motivated by the cultural frame of
the Inuit, but more research is necessary to confirm this assumption.
Another interesting aspect of IUR is the use of an absolute frame of
reference with locative verbs. Locations can remain unspecified, especially
when the verb is inflected towards the actual location. The relevant location may
be in the vicinity of the signer, but it may also be a city 1500 kilometres away.
For some other sign languages, like Kata Kolok (Marsaja 2008) and AdaSL
(Nyst 2007), absolute reference is also used with locations, but most often this
concerns locations within a much smaller geographical area than those used in
IUR. Also, it appears that absolute reference is attested only for pointing signs
while verbs do not inflect toward these locations as they might in IUR.
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 25
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
5 Conclusion
The discussion in the first part of this paper has made clear that sign language
typology is a fairly new research field and that typological classifications have
yet to be established. For spoken languages, these classifications are generally
based on typological parameters; for sign languages, it would thus be desirable
to establish classifications following similar criteria. Based on the research
described in this paper, we suggest two classifications with respect to
morphosyntactic parameters. The first one is the continuum of verb agreement.
At the one extreme, we would find sign languages in which all verbs take
agreement (as yet unattested). At the other extreme, we would find sign
languages that show no verb agreement at all (also unattested). The second
classification concerns a continuum based on the use of entity classifiers in sign
languages. On the one hand, we find sign languages that make abundant use of
entity classifier constructions; on the other hand, we find sign languages that
make no use of such constructions.
In order to locate Inuit Sign Language on these two suggested continua,
we investigated verb agreement and classifiers. The results indicate that IUR
makes use of a moderate amount of verb agreement. Its position on the verb
agreement continuum would thus be toward the side representing a low amount
of agreement. As for the entity classifier continuum, IUR can be placed toward
the side representing a high amount of entity classifiers. For both aspects, IUR
would not be placed at the extreme sides of the continua.
Of course, the significance of each continuum would be best understood if
many sign languages were studied in detail in order to allow for more fine-
grained analysis. We could represent the continua schematically in a two-
dimensional schema, as suggested in Figure 5, where some of the sign languages
mentioned in this paper have been placed in the positions at which we
understand them to belong.
26 Joke Schuit, Anne Baker and Roland Pfau
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
Figure 5: Schematic representation of the continua of entity
classifiers and verb agreement combined.
If we follow the analysis suggested by Zwitserlood (2003) and Zwitserlood and
Van Gijn (2007), this diagram would basically represent the agreement system
of sign languages, as they take classifiers to be instantiations of gender
agreement, and the aforementioned verb agreement to be locus agreement.
Sign language typology is a young field within sign language linguistic
research. As more sign languages are being described, more cross-linguistic data
on typologically interesting aspects are becoming available. Eventually, this will
lead to more typological classifications, which will certainly enrich the field of
sign language (and spoken language) typology. For example, it could be
worthwhile to study frames of reference employed in different sign languages
(see Levinson (2003) for spoken languages). Since our aim was to propose a
typology based on morphosyntactic parameters, frame of reference fell outside
the scope of this paper. Still, since we came across this issue in our analysis of
verb agreement in IUR, we believe that frames of reference could be an
interesting aspect to be included in future typological classifications of sign
languages.
Kata Kolok
entity classifiers
IUR
+
-
verb agreement
AdaSL
ASL NGT
DGS LIU
+
Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 27
ACLC Working Papers, 2011
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Inuit Sign Language: a contribution to sign language typology 31
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Joke Schuit
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Department of General Linguistics
Spuistraat 210
1012 VT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Email: J.M.Schuit@uva.nl
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/j.m.schuit
