Irish Sign Language : a cognitive linguistic account / Lorraine Leeson and John I. Saeed.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leeson, Lorraine.

Contributor:

Saeed, John I.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Irish Sign Language.

Irish Sign Language--History.

Irish Sign Language--Social aspects.

Social aspects.

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 244 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm + 1 DVD (color ; 4 3/4 in.)

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2012]

System Details:

System requirements for accompanying DVD: PAL DVD player; plays on most computer media systems.

Summary:

Accompanying DVD contains video clips linked to printed text.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Introducing Irish Sign Language 1

1.2 The Signs of Ireland corpus 2

1.3 A cognitive perspective on Irish Sign Language 4

1.3.1 Linguistic knowledge is encyclopaedic and non-autonomous 6

1.3.2 Linguistic meaning is perspectival 6

1.3.3 Linguistic meaning is dynamic and flexible 7

1.3.4 Linguistic knowledge is based on usage and experience 7

1.3.5 How does this link to our discussion of ISL? 7

1.4 The structure of this book 8

1.5 Some notes on transcription conventions used in this volume 9

2 What Is a Signed Language? 13

2.1 Introduction 13

2.2 The design features of language: do they hold for signed languages? 13

2.3 What is unique about signed languages? 17

2.4 Summary 27

3 The Historical and Social Context 28

3.1 Introduction 28

3.2 Did someone 'invent' ISL? 28

3.3 Schools, policy and language 30

3.3.1 The first schools for the deaf in Ireland 30

3.3.2 Protestant schools 31

3.3.3 The Catholic response 32

3.4 Educational policy and sign language 36

3.5 ISL and other signed languages 42

3.5.1 ISL in Australia 43

3.5.2 ISL in South Africa 44

3.5.3 ISL in the UK 45

3.6 Who uses Irish Sign Language today? 46

3.7 The social status of ISL users 48

3.8 Variation within ISL 50

3.8.1 Gender and age variation in ISL 50

3.8.2 Geographical variation 51

3.9 Children's acquisition of ISL 52

3.10 The official status of ISL 56

3.11 Summary 57

4 The Phonetics and Phonology of ISL 60

4.1 Introduction 60

4.2 Phonetics 60

4.3 The phonetics of ISL 61

4.4 The phonology of ISL 70

4.5 Manual signs 70

4.5.1 Handshape 72

4.5.2 Location 76

4.5.3 Movement 77

4.5.4 Orientation 78

4.6 Non-manual features 79

4.6.1 Beyond the hands 79

4.6.2 Mouthings and mouth gestures 81

4.7 Constraints and phonological processes 85

4.7.1 Perceptual constraints on ISL 86

4.7.2 Production constraints on ISL 86

4.8 Summary 88

5 Inflectional and Derivational Morphology 90

5.1 Introduction 90

5.2 Words and morphemes 90

5.2.1 Loci 92

5.3 Grammatical morphemes 95

5.4 Morphological verb classes in ISL 96

5.5 Number 100

5.6 Aspect 103

5.7 Classifier predicates 108

5.7.1 Whole entity-CL stems 110

5.7.2 Extension-CL stems 111

5.7.3 Handle entity-CL stems 112

5.7.4 Body-CL stems 113

5.8 Compounds 115

5.8.1 Features of ISL compounds 115

5.8.2 Constraints on compound formation 118

5.9 Manner 122

5.10 Summary 123

6 The ISL Lexicon 125

6.1 Introduction 125

6.2 The ISL lexicon 125

6.3 The established lexicon 127

6.3.1 English-influenced signs 127

6.3.2 Borrowed signs 131

6.3.3 Iconic signs 131

6.4 The productive lexicon 134

6.5 Gestural substrate 139

6.6 Male and female varieties 143

6.7 Summary 147

7 Syntax 149

7.1 Introduction 149

7.2 The building blocks of syntax: nouns, verbs and other categories 150

7.2.1 Noun phrases 150

7.2.1.1 Names 150

7.2.1.2 Nouns 151

7.2.1.3 Pronouns 154

7.2.2 Verbs 158

7.2.3 Adjectives and adverbs 159

7.2.4 Prepositions 160

7.3 Sentence types: statements, questions and imperatives 161

7.4 Negation 163

7.5 Time in the sentence 165

7.6 Constituent order and simultaneity 168

7.7 Complex sentences 171

7.7.1 Co-ordination 171

7.7.2 Clause combining 172

7.8 Conclusion 174

8 Discourse 175

8.1 Introduction 175

8.2 What we know about discourse in signed languages 175

8.3 Managing conversational interaction 176

8.3.1 Gaining attention 176

8.3.2 Cultural and linguistic politeness 178

8.4 Discourse cohesion 180

8.4.1 Embodiment and perspective: signer's viewpoint is privileged 180

8.4.2 Event spaces 182

8.4.3 Deictic systems 184

8.4.3.1 Reference shifting in action and dialogue 184

8.4.3.2 Body partitioning 187

8.4.4 Explicit establishment of discourse topics 188

8.4.5 Specific time reference in discourse 190

8.4.6 Discourse use of connectives 191

8.5 Simultaneous constructions and discourse structure 193

8.5.1 Foregrounding and backgrounding strategies 193

8.5.2 Marking episodes: in-lap 196

8.5.3 Marking emphasis: mirroring 197

8.5.4 Buoys 198

8.5.4.1 Fragment buoys 198

8.5.4.2 Theme buoys 201

8.5.4.3 List buoys 204

8.5.4.4 Pointer buoys 206

8.6 Summary 207

9 Towards a Cognitive Account of Signed Languages 209

9.1 Introduction 209

9.2 Embodiment 209

9.3 Lexical concepts and real-world knowledge 210

9.4 Metonymy and metaphor 211

9.5 Mental spaces 216

9.6 Conceptual blending 218

9.7 Conclusion 222.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9780748638239

0748638237

9780748656295

0748656294

9780748656509

0748656502

9780748656301

0748656308

OCLC:

798311760