Kang-Suk Byun

Interactive sequences modulate the selection of expressive forms in cross-signing

This study looks at how linguistic conventions arise in the context of face-toface, real-time interaction. This topic is difficult to study because initial contact events for most languages happened long ago. Two approaches try to tackle this. The first is experimental semiotics: putting people in a situation where they need to improvise a new communication system. Studies have considered the relative role of different biases in this process (Tamariz, et al., 2014) such as frequency bias (where the more frequent signs prevail), content bias (where the more iconically motivated, and/or easily articulated form is selected), and coordination bias (where participants attempt to match each other’s usage). However, these experiments typically involve an artificial language or a restricted or unfamiliar communication medium which are used by participants who already share a common language and culture. This limits the ecological validity of these experiments, especially relating to face-to-face interaction. Another approach has been to study the emergence of new signed languages which emerge spontaneously from scratch, allowing the study of the formation processes of modern human languages in real life. This process has been welldocumented in the case of Nicaraguan Sign Language, which emerged over the course of several decades in a deaf school (Senghas & Coppola, 2001), as well as in multiple ‘deaf villages’ where a local sign language has emerged from the interaction of deaf and hearing community members (Meir et al. 2010). Lesser-known instances of de novo signed communication arises between deaf and hearing nonsigners (trans-languaging), and among deaf signers who do not know a common written or signed language (cross-signing, Kusters et al. 2017; Buyn et al., 2017). Cross-signing is of particular interest as it creates a real-time pressure to establish a shared communicative repertoire. However, these studies are often not designed to be experimentally controlled, and rarely capture the very first period of the emergence of a signed language. In this study we combine the control of experimental semiotics with the eco67