Markus Steinbach

Sign language: an international handbook

Sign language linguists show here that all the questions relevant to the linguistic investigation of spoken languages can be asked about sign languages. Conversely, questions that sign language linguists consider - even if spoken language researchers have not asked them yet - should also be asked of spoken languages. The HSK handbook Sign Language aims to provide a concise and comprehensive overview of the state of the art in sign language linguistics. It includes 44 chapters, written by leading researchers in the field, that address issues in language typology, sign language grammar, psycho- and neurolinguistics, sociolinguistics, and language documentation and transcription. Crucially, all topics are presented in a way that makes them accessible to linguists who are not familiar with sign language linguistics.

Pluralization in sign and in speech: A cross-modal typological study

Abstract Spoken languages employ various strategies to mark the plural of nouns, the most important ones being affixation, reduplication, and zero marking; within one language, different strategies and/or different morphological markers may be used, depending on lexical, phonological, or morphological properties of the base noun. In this article we present the first cross-modal typological study of noun pluralization. A comparison of the patterns found in sign languages, in particular German Sign Language (DGS), to those described for spoken languages will show that DGS patterns with spoken languages in that (i) different plural marking strategies are available, (ii) within one strategy (reduplication) there are different types of realization, and (iii) the choice of strategy and of type crucially depend on phonological properties of the base noun, in particular, on the nouns location and movement features. The description of basic plural patterns is supplemented by a typological sketch of the use of classifiers in plural constructions and by an investigation of how and where plural is realized within the noun phrase.

Visible variation : comparative studies on sign language structure

This volume brings together work by scholars engaging in comparative sign linguistics research. The articles discuss data from many different signed and spoken languages. They focus on empirical and descriptive aspects of sign language variation and cover a wide range of topics from different areas of grammar. In addition to this, they address psycholinguistic issues, aspects of language change, and issues concerning data collection in sign languages.

Lexical prediction via forward models: N400 evidence from German Sign Language.

Models of language processing in the human brain often emphasize the prediction of upcoming input-for example in order to explain the rapidity of language understanding. However, the precise mechanisms of prediction are still poorly understood. Forward models, which draw upon the language production system to set up expectations during comprehension, provide a promising approach in this regard. Here, we present an event-related potential (ERP) study on German Sign Language (DGS) which tested the hypotheses of a forward model perspective on prediction. Sign languages involve relatively long transition phases between one sign and the next, which should be anticipated as part of a forward model-based prediction even though they are semantically empty. Native speakers of DGS watched videos of naturally signed DGS sentences which either ended with an expected or a (semantically) unexpected sign. Unexpected signs engendered a biphasic N400-late positivity pattern. Crucially, N400 onset preceded critical sign onset and was thus clearly elicited by properties of the transition phase. The comprehension system thereby clearly anticipated modality-specific information about the realization of the predicted semantic item. These results provide strong converging support for the application of forward models in language comprehension.

Desintegration und Interpretation: Weil-V2-Sätze an der Schnittstelle zwischen Syntax, Semantik und Pragmatik

Abstract In spoken varieties of German, causal adverbial clauses introduced by weil are frequently used with V2 order. Interestingly, weil-V2 clauses are not simply a colloquial variant of standard verb-final clauses, but have also many specific syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties. On the one hand, weil-V2 clauses differ systematically from their verb-final counterparts. While V2 clauses yield causal interpretations not available for the corresponding verb-final clauses, verb-final clauses show a higher degree of syntactic integration and syntactic flexibility than V2 clauses. On the other hand, weil-V2 clauses share crucial formal and functional properties with other kinds of embedded V2 clauses such as V2-complement clauses and V2-relative clauses. Weil-V2 clauses can therefore be subsumed under the notion of ‘embedded root phenomena’. In this paper, we develop an analysis that derives all syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties of weil-V2 clauses at the interfaces between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics from their paratactic syntactic structure and the assertional force potential triggered by V-to-C movement. The results of a questionnaire study provide independent empirical evidence for our analysis.

Review of the book Temporality in Interaction

Perfects of the type I have my dinner eaten are a well-known feature of Irish English dialects. They can be linked to a functionally similar construction in Irish, of the type tá mo dhinneár ite agam (literally “is my dinner eaten at-me”), but also to earlier constructions in Standard English. The issue has sometimes been treated as a competition between two seemingly mutually exclusive explanations, a “substrate” and a “retentionist” hypothesis. This dichotomy can be overcome on the basis of a model of “contact-induced grammaticalisation” (Heine/Kuteva 2005): an existing source structure in the receiving language (English) expands along normal paths, but under a triggering effect of a contact language (Irish), ultimately leading to an apparent duplication of a foreign model. Empirical data comes from historical 18th/19th century corpus material. It provides evidence about the time frame and sociolinguistic situation in which the relevant changes took place. It supports a scenario where both Irish-English bilingualism and exposure to the English source constructions played crucial roles.

Bilingualer Spracherwerb und Zweitspracherwerb

Mehrsprachigkeit und Multi- oder Interkulturalitat sind Begriffe, die aus aktuellen gesellschaftspolitischen Debatten nicht wegzudenken sind. Fast taglich gibt es neue Diskussionsbeitrage und Schlagzeilen dazu, die PISA-Ergebnisse schrecken Padagogen und Politiker auf: Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund haben besonders schlechte Bildungschancen und nicht ausreichende Sprachkenntnisse werden als eine Ursache des Ubels ausgemacht. Es ist kaum noch moglich, sich einen vollstandigen Uberblick uber Sprachforderprogramme, Sprachstandsverfahren und Fortbildungen fur Erzieher/innen und Lehrer/innen zu verschaffen, die in den letzten Jahren auf den padagogischen Markt geworfen wurden (vgl. Jampert et al. 2005). Den Verantwortlichen in Ministerien, Sozial- und Schulbehorden wird deutlich, dass Deutschland nicht (mehr?) einsprachig ist. Eine neue Sensibilitat fur Zweioder Mehrsprachigkeit, vor allem fur kindliche Mehrsprachigkeit, sit erwacht. (Die Begriffe ›Zweisprachigkeit‹ und ›Mehrsprachigkeit‹ werden in der Regel gleichbedeutend verwendet, denn der Erwerb einer dritten oder vierten Sprache erfolgt im Prinzip genauso wie der Erwerb einer zweiten Sprache.)

Ambiguities in sign languages

Abstract Natural languages come in two different modalities – the aural-auditory modality of spoken languages and the visual-gestural modality of sign languages. The impact of modality on the grammatical system has been discussed at great length in the last 20 years. By contrast, the impact of modality on semantics in general and on ambiguities in particular has not yet been addressed in detail. In this paper, we deal with different types of ambiguities in sign languages. We discuss typical lexical and structural ambiguities as well as modality-specific aspects such as ambiguities in the use of the signing space and non-manual markers. In addition, we address the questions how sign languages avoid ambiguities and to what extent certain kinds of ambiguities and non-ambiguities depend on the visual-manual modality of sign languages. Since gestures use the same articulatory channel that is also active in the production of signs, we also discuss ambiguities between gestures on the one hand and grammaticalized gestures and signs on the other.

A matter of complexity: Subordination in sign languages

Since natural languages exist in two different modalities - the visual-gestural modality of sign languages and the auditory-oral modality of spoken languages - it is obvious that all fields of research in modern linguistics will benefit from research on sign languages. Although previous studies have provided important insights into a wide range of phenomena of sign languages, there are still many aspects of sign languages that have not yet been investigated thoroughly. The structure of subordinated clauses is a case in point. The study of these complex syntactic structures in the visual-gestural modality adds to our understanding of linguistic variation in the domain of subordination. Moreover, it offers new empirical and theoretical evidence concerning possible structures and functions of subordination in natural languages. And last but not least, it answers the question to what extent the corresponding morphosyntactic and prosodic strategies depend on the modality of articulation and perception. This volume represents the first collection of papers by leading experts in the field investigating topics that go beyond the analysis of simple clauses. It thus contributes in innovative ways to recent debates about syntax, prosody, semantics, discourse structure, and information structure and their complex interrelation.

SignGram Blueprint : A Guide to Sign Language Grammar Writing

Current grammatical knowledge about particular sign languages is fragmentary and of varying reliability, and it appears scattered in scientific publications where the description is often intertwined with the analysis. In general, comprehensive grammars are a rarity. The SignGram Blueprint is an innovative tool for the grammar writer: a full-fledged guide to describing all components of the grammars of sign languages in a thorough and systematic way, and with the highest scientific standards. The work builds on the existing knowledge in Descriptive Linguistics, but also on the insights from Theoretical Linguistics. It consists of two main parts running in parallel: the Checklist with all the grammatical features and phenomena the grammar writer can address, and the accompanying Manual with the relevant background information (definitions, methodological caveats, representative examples, tests, pointers to elicitation materials and bibliographical references). The areas covered are Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Syntax and Meaning. The Manual is endowed with hyperlinks that connect information across the work and with a pop-up glossary. The SignGram Blueprint will be a landmark for the description of sign language grammars in terms of quality and quantity.