Terry Janzen

Composite utterances in a signed language: Topic constructions and perspective-taking in ASL

Abstract Composite utterances are utterances that are built from multiple signs of multiple types, meaning that in any conversational “move” speech, gestures, eye-gaze, intonation patterns, physical stance, etc. all participate in the utterance, and the meaning derived from it is constructed by the composite of these participant types. likewise considers utterances as multimodal ensembles. The present study investigates how the notion of composite utterance plays out in a signed language such as ASL. Articulated in the same modality as are gestures, the distinction between language and gesture has seemed less clear, leading some to ask whether signers even gesture at all and some to suggest that gestures and formal signed language are substantively different systems. On the other hand, others have posited a continuity approach to gesture and signed language especially in light of grammaticalization studies. Here I examine topic-comment constructions and perspectivized clauses in ASL through the lens of Enfield’s composite utterances proposal, looking at component parts and how they function to ground elements in the discourse and guide the interlocutor through the textual structure. I use Enfield’s conventional versus non-conventional type categories in examining lexical and prosodic elements in topic and perspective-taking constructions.