Adverbial Morphemes in Tactile ASL - Gallaudet University

PDE – Steven D. Collins
Introduction
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interpreters requires an understanding of the linguistic features of TASL. Therefore, the
fundamental research question for the present project is: “What is the nature of adverbial use in
Tactile American Sign Language?”
In previous collaborative research in which this researcher has been involved with, TASL
and ASL sentence types were analyzed. It was found that in ASL, a sentence type mainly is
determined by a set of certain non-manual signals. For example, ASL yes-no questions involve
non-manual features such as the raising of eyebrows, the widening of the eyes, and the forward
tilting of the head and/or body (Baker and Cokely 1980; Liddell 1980). In addition to providing
grammatical cues that define sentence or phrase types, visual ASL uses non-manual signals in an
adverbial manner; however, the deaf-blind person cannot see these signals and, consequently,
they communicate these adverbs by using tactile signals. For example, according to Valli and
Lucas (1995), visual ASL has “features of a sign that carry adverbial meaning [which] often are
incorporated directly into the structure of the adjective sign or the predicate sign.” Specifically,
the two researchers explain that, for instance, “the sign TALL 2 is a two-handed sign in which the
active hand moves from the base to the fingertips of the passive hand. The sign can be glossed
VERY-TALL when the sign begins well below the passive hand, brushes it, and ends above the
fingertips, along with a marked facial expression.” This study demonstrates the consistent use of
linguistic factors in this tactile sign language. TASL has many interesting features; my focus is
on adverbials.
1.4. Social Relevance
My internship leading up to this PDE consisted of ongoing learning experiences as an
interpreter for the Deaf-Blind and as an interpreter educator, whereas my PDE is a preliminary
investigation of adverbs in Tactile Sign Language. This section briefly notes how my internship
and PDE integrate a process of improvement for the field of interpreter training along with a
fundamental socially relevant result of an improved quality of life for Deaf-Blind persons.
Initially, I participated in classes, seminars, and other doctoral learning events that are
necessary in relation to my program. Thereafter, I did an internship that gave me practical
2 The use of capital letters as in TALL indicates Gloss is being used in the notation. See Appendix B for a full
explaination of Gloss.
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