Adverbial Morphemes in Tactile ASL - Gallaudet University

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PDE – Steven D. Collins Intellectual Context and Literature Review _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ O’Brien and Steffen’s data also contained a one-handed variant of the sign BEAR, a sign which is normally two handed. The dropping of the second hand in this variant, is attributed to ‘weak hand drop’, a phonological process that commonly occurs in standard ASL (Padden and Perlmutter 1987). The authors report that instances of phonological variation occurred, particularly within the location parameter type that is found in standard ASL. Weak-hand drop is therefore not unique to Tactile ASL. Prior to this PDE’s research on adverbial morphemes in TASL another paper influenced this PDE. This was research done by the Learner in conjunction with Dr. Karen Petronio (1998). The goal of that study was to compare Tactile ASL to standard ASL and begin to write a description of Tactile ASL. The primary data used in that 1998 study came from unobtrusive videotaping of Tactile ASL conversations that took place between 11 Deaf-Blind adults during a four-hour informal party. The 11 Deaf-Blind people, who knew the researchers, were asked and gave permission to videotape the party for linguistic purposes. The videotaping was done with a small hand-held camcorder with a zoom lens. While this data appears to be very natural and includes a number of people, one disadvantage is there were no long signing segments from any one person. Secondary data came from the videotaped retelling of stories by the three Deaf- Blind adults used in Petronio (1986). All 14 of the Deaf-Blind people involved in this study had Usher Syndrome Type I and used ASL before they became legally blind. As well, the participants regularly socialized with other Deaf-Blind adults and were comfortable and experienced in using Tactile ASL. Collins and Petronio hypothesized that variation could occur at any level of language. The researchers utilized the following questions to formulate and examine their hypothesis: Phonology: In Tactile ASL, the receiver’s hand is placed on the signer’s hand. Does this physical difference result in changes in any of the sign parameters: handshape, movement, location, and orientation? Morphology: Deaf-Blind persons are unable to see the non-manual adverbs and adjectives that accompany many predicates. How are these non-manual morphemes conveyed in Tactile ASL? 27
PDE – Steven D. Collins Intellectual Context and Literature Review _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Discourse: The back-channel feedback given by addresses in visual ASL is inaccessible to Deaf-Blind persons. What type of back-channeling in Tactile ASL replaces the head nods, head tilts, and facial expressions of back-channeling of standard ASL? In regards to physical changes influencing the parameters of a sign, it was noted that the same type of variation occurred in the tactile data as have been found in standard ASL. However, in addition to signing variation resulting from phonological processes such as regressive and progressive assimilation, Tactile ASL has a specific variation that is sometimes due to: 1) the signer and receiver being physically closer to each other than they generally are in standard ASL, and 2) the receiver’s hand is in closer contact with the signer’s hand. For example, because of the physical closeness, the signing space used in Tactile ASL is generally smaller than that used in visual ASL. This smaller space results in the signs having smaller movement paths than typically occurs in standard ASL. Also, the receiver’s hand is in close contact with the signer’s hand, and thus the signing space shifts to the area where the hand is in contact. Correspondingly, the location of signs articulated in neutral space also shifts to this same area. In order to accommodate the receiver’s hand placement on the signer’s hand it appears that more variation occurred within the orientation parameter than is found in standard ASL. One change, unique to Tactile ASL, occurred with several signs that included body contact: In addition to the signer’s hands moving toward the body, the torso also, often moves towards the hands. This adaptation allows the receiver to maintain comfortable contact with the signer. However, it should be noted that this varies, as some signs with body contact occur when the signer’s body does not move forward. A data corpus would permit further examination of probable constraints within the different types of signs that include body contact. Questions posed in standard ASL can have a variety of word orders (Humphries, Padden, & O’Rourke 1985, Petronio and Lillo-Martin 1997). Wh-questions have a non-manual whquestion marker that includes a furrowing of the brow typically found in standard ASL, e.g., whsigns appeared at the beginning of wh-questions, at the end, or they appear at both the beginning and end. In standard ASL, under certain conditions, a wh-sign can be null (Lillo-Martin and Fischer, 1992). In this regard, the data on Tactile ASL appeared to differ from standard ASL: all the wh-questions had an overt wh-sign. This finding has a certain logic to it: since Deaf-Blind 28
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Adverbial Morphemes in Tactile ASL - Gallaudet University

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