Adverbial Morphemes in Tactile ASL - Gallaudet University

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PDE – Steven D. Collins Methods _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ analysis of specific variables. The data also analyzed how often, when and where the variability occurred, specifically in the use of adverbial forms. This resulted in a description of the form of and the use of variability, and an analysis and description of linguistic and social constraints. The reason the learner uses semantically based categories in this analysis is because the variation in form observed has direct bearing on the meaning of the adverbials. As I will show, specific phonological features such as hold, lengthening, and tenseness help produce adverbial meaning in the TASL forms. Clearly, the categorization of adverbials based on semantic category is both conventional (see for example, Klima and Bellugi 1979, Liddell 1980; Baker and Cokely 1980; Padden 1988; Bienvenu and Colonomos 1991; and Bridges and Metzger 1996), and theoretically supportable. In addition, or perhaps because of these two factors, if the learner were to attempt a phonetically-based categorization of visual ASL adverbials, this would constitute a dissertation topic in its own right. This is so because it would be a new area that counters conventions in the literature with an attempt to reclassify and analyze the visual nature of these linguistic forms. This question is beyond the scope of this paper’s research questions. It would make an interesting topic for a future project. 43
PDE – Steven D. Collins Findings and Interpretations _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Findings and Interpretation It is important to keep in mind that this paper investigates Tactile ASL as a variety of ASL, the visual sign language of the North American Deaf community. The source of the data was a videotaped conversation between two Deaf-Blind men. Section 3 discussed the methodology utilized in establishing the parameters of the research of the conversation and recording of the results. 4.1. Semantic Based Categories Initially it was suggested to the subjects that they have a conversation about the September 11 th terrorist attack. However, the two subjects had very little detailed knowledge of this event and their conversation changed to topics including assistive devices for Deaf-Blind people, guide dogs, work, and current football standings. The videotaped session consisted of a 50-minute Tactile ASL conversation. This conversation was transcribed and analyzed for adverbs and adverbials. The analysis showed a total of 284 adverb/adverbial tokens. The 284 target units were then classified according to the meaning they contributed to the discourse. This paper discusses both single-sign adverbs and multi-sign phrases as adverbials. The target units yielded the following six semantic-based categories: Manner/Degree Time Duration Frequency Purpose Place/Position/Direction Each category is described below along with several examples of each taken from the transcription of the session. Analysis provides a comparison of Visual ASL and Tactile ASL. This comparison is crucial, as it serves to demonstrate the unique structure of Tactile ASL and the specific nature of the variation. For each selected example, a table is provided containing the following essential elements: 44
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Adverbial Morphemes in Tactile ASL - Gallaudet University

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