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128 Aspectj manner, and mood

5. Watch a video clip of a fluent signer. Identify examples of changes in signs to show manner (the way the action was done, e.g. ‘happily’, ‘carefully’, ‘like a horse’, etc.). Is the manner shown by the face, or the hands, or both?

FURTHER READING FOR CHAPTER 7

Bergman, B. 1983, ‘Verbs and adjectives: Some morphological processes in Swedish Sign Language’, inJ. G. Kyle and B. Woli (eds.), Language in sign, London: Croom Heim, 3-9.

Brennan, M. 1992, ‘The visual world of BSL: an introduction’. In The dictionary of British Sign Language/English, London: Faber & Faber, 1-134.

Engberg-Pedersen, E. 1993, Space in Danish Sign lamguage, Hamburg: Signum Press.

Klima, E. S., and Bellugi, U. 1979, The signs of language, Harvard University Press.

Kyle, J. G., and Woli, B. 1985, Sign language: the study of deafpeople and their language, Cambridge University Press.

Liddell, S. 1980, American Sign Language syntax, The Hague: Mouton.

Padden, C. 1989, ‘The relation between space and grammar in ASL verb morphol-ogy’, in C, Lucas (ed.), Sign language research: theoretical issues, Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 118-32.

Chapter eight

Space types and verb types in BSL

In this chapter we will be considering the different uses of space in BSL, and the way this influences the use of verbs in BSL. We will discuss the difference between syntactic space and topographic space, using evidence from brain-damaged deaf people as well as evidence from experiments widi healthy deaf people. We will then think about the way these two types of space are used by the three groups of verbs that can be identifled in BSL; namely plain verbs, agreement verbs, and spatial verbs.The division of these verbs is based upon the grammatical information they include.The use of space is one of the most important characteristics of BSL verbs and needs describing before we can talk about verb types any further.

SYNTACTIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC SPACE

Some linguists have claimed that there are two different types of space that are used in sign languages. Physically, the signing space is exactly the same, but the space is used in two very different ways by the language.

Topographic space recreates a map of the real world. It is a spatial layout in signing space of representations of things as they really are. For example, when we describe a local shopping area to someone in BSL, we place things in our signing space according to where these things Beally are in relation to other things. If the church is opposite the fruit shop, and the fruit shop is next to the post Office, then we place them that way in signing space. If we place the signs anywhere else, or if we do not attempt to place these signs (or their proforms) at all, then it is ungrammatical.

English does not need spatial information from its speakers, in the normal course of events. A speaker could simply say that there was a fruit shop, a post Office, and a church without needing to say where these are. Of course speakers of Hnglish can and do describe where things are, if they need to; however, this is not done by changing the words, but rather by adding words. This, aguin, highlights the many differenccs between BSL and English.

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