Presented By: Department of Linguistics
When looks count: the function and distribution of LOOK-AT in American Sign Language
Lynn Hou (UCSD)
Lynn Hou (UCSD) will give a research presentation in the Sign Language Linguistics course taught by Natasha Abner. Hou is also a finalist in the Linguistic Society of America's Five-Minute Linguist competition.
When looks count: the function and distribution of LOOK-AT in American Sign Language
Lynn Hou (UCSD)
In this paper, I analyze the function and distribution of the ASL verb look-at in a dataset of 14h 15m of naturalistic ASL, using a construction-theoretic, usage-based approach. The data come from videos posted on the Internet, grouped into three genres: face-to-face conversations, monologues, and news reportage from an ASL radio show, The Daily Moth.
The dataset yielded 800 tokens of look-at. There is much morpho-phonological variation among look-at tokens. I coded tokens both for their lexico-grammatical function (‘look at’, ‘observe’, ‘look down on’, etc.) and for their phonetic properties (handshape, use of one or two hands, path movement, repetition, English mouthing, type of facial expressions).
Tokens with path movement patterns are often two-handed, and are typically associated with physical acts of looking at a referent or the state of affairs; they also map onto cognitive states such as admiration, contempt, anticipation, and retrospection. Many look-at tokens occur with reduced path movement or without path movement altogether; these signs appear in contexts relating to the signer’s subjective experience, whether understanding, thinking about, or reacting to a situation. These subjective verbs are often accompanied by affective facial expressions, are prototypically one-handed, and are often signed with the thumb abducted.
Many tokens of subjective look-at are followed by another cognitive verb such as the reaction sign oh-i-see and feel or a clausal complement analogous to subordinating BE- like [“and I was like?”] in colloquial English. I propose this variant of look-at has been grammaticalized from a perception verb to a cognition verb. This is reflected not only in its specialized semantics and distribution. i.e., introduces clausal complements with affective facial expressions, but also in its reduced form, i.e., no path movement, thumb abducted, one-handed. This finding is in line with the robust tendency for phonetic reduction and semantic shift to differentially affect high-frequency words.
When looks count: the function and distribution of LOOK-AT in American Sign Language
Lynn Hou (UCSD)
In this paper, I analyze the function and distribution of the ASL verb look-at in a dataset of 14h 15m of naturalistic ASL, using a construction-theoretic, usage-based approach. The data come from videos posted on the Internet, grouped into three genres: face-to-face conversations, monologues, and news reportage from an ASL radio show, The Daily Moth.
The dataset yielded 800 tokens of look-at. There is much morpho-phonological variation among look-at tokens. I coded tokens both for their lexico-grammatical function (‘look at’, ‘observe’, ‘look down on’, etc.) and for their phonetic properties (handshape, use of one or two hands, path movement, repetition, English mouthing, type of facial expressions).
Tokens with path movement patterns are often two-handed, and are typically associated with physical acts of looking at a referent or the state of affairs; they also map onto cognitive states such as admiration, contempt, anticipation, and retrospection. Many look-at tokens occur with reduced path movement or without path movement altogether; these signs appear in contexts relating to the signer’s subjective experience, whether understanding, thinking about, or reacting to a situation. These subjective verbs are often accompanied by affective facial expressions, are prototypically one-handed, and are often signed with the thumb abducted.
Many tokens of subjective look-at are followed by another cognitive verb such as the reaction sign oh-i-see and feel or a clausal complement analogous to subordinating BE- like [“and I was like?”] in colloquial English. I propose this variant of look-at has been grammaticalized from a perception verb to a cognition verb. This is reflected not only in its specialized semantics and distribution. i.e., introduces clausal complements with affective facial expressions, but also in its reduced form, i.e., no path movement, thumb abducted, one-handed. This finding is in line with the robust tendency for phonetic reduction and semantic shift to differentially affect high-frequency words.
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