Sign Language Phonology II

1
Sign Language Phonology II

• METU COGS 524, A. Hohenberger, Spring semester
  2007
• Sandler Lillo-Martin 2006,
• chapter 10 Hand configuration

2
The architecture of hand configuration

• Orientation
• aperture
• joints
• finger position
• fingers thumb unselected
  fingers
• selected fingers
• HC

Sandler L-Martin 2006173
3
HC Parameters of contrast in ISL(Sandler
L-Martin 2006 146-7)

• 1. Selected fingers
• DANGEROUS (all fingers) vs. INTERESTING (thumb
  and pinky finger)
• 2. Shape, position of fingers
• ALREADY (open) vs. DOCUMENT (closed)
• 3. orientation
• COMPARE (palms up) vs. Vacillate (palms down)

4
HC Parameters of contrast in ISL

• 4. change in HC
• finger position or orientation of hand may change
  (internal movement) TAKE-ADVATAGE-OF, DEAD
• (5.) Hand-internal movement WINE vs. FLAT-TIRE

5
Phonetically vs. Phonologically inspired HC
inventories

• Phonetic
• HamNoSys (Hamburger Notations System, Prillwitz
  1989)
• Captures subtle phonetic differences between signs

• Phonological
• Only the contrastive features enter the inventory
  which are involved in phonological
  generalizations of the language

6
Feature Geometry Why features?

• In Feature Geometry, phonological features reside
  on autosegmental tiers which are organized in a
  hierarchical way
• Features are the smallest units that participate
  in phonological processes
• Features are universal
• There is a finite number of features

http//uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/phonetik/Lehre/koVo/k
oVoAkt/06/5082/feature-geom.pdf
7
Feature Geometry Why hierarchical organization?

• Features may belong to more than one segment
  (feature spreading)
• Vowel harmony, assimilation
• One segment may have multiple feature
  specifications --gt affricates pf, ts, --gt
  dipthong ai, oi
• Features are organized in classes corresponding
  to physical articulators laryngeal, dorsal, etc.

http//uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/phonetik/Lehre/koVo/k
oVoAkt/06/5082/feature-geom.pdf
8
Feature trees/geometries

• Feature geometry employs feature trees to
  represent privileged feature classes
• Non-terminal nodes represent feature classes,
  e.g. Place terminal nodes represent more
  specific phonetic content
• The association lines connecting nodes represent
  phonological dependency and (in the phonetic
  realm) temporal overlap

Root
/-son /-cont Place
/-ant /-cor ...
http//www.kuvik.net/wjansen/teaching/ucl/week1-ha
ndout.pdf
9
Dependent vs. independent features

• Dependent features related to another feature
  --gt round is dependent on labial
• Independent/free features
• Universal differences in any language, do not
  assimilate
• Features of higher classes, son, cons, syll
• Constriction features cont, nas, lat

http//uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/phonetik/Lehre/koVo/k
oVoAkt/06/5082/feature-geom.pdf
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Basic operations

• Feature spreading Assimilation
• Delinking of an association Reduction

11
Dependency Phonology

• DP reflects the relative markedness of
  phonological elements.
• DP assumes as few features as possible (parsimony)

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HC as an autosegment

• HC is independent of location and movement
• Evidence Either HC as a whole or only
  orientation assimilates in compounds while
  locations and movements are deleted

13
HC assimilation(Sandler 2006191)
MIND
DROP
Delinking
Spreading
14
Central claims

• 1. HC is made up of hand shape and orientation
• 2. Hand shape consists of finger selection and
  their position
• Finger position relates to the extension or
  flexion of the the joints
• 3. Orientation is a subclass of handshape, i.e.,
  of selected fingers

15
A hierarchical model of HC features

• HC
• Selected Fingers
• joined
• Fingers Thumb Position unsel. Fingers
• open close
• ulnar one all radial opposed
• Joints
• base flex Aperture
• open closed Orientation
• palm wrist frontfingertips
• ulnar
  radial

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HC handshape

• Each morpheme has a fixed set of selected fingers
  which may not be changed only the position of
  the fingers may change
• Apparent counter example JOB
• But JOB comes from an
  earlier fingerspelled form

17
HC handshape

• The generalization that selected fingers may not
  change but finger position may change within a
  morpheme is captured by separating both in the
  feature tree.

18
Selected fingers finger position

• Whatever fingers are selected, they all have to
  be in the same position, i.e., all extend, all
  curve, all close, all bend at the same joints
• Hierarchy of selected finger and finger position
  features
• Hand configuration
• Selected fingers
• Finger position

19
Internal movement

• Two kinds of movement are distinguished path
  movement and local/internal movement through
  change of handshape or change of orientation
• HS change only position features (open, close,
  bend) may change. Selected fingers remain
  constant.
• The HS change is expressed by branching of the
  the finger position node, orientation change by
  branching of the orientation node
• position orientation
• open close radial ulnar

20
Handshape Sequence Constraint (HSC)

• HSC
• If there are two finger positions in a sign, then
  one must be open or closed.
• The following sequences are OK or
• open-close bent-curved
• bent-open curved-bent

21
Assimilation including HS change

• HC HC
• SF SF
• one all
• position position
• open closed open

MIND DROP
In the SF assimilation, finger position
(closed-open) spreads with all other HC features.
22
Orientation

• Orientation is sometimes considered an
  independent fourth phonological parameter.
• However, a feature can be contrastive while not
  being a major phonological category.
• Often, orientation changes along with HC. This
  relation is expressed in the feature geometry.
• External evidence comes from slips of the hand.

23
Hand orientation is anticipated along with HC in
a phonological slip
Source DRINK_COFFEE (F-hand)
Correct SIT (bent V-hand)

• Error SIT
• (F-hand)

Hand orientation of DRINK-COFFEE (onset) is also
taken over (Leuninger et al. 2004)
24
Orientation assimilation in compounds
Input signs Compound the orientation
of SLEEP has been assimilated to that of SUNRISE.
However, HC has not
Sandler Lillo-Martin 2001
25
Assimilation of Orientation
HC HC SF SF all
one position position
open closed closed orientat
ion orientation in contralat
eral
SUNRISE
SLEEP
in front of the face on the side of the
face
26
Total assimilation

• If HC assimilates completely, both handshape and
  orientation assimilate. This is another version
  of OVERSLEEP (SL-M 2006 157-8)
• HC HC
• SF SF

all one position positi
on open closed closed ori
entation orientation in
contra
27
Universality of feature geometry in SL

• The proposed feature geometry account is thought
  to be universal
• In feature geometry, the features under HC are
  grouped together in terms of articulators
• Fingers
• Finger joints
• Palm of hand
• ...
• The relation of the features to the anatomy of
  the human hand makes the representation more
  explanatory

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Terminal features and Dependency Phonology

• The terminal features, the handshapes, are
  readily captured by Dependency Phonology
• Dep Phon has two characteristics
• Phonological features are unary, not binary
• Relative markedness is directly reflected by
  relative complexity in the representation
• Why unary? Because no evidence has been adduced
  for the - values of binary features. Since
  theories should be parsimonious (not too big),
  they resent binary features
• Why markedness? Because there is good evidence
  that signs are more or less marked

29
Unmarked handshapes (Battison 1978)

• The set of unmarked handshapes comprises
• A, (S), G (Index), C, O, (B), flathand
• The flathand is the least marked handshape
• They are maximally distinct, basic geometrical
  shapes (Battison 1978)
• Easiest to articulate motorically
• Most frequently occurring
• First to be acquired
• Most often substituted for other handshapes by
  children

A
S
O
G
C
Flat
B

• Allowed if the non-dominant hand has a different
  handshape than the dominant hand
• Less restricted for body contact
• Robust in aphasia

Julie Weisenberg 2003 www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/jwei
senb/documents/salience.doc
30
What is Dependency Phonology?

• The assumption that is fundamental to
  phonological structure is the dependency, or
  head/dependent, relation.
• Phonological structure involves constructions,
  and, secondly, each of these constructions has a
  determinate head.
• The head is also atomic it is a single segment,
  or minimal unit. It is associated with some
  substantive property that distinguishes it from
  other members of the construction in phonology
  this is perceptual salience.

http//www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/linguistik/dpng/pdf/
Anderson2002IntroDependencyPhonology.pdf
31
What is Dependency Phonology?

• Expl. The head of the syllable 'pat' in English
  is the vowel represented as a it is salient
  by virtue of inherent sonority and its place at
  the energy peak in the articulation of the
  syllable, and it identifies the construction as a
  syllable.
• Constructions are constituted by a head and all
  its ultimate dependents. Here, a is the head
  (straight line) and p and t are its
  dependents (angled lines). The syllable structure
  is onset-rhyme and Nucleus-Coda

http//www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/linguistik/dpng/pdf/
Anderson2002IntroDependencyPhonology.pdf
32
The dependency HC model

• Reflects relative markedness in terms of relative
  complexity of representation, ignoring irrelevant
  detail
• Relies only on two features for fingers (all,
  one, (ulnar)) and two features for Position
  (base, flex) , hence the hand is either
  relatively open (all) or relatively pointy (one),
  and finger positions are either open (base) or
  closed (flexed)

• These two features are either alone or enter into
  dependency relations with each other

33
Unmarked handshapes in Dependency Phonology
A
S

• In Dependency phonology, handshapes with only one
  feature in each category (of fingers and
  positions) have no dependency relation. These are
  exactly the unmarked handshapes.
• Only specified nodes are activated. Nodes that
  dominate default specifications are not included
  in the representation (for simplification)

G
G
C
Flat
B
Julie Weisenberg 2003 www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/jwei
senb/documents/salience.doc
34
Default specifications

• Unselected fingers are hardly ever activated.
  They are restricted to being open or closed,
  and their position is predictable.

Unselected fingers redundancy rule (Corina
1993) If specified fingers are closed,
unspecified fingers are open otherwise
unspecified fingers are closed. Thus, there are
foregrounded (selected) and backgrounded
(unselected) fingers. The unselected fingers make
the selected ones perceptually more salient,
which is a mechanism of phonetic enhancement.
35
Representation of less and more marked handshapes

• HC HC HC
• SF SF SF
• all all all
• fing pos fing pos fing pos one o
  ne
• open open closed
• open

1 dep relation
2 dep relations
2 dep relations
http//www.handspeak.com/abc/index-hand.php?abc5-
open
http//www.handspeak.com/abc/index-hand.php?abcas
lv
http//www.handspeak.com/abc/index-hand.php?abc3-
claw
Neither fingers nor finger positions is branched
--gt least markedv
Fingers and position node are expanded --gt max
marked
Fingers and position node are expanded --gt max
marked
Fingers node is expanded --gt marked
36
Feature geometry and Dependency Phonology A
mixed model

• In the model, the feature geometric tree
  structure is preserved
• At the level of the terminal nodes, unary
  features are proposed which can enter into
  dependency relationships
• In Dependency Phonology, the feature inventory is
  highly restricted since there is only a small set
  of unary features that are allowed to combine

37
Markedness of joints and aperture(Selected
fingers all, for all 3 handshapes)

• Finger position Finger position Finger position
• joints aperture joints aperture joints apertur
  e
• closed flex closed flex closed
• base

dependent
head
http//www.handspeak.com/abc/index.php?abcasls
http//www.handspeak.com/abc/index.php?abcaslo
http//www.handspeak.com/abc/index-hand.php?abc5-
close
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Orientation features

• An additional feature, facing, has been
  proposed that specifies the part of the hand that
  faces the location towards which the hand moves.
  This is important for agreement.
• However, they renounce such a feature because it
  is redundantly comprised in the interaction
  between handshape, orientation, and place.

If the palm of the dominant hand is oriented
downwards, the location is the non-dominant hand
for which also the contact is specified, then the
facing feature is predictable. Crasborn and van
der Kooij call this relative orientation
39
Summary The HC node
In signs with handshape change aperture
branches, e.g. SEND. The two handshapes are
also associated with the locations on the LM
tier. Rather than representing this
explicitly, it is assumed that
the alignment happens in the phonetic implementati
on

• Aperture o o
• Joints o o
• Position o o
• Selected fingers o o
• Hand configuration o o
• L M L L M L

HC associates in a one-to-many fashion to the
segments on the LM tier
40
References

• Battison, R. (1978). Lexical borrowing in
  American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD
  Linstok Press.

41

• Historical change EATand SLEEP --gt HOME
• iconicity is lost in the process of
  phonologization

pages.slc.edu/ebj/IM_97/Lecture15/L15.html
42
Iconicity is relative

• The sign TREE in 3 different sign languages

http//pages.slc.edu/ebj/IM_97/Lecture15/L15.html