Abstract of Project Funded for FY 2000
| The Nature of Classifier Predicates in ASL
Scott K. Liddell, Linguistics and Interpretation Classifier predicates constitute a class of signs in ASL composed of meaningful handshapes called classifier handshapes. These signs are sometimes called polysynthetic verbs. This label is consistent with the analysis presented in Supalla (1978), where such signs are claimed to be composed of multiple meaningful units (morphemes). If this analysis is correct, these signs would be parallel in many respects with polysynthetic verbs in a large number of American Indian spoken languages. Other analyses since Supalla (1978) have proposed somewhat different analyses, but generally maintain the polysynthetic nature of these signs. DeMatteo (1977) argues that these signs are primarily mimetic and understood through visual imagery rather than through grammatical composition. My research on the nature of spatial representations in ASL discourse (Liddell 1990, 1994, 1995, 1996a, 1996b, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c) allows for the possibility of multiple meanings: grammatical representations and their meanings as well as the meanings available through visual imagery. Following this approach, grammatical units can be identified through a distributional analysis requiring the collection of large numbers of signs. The most crucial issue initially will be finding which grammatical units co-occur. This analysis should provide an answer to the structural puzzle posed by the class of signs. |