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Conceptual Spaces and Pronominal Reference in American Sign Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Karen van Hoek
Karen van Hoek
Affiliation:
Program in Linguistics, 1093 Frieze Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

American Sign Language uses spatial locations as an integral part of its systems of pronominal reference. Referents mentioned in an ASL discourse may be associated with points in the signing space (“referential loci”). Pronominal signs are directed to those loci, unambiguously indicating their referents. Referential loci are sometimes analyzed as overt phonological representations of the semantic indices associated with referents in the discourse. In this paper I show that referential loci do not function merely to index or identify referents, but rather that they carry a great deal of additional information pertaining to the conceptual location of referents in the discourse space. I examine contexts in which one referent is associated with two distinct loci in the signing space, and offer a preliminary formulation of principles governing locus selection in such contexts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , December 1992 , pp. 183 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

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