1887
New Methodologies in Sign Language Phonology: Papers from TISLR 10
  • ISSN 1387-9316
  • E-ISSN: 1569-996X
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Abstract

This paper investigates whether two-handed signs in Kenyan Sign Language, a relatively young school-based sign language, conform to the same constraints on combinations of movement and handshape that hold in other sign languages. An analysis of 467 two-handed signs, separated into four types based on complexity, found that KSL is highly constrained, with only a few signs that violate proposed conditions. Three hypotheses to account for handshape restrictions on the non-dominant hand in highly complex signs are tested. Findings show that a universal unmarked set accounts for most of these handshapes; a language-specific unmarked set does no better; and a constraint on markedness at the featural level essentially accounts for all the signs. Further analyses discover that a preference for unmarked handshapes in the most complex signs extends to all two-handed signs to some degree. Finally, a phonotactic preference for the G/1 handshape on the dominant hand in complex signs is uncovered. Some evidence suggests that this tendency may surface in other languages as well.

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/content/journals/10.1075/sll.15.1.07mor
2012-01-01
2025-02-08
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): complexity; dominance; handshape; Kenyan Sign Language; markedness; symmetry
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