Sign Language & Linguistics - Volume 2, Issue 2, 1999

In this paper we attempt to define the notion of ‘lexeme’ in relation to signed languages. We begin by defining signs as a distinct kind of visual-gestural communicative act, different from other communicative uses of gesture. This is followed by a discussion of the most important categories of productive forms in signed languages, referred to simply as signs. The close relationship between the formational aspects of these signs and their meaning is also discussed and exemplified. We then describe the criteria for recognizing lexemes as a subset of signs, and distinguishing variant and modified forms. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications the notion of lexeme has for our understanding of the lexicon of signed languages and for signed language lexicography.

In natural communication, the medium through which language is transmitted plays an important and systematic role. Sentences are broken up rhythmically into chunks; certain elements receive special stress; and, in spoken language, intonational tunes are superimposed onto these chunks in particular ways — all resulting in an intricate system of prosody. Investigations of prosody in Israeli Sign Language demonstrate that sign languages have comparable prosodic systems to those of spoken languages, although the phonetic medium is completely different. Evidence for the prosodic word and for the phonological phrase in ISL is examined here within the context of the relationship between the medium and the message. New evidence is offered to support the claim that facial expression in sign languages corresponds to intonation in spoken languages, and the term “superarticulation” is coined to describe this system in sign languages. Interesting formaldiffer ences between the intonationaltunes of spoken language and the “superarticulatory arrays” of sign language are shown to offer a new perspective on the relation between the phonetic basis of language, its phonological organization, and its communicative content.

This paper reports regularities of stress placement at the phrasal level in American Sign Language (ASL) and identifies a category of signs (final pronouns) that appear to be exceptions. The group of exceptional pronouns predominantly comprises experiencer subject arguments, a category that does not traditionally participate in the verb agreement system of ASL, creating a morphological gap. Evidence is presented that some of these pronouns may be in the process of grammaticalizing to verbal suffixes which may serve to fill the morphological gap.