Sign Language & Linguistics - Volume 7, Issue 1, 2004

The object of this study is a sign glossed index-c, a point toward the signer’s chest, and its use in Swedish Sign Language. The sign has often been referred to as the first person pronoun of Swedish Sign Language, and it has been claimed that index-c is only used for non-first person reference in reported speech (Wallin 1987; Ahlgren 1991; Simper-Allen 1999). In the analyzed material, however, index-c is also used for non-first person reference when the actions and thoughts of a referent are rendered. A closer look also made it clear that there are actually two different forms of index-c, with different distribution, and that there appears to be an indefinite pronoun in Swedish Sign Language. What is presented here is thus an analysis of the use and meaning of two forms of the sign that was initially glossed index-c.

This study examines production errors in ASL lexical phonology by beginning L2 adult learners, more particularly the handshape, location, movement, palm orientation, and nonmanual phonological segments. Studies in L2 adult learning of ASL are scant. For possible analytical models, first and second language acquisition models such as L1 transfer, Universal Grammar, and L1 child development are examined. The models do not capture the essence of phonology production errors in L2 ASL. A Cognitive Phonology Model is proposed to account for the errors. The errors are shaped by perception of sign formulation and poor motor dexterity. Production errors that are influenced by poor motor dexterity by adult L2 learners consist of substitutions, displacements, switches, additions, deletions, and incompletions of features within segments. Production errors that are shaped by perception of sign formulation consist of mirrorization, parallelization, addition, and deletion of features within segments.

Our aim in this paper is to describe and systematize the processes used to express time in Spanish Sign Language (LSE). The conception of time as a line, as well as its nature as a deictic category, are confirmed for both spoken languages and sign languages, although in the former time has been studied mainly as inflection, while other types of resources are common in the latter, particularly the expression of time by means of time lines.In our analysis we have focused mainly on the description of the lexical processes and the time lines that participate in time marking in LSE. We have also referred to an iconic process, which involves the use of so-called "classifier" predicates.