engleski

Distinctive Features of Noun-Verb Pairs in Croatian Sign Language (HZJ)

This paper contributes to the typology of sign languages by reporting on the previously-unstudied distinction between nouns and verbs in HZJ. Of interest is the fact that while distinguishing between verbs and nouns phonologically, HZJ must also avoid phonological confusion with imperfective verb forms: while both imperfective verbs and derived nouns are repeated, only derived nouns are made with restrained manner (as observed by Supalla and Newport 1978 for ASL). The difference between noun-verb pairs in sign languages is a recurrent question. Supalla & Newport (1978) were the first to show that ASL has a clear difference between nouns and verbs in pairs. In order to analyze the 100 formally and semantically related noun-verb pairs, they proposed three additional dimensions of a sign: directionality, manner and frequency of movement. Directionality can be unidirectional or bidirectional, manner can be continuous, hold or restrained, and frequency of movement can be either single or repeated movement. They observed that most verbs are either unidirectional hold or continuous, or bidirectional repeated continuous. Most importantly, they found that restrained manner of movement was not found in verb production whereas nouns were produced in a restrained manner and usually repeated. These results motivated other research: Johnston (2001) for Australian Sign Language (Auslan) ; Hunger (2006) for Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) ; Kimmelman (2009) for Russian Sign Language (RSL) ; Thackman (2012) for Israeli Sign Language (ISL) and Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL). These newer analyses confirmed Supalla & Newport’s (1978) conclusions, and added new findings such as temporal duration of a sign and mouthing (ÖGS) or size of an amplitude (RSL). Furthermore, Thackman (2012) for ISL and ABSL found connections to Wilbur's Event Visibility Hypothesis, that is, the theory that the type of movement of a verb sign reflects the semantics of the inherent event it depicts. In this study 3 types of tasks were presented to 3 deaf participants. Each task consisted of 30 identical noun-verb pairs (n=60 total), partially from Supalla & Newport (1978). Task 1 randomly presented pictures to elicit production of nouns and verbs without any influence of spoken language. Task 2 presented written sentences in which noun and verb were presented in a context. Task 3 randomly presented isolated written words. For the analysis of noun-verb pairs in HZJ, we used the Prosodic Model of Sign Language Phonology (Brentari 1998), which distinguishes inherent and prosodic features. We analyzed prosodic features for each noun and verb in all 3 tasks. Like Supalla and Newport, the results show that the majority of nouns are produced as small, restrained, rapidly repeated, uncountable movements ([trilled movement (TM)]) (e.g. CIGARETA 'cigarette', MASKARA 'mascara'). Only two of the thirty nouns were produced with their own [tracing:straight] movement with an abrupt stop at the end (e.g. BROD 'ship', AVION 'airplane'), like their corresponding verbs (which were longer and slower, treated as [tracing]). A small number of nouns were produced with POA on a body part, and the only movement was transitional epenthetic movement to and/or away (e.g. ZVIŽDALJKA 'whistle', NAUŠNICA 'earring', NAOČALE 'glasses'). As a result, no ordinary [path] movement was found combined with nouns. In contrast, the analysis of the verbs shows that they differ from their corresponding nouns by having the [path] feature or [orientation] change, and no restrained movement. [Path] feature was most frequently expressed as [tracing] (e.g. JESTI 'eat', PRATI-ZUBE 'brush teeth'), or [direction] (e.g. PUHNUTI-U-ZVIŽDALJKU 'blow a whistle', STAVITI-NAUŠNICU 'put on earring'), [orientation] change occurred with [pronation] (e.g. ZAPALITI-ŠIBICU 'strike a match'), [supination] (e.g. OTKLJUČATI 'unlock'), and [flexion] (e.g. OPALITI-IZ-PUŠKE 'shoot'). These verbs fit into the HZJ aspectual system: those with the feature [tracing] are imperfective, and those with the feature [direction] are perfective. There are also a small number of verbs which have [orientation] change and are perfective (as also reported by Milković, 2011). In conclusion, HZJ distinguishes nouns from verbs in a systematic way. Nouns show restrained trilled movement, epenthetic movement for body-anchored ones, and two showed manner modifications compared to their verbs (faster, shorter), but nouns did not have [path]. Verbs show aspectual distinctions: imperfective verbs have [tracing] feature, whereas perfectives have [direction] or [orientation change], and verbs are not produced with restrained manner. This study aligns with the results from Supalla and Newport even though the two languages, ASL and HZJ, are not related (however, both are SVO). This analysis also shows that the HZJ predicate system conforms to the Event Visibility Hypothesis by distinguishing root-level aspect in verbs on the basis of distinctions in phonological form.

distincive features ; noun-verb pairs ; sign language

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