engleski

Sign language phonology

This paper presents an overview of co-speech gestures and sign languages as two means of communication realized through the visuo-spatial modality. We look at previous research to examine their correlation with spoken languages in terms of phonology of sign languages and the basic features of gesture production. By analysing these features, we are able to see how these means of communication utilize phases of production (in case of gestures) or parts of individual signs (in case of sign languages) to convey meaning. The studies of sign languages and studies of gestures have been somewhat neglected in the past, as the focus was put mainly on spoken languages. Recent insights into sign languages as bone fide linguistic systems and gestures as a system which has no linguistic features but accompanies language have shown that communication does not take place within just a single modality. By comparing gestures and sign languages to spoken languages, we are able to trace the transition from systems of communication involving simple form-meaning pairings to fully fledged morphological and syntactic complexities in spoken and sign languages, which gives us a new outlook on the emergence of linguistic phenomena.

visuo-spatial modality, co-speech gestures, sign languages, spoken languages

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