Project Meeting "Endangered Languages and Dialects in Japan" (August 3, 2019)

「日本の消滅危機言語・方言の記録とドキュメンテーションの作成」研究発表会
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Project Title, Project Leader
Endangered Languages and Dialects in Japan
KIBE Nobuko (Professor, Language Variation Division, NINJAL)
Date
Saturday, August 3, 2019 (10:00-12:00)
Venue
Multipurpose room, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL)
10-2 Midori-cho, Tachikawa City, Tokyo
Access

Pre-registration not required.

Program

10:00-12:00 "Pointing and Placing in Signed Language Discourse" Lecturer: Sherman WILCOX (Professor, University of New Mexico)

Used language: English

In this lecture I will present an overview of the application of linguistic theory to the study of signed languages. The general topic is the semantic use of space in grammatical constructions. Often, pointing is analyzed in signed languages as simple morphemes or even as non-linguistic gesture. An approach to pointing as a symbolically complex construction will be presented and exemplified with data from signed languages. Another grammatical construction unique to signed languages, placing, will be described and discussed, and two types of placing constructions will be demonstrated. Finally, the application of pointing and placing to discourse will be examined with special attention to tracking referents and the use of these grammatical constructions in the unique, spatial form of verb agreement in signed languages.