Stoianov, Diane;
(2024)
Marking a scene: argument structure in Cena, a young sign language.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Languages must develop structures that are sufficiently informative and clear. However the forms these take are not determined a priori. They conventionalise over time. One of the core functions of language is conveying who does what to whom (known as argument structure). This thesis examines the emergence of various mechanisms to convey argument structure in the first controlled study of a young sign language, Cena. Results show how object animacy strongly conditions alternations in the forms and distributions of all mechanisms under investigation. Cena follows crosslinguistic patterns in an increasing preference for S(O[-anim])V (Dryer, 2013; Napoli and Sutton-Spence, 2014). In reversible events, Cena mirrors other young sign languages in the increasing use of O[+anim]SV and the splitting of events into multiple verbs (Ergin, 2017; Flaherty, 2014). The thesis charts the emergence of verb agreement, revealing the incremental stages between uninflected verb forms and full agreement. The work also contributes a novel strategy for disambiguation: reiterative codeswitches, sequences of two semantically equivalent signs to emphasise a particular referent. The way in which sign languages are embodied shows pervasive effects on the trajectory of language development: the strong link between the perspective of the subject and signers’ bodies is substantiated in the earlier emergence and predominance of object agreement in Cena, given its freer availability for morphological reanalysis. This body-as-subject mapping (Meir et al., 2007) also has effects on the level of word order, in an avoidance of O[+anim]V structures which contain a mismatch between the perspective of the verb and the immediately preceding argument. As well as empirical data on word order convergence and agreement emergence, the thesis makes contributions to linguistic theory in showing how young languages use patterned redundancy (in one-argument verb sequences and reiterative codeswitches) on the path towards systematisation.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Marking a scene: argument structure in Cena, a young sign language |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Linguistics UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10201107 |
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