It's Not What You Sign, It's How You Sign It: Politeness in American Sign Language

5. Two Nonmanual Modifiers That Mitigate Smaller Threats to Face

5 Two Nonmanual Modifiers That Mitigate Smaller Threats to Face 126 ASL signers and English speakers employ a variety of linguistic strategies when making requests and rejections. Although many of these strategies overlap, there are some unique strategies that are used by each language group. One particular kind of linguistic expression is unique to signed languages such as ASL: nonmanual modifiers (NMMs). To clarify, NMMs are specific markers that (a) occur on the mouth, such as tight lips which is a tightening of the lips, or (b) involve the body and head, such as a body/head teeter (bt) from side to side.1 NMMs are different from the grammatical markers in ASL that mark specific syntactic categories (sentence types), such as the wh-question marking (a furrowed brow, head tilt forward, and direct eye gaze) used to mark a wh-word question. The grammatical markers generally make use of raised or lowered eyebrows, and body movement, such as leaning forward or back. Other types of grammatical markers are used in ASL to mark yes/no-questions, topics, and rhetorical questions. (For a discussion of these grammatical markers see Baker-Shenk & Cokely, 1980; Neidle, Kegl, MacLaughlin, Bahan, & Lee, 2000; Valli, Lucas, & Mulrooney, 2005.) The structure of the DCT provides a tool for examining both the dimensions of ranking of imposition (easy [–R] vs. difficult [+R]) and power (employee [–P], coworker [=P], and supervisor [+P]); however, the numbers of elicited requests and rejections in this study are too small for statistical analysis. Although the differences in the power variable in particular are too small to reach any con1 . This body/head teeter was identified as a politeness marker by Roush (1999). clusions except in some specific contexts, the degree of ranking of imposition indicates more definite trends. The ranking of imposition is the focus of this discussion on NMMs because the data derived from the DCT for the current study show that the five NMMs can be linearly ordered, based on the relative imposition each NMM serves to mitigate (from small to extreme). Polite Pucker—A Marker That Mitigates Small Impositions The polite pucker (pp) marker “is made with pursed lips, sometimes with the jaw lowered” (Roush, 1999, p. 43) and appears as mm elsewhere in the literature, in which the focus has been on its modifying (adverbial) function, to convey the sense of normally or as expected (see, e.g., Baker-Shenk & Cokely, 1980; Bridges & Metzger, 1996). This NMM was first identified as a politeness marker by Roush. See Figure 5.1. Previous Research on the pp Roush (1999) identified the pp marker as one of three NMMs used by native ASL signers when making requests and rejections in a videotape segment entitled “Asking to Borrow a Truck” from the Signing Naturally II Videotext (Smith, Lentz, & Mikos, 1992). This 127 Two Nonmanual Modifiers Figure 5.1. polite pucker (pp) 128 Two Nonmanual Modifiers videotape is part of a series of educational materials designed for teaching ASL. The discourse contexts on the videotape are signed by native ASL signers to model the language for students. In this segment of the videotape, a Deaf man (Anthony) asks to borrow a truck from a series of Deaf people so that he can move a dresser he recently purchased at a furniture store. Anthony is turned down by all of them except for the last person, so requests and rejections are used throughout this segment. The pp marker is used four times in the Signing Naturally II videotape , and it is used in each instance to express openness and willingness . For example, it is used to express willingness to comply with the request before engaging in a refusal (rejection), and it is used to express willingness to look elsewhere to borrow a truck (Roush, 1999). [The pp marker] seems to have the meaning “not bad, it’s a good idea/possibility,” “why don’t you/I try that” or “you/I’ll think about it.” This seems to be used when one does not want to state a strong opinion or suggestion or wants to avoid a commitment to doing something. (Roush, p. 43) In short, Roush suggests that the pp NMM is associated with acts of cooperation and solidarity. The Use of the pp NMM in the DCT The pp marker functions exclusively as an involvement strategy in the ASL request and rejection data. The pp NMM is used only when there is...