The Semantic Domain of Classifiers in American Sign Language

Spring 1985 THE SEMANTIC DOMAIN OF CLASSIFIERS IN AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE Ronnie B. Wilbur Mark E. Bernstein Rebecca Kantor Classifying classifiers. The presence of classifiers in American Sign Language (ASL) was initially indicated by Frishberg (1975). She described them as "certain handshapes in particular orientations to stand for certain semantic features of noun arguments." Further investigation revealed that these one-handed sign handshapes may substitute for particular nouns in various syntactic environments, thereby functioning as pronouns in conjunction with ASL predicates (Kegl & Wilbur 1976, Kegl 1977). Since Frishberg's initial identification classifiers have received considerable attention in the literature. Various analyses indicate that they participate in the construction of locative expressions (Liddell 1980, McIntire 1980), serve as the literal or metaphoric theme in the construction of many basic ASL verbs (Gee & Kegl 1982), may mark up to two of the various arguments of ASL predicates (Gee & Kegl 1982, Supalla 1982), and are acquired by deaf children in a manner that confirms their complexity (Kantor 1980). The fact that the same verbal predicate may be used with different classifier handshapes to refer to different noun arguments has been used to separate the ASL lexicon into "productive" forms, which allow classifier substitution, and "frozen" Q 1985 Linstok Press. See inside cover. ISSN 0302-1475 SLS 46 Spring 1985 forms, which do not (Wilbur 1978, Gee & Kegl 1982, McIntire 1980, McDonald 1982, Supalla 1982). A tentative list of classifiers and their categories is given below (from Kegl & Wilbur 1976): 1. General person (animate): G-hand, usual orientation is fingertip up 2. Person ambulatory (by legs): V-hand, usual orientation is fingertips down for 'stand' 'walk' 'kneel', but may have other orientations 3. Person (by vehicle): 3-hand, orientation is fingertips sideways (as opposed to the numeral '3', which has its citation orientation fingertips up), may be used for cars, motorcycles, boats, trains, etc. 4. Plane: t1handshape, may be used for airplanes 5. Stationary object taller than it is wide (also may be used as dummy general object): K-hand, used in place of objects such as bottle, house, lamp 6. Stationary object taller than it is wide which cannot be moved by an independent source or which is intended to be stationary: arm extended upward from elbow to fingertips, B-hand, used for buildings, trees, walls, etc. 7. Flat objects that can be moved: B-hand, palm up, can be used for book, paper, mirror, etc. 8. Flat object that is not supposed to be movedB -hand, palm down, can be used for bridge, floor, rooftop, ground, etc. 9. Hollow, curved object with rim: C-hand, palm facing sideways, can be used for glasses, cups, jars, etc. A number of additional forms have been suggested as Wilbur et al. 2 SLS 46 Spring 1985 possible classifiers (Liddell, Supalla, McDonald); nevertheless, formal sorting of the various proposed classifiers into true classifiers, quantifiers, "size-and-shape specifiers" (SASSes - Klima & Bellugi 1979) has not been done, and research to confirm these and other categories based on syntactic distribution and morphological marking and function remains to be conducted. In this paper we are concerned primarily with the semantic characteristics of the noun referents that constrain classifier choice in the productive lexicon. It is clear that ASL does not simply assign a noun to a particular classifier and then use that classifier as a pronoun for the noun in all instances. Instead there exists a many-to-one relationship whereby several classifiers may be used for a particular noun in different semantic and syntactic environments. This many-to-one relationship is semantically governed. A paper by Allan (1977) on classifiers in spoken languages has been cited frequently in the published work on ASL classifiers, but the implications of Allan's paper have not been fully explored. Allan describes four types of classifier languages: numeral classifier, concordial classifier, predicate classifier, and intra-locative classifier languages. ASL is generally conceded to be of the predicate classifier type (cf. Forman & McDonald 1978, Kantor 1977). In their discussion of classifiers, Forman and McDonald separate the classifiers into those that serve as shape-sensitive quantifiers (e.g. flat object in a row, rectangular object, etc.) and those that participate in forming classificatory verbs (e.g. BOX...