The Arbitrary Name Sign System in American Sign Language

THE ARBITRARY NAME SIGN SYSTEM IN AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE Samuel J. Supalla Abstract Two systems of sign naming Name signs in American Sign Language (ASL) are the proper names of persons in a community using a visual-gestural language. As a deaf child in a deaf family I was given a name sign by my parents at birth; the sign: S-handshape makes a contacting movement on one side of the chin and then on the other side. It is custom in our community that each member has a name sign given by another member. Under certain circumstances a person may not acquire a name sign until he or she is older; e.g. when the person's parents are hearing and do not sign. Many children in the residential school for the deaf I attended arrived without name signs; and because I was a native signer my peers gave me the privilege of giving them name signs. My initial interest in understanding more about how ASL name signs are formed and used dates back to 1980, when I first identified and studied the two distinct systems that the deaf community used to create name signs. The basic argument is that a name sign may be either descriptive or arbitrary in its reference to the person named. A descriptive name sign refers to a person's appearance or characteristics; an arbitrary name sign simply names and has no other meaning. In what follows I will point out the distinctions between these system of naming and discuss in detail the linguistic properties and social factors of the arbitrary system. I will also argue that both name sign systems provide primary name signs for deaf children (i.e. are not used to create nicknames) and that only the arbitrary name sign system is native, as I have observed that whenever deaf parents have the opportunity to name a child, they use the arbitrary name sign system exclusively. Finally, I @1990 by Linstok Press, Inc. See note inside front cover. ISSN 0302-1475 99 S.Supalla will discuss the evolution of the arbitrary name sign system into its present form. As an active member of the deaf community, I have been exposed to thousands of name signs, their formation and usage. In analyzing the system I have relied on my native intuition and offer here a description of the phonological subsystem of ASL arbitrary sign names. To help confirm my intuitions I conducted an informal survey with seven deaf signers, six of them native and one near-native, all enrolled in different residential schools for the deaf across the United States. Each of them has confirmed my intuitions, and this suggests that the arbitrary name sign system as here described is used rather uniformly in the American deaf community. Nevertheless, I believe that more systematic research is needed in this area. In the matter of the social aspect, how name signs are used in the deaf community, more research is needed as well, although Mindess (1990, SLS 66) has added significantly to our knowledge of ASL name signs in general. My central interest in the arbitrary name sign system of ASL is that it is a phonological subsystem of the language; i.e. is a rulegoverned system for forming the naming signs themselves and is related to ASL phonology. There are other, non-linguistic, factors motivating my interest: first, the arbitrary name sign system is what deaf parents use to name their children; second, there is a serious misconception that name signs are strictly descriptive in nature, and consequently virtual no knowledge of the arbitrary name sign system. Name signs Proper names are apparently found in all cultures, and the deaf community in the United States is no exception. Every American child is presumed to receive a spoken name at birth or soon after, and that applies to the deaf child as well. The full name is usually made up of three parts, first, middle, and last, which serve as the official name of a person. In actual use the first name may be replaced by a diminutive or a nickname. In contrast to an official name in the spoken language, an ASL...