How do signers of Argentine Sign Language (LSA) achieve reference? Nominal grounding in LSA

MARTÍNEZ, ROCÍO ANABEL; WILCOX, SHERMAN

Albuquerque

Exposici�n; Roadrunner Series; 2017

High Desert Linguistic Society, Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico

In this presentation, we will explore aspects of the nominal structure in Argentine Sign Language (LSA) that have not yet been systematically studied. In particular, we would like to know how nominal grounding works in this signed language. In Cognitive Grammar (CG) terms, we want to discover how signers of LSA ?direct their interlocutors? attention to the intended discourse referent, which may or may not correspond to an actual individual? (Langacker, 2008, p. 259). In spoken languages such as English, different grounding strategies have been described. For instance, there are nominals with explicit grounding elements, like articles, demonstratives, or certain quantifiers (the man, this chair, all parrots); there are ?bare nouns? in which there is no overt grounding element within the nominal (I want beer; I like dogs); and there are nominals with intrinsic grounding, such as pronouns and proper nouns (he, California). But what about LSA, the signed language of the Argentine Deaf community? So far, there are only brief observations, such as Massone et al. (2000), and there is no literature on nominal grounding within the CG framework. To provide a first description of this subject, we are currently analyzing data from contextualized LSA discourses from different genres. Our preliminary analyses indicate that there are different grounding strategies in LSA. For instance, among other possible grounding strategies, there are pointing signs within nominals that may be serving an overt grounding function (MAN IX(loc)); there are nominals in which the head noun?s location may bear grounding function (PERSON(loc)); and there are nominals in which there does not seem to be any (apparent) grounding element (PERSON(pl.)). Since this project is in its initial stage, we would like to discuss possible explanations of the different nominal constructions by which Argentine Deaf signers achieve reference in discourse.