Weak Hand Lowering and Weak Drop: The Influence of Sub-Lexical Iconicity on Sign Language Phonology
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2018-08-30
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en
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Abstract
The influence of iconicity on sign language production has so far mostly focused on iconicity
on a holistic sign level. However, Paligot et al. (2016) found that sign production is also
phonologically influenced by iconicity on a sub-lexical level. This thesis aims to demonstrate
the phonological influence of sub-lexical iconicity by examining the influence of Motivation of
Two-Handedness and Motivation of Level on the phonological processes Weak Hand Lowering
and Weak Drop.
To this end, 39 sign types (i.e. 1030 tokens) were coded for formal aspects and for
motivation of two-handedness and level. The distance between the two hands to operationalise
Weak Hand Lowering and Weak Drop was measured through superimposed and distancenormalised
grids. The measurements were analysed using linear mixed-effects models.
The results show that motivation of two-handedness significantly influences both Weak
Hand Lowering and Weak Drop. Motivation of level is shown to only significantly influence
Weak Hand Lowering. Also, within the motivated level category, metaphoric signs were found
to not influence Weak Hand Lowering significantly more than non-metaphoric signs. The
findings support the presence of sub-lexical iconicity through the working of semantic
implementation rules, as well as the role of iconicity in sign processing. Also, the similarity of
influencing factors for reduction patterns in spoken and signed languages suggests that Weak
Hand Lowering and Weak Drop are parts of the same reduction continuum, with Weak Drop
being the extreme form of Weak Hand Lowering.
Keywords: Nederlandse Gebarentaal, Sign Language Phonology, Weak Drop, Weak Hand
Lowering, Phonological Reduction, Sub-Lexical Iconicity
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