“Fog, Rain, Snow and Sun in French Sign Language”
Document type :
Autre communication scientifique (congrès sans actes - poster - séminaire...): Communication dans un congrès avec actes
Title :
“Fog, Rain, Snow and Sun in French Sign Language”
Author(s) :
Conference title :
56th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea
Conference organizers(s) :
Societas Linguistica Europaea
City :
Athénes
Country :
Grèce
Start date of the conference :
2023-08-29
English keyword(s) :
Sign Language
Linguistics of weather
Linguistics of weather
English abstract : [en]
As has been largely argued (cf. Bouvet 1997, Cuxac 2000, Fusellier 2006 among others), lexical terms in sign languages are motivated: they originate in gestural representation of perceptible phenomena and employ depictive ...
Show more >As has been largely argued (cf. Bouvet 1997, Cuxac 2000, Fusellier 2006 among others), lexical terms in sign languages are motivated: they originate in gestural representation of perceptible phenomena and employ depictive resources or deictic gestures. One can, thus, identify in their structure designation gestures, shape tracing, role play or moving forms in space. The link between the concept and the displayed shape can be direct, metonymical or metaphorical. Lexicalization processes (generalization, conceptualization, stabilization and articulatory economy) have resulted in standardized forms of tracing in the signing space, which can include or exclude the signer’s bust. In discourse, these conventionalized signs (words in a sign language) are all motivated but their meaning is not always transparent. Lexical or inflexional derivation applied to such standardized signs restores original motivation to center-stage. Semantic families of signs, semantically and formally related, have thus been constituted (Millet 2019), such as, for example: rain-fall / snow-fall / smoke- rise (denotating masses of droplets falling or rising by a same kind of gestures).Our presentation is an exploratory study of some weather terms in French Sign Language (FSL) expressing phenomena linked to humidity, i.e. clouds, fog, snow, hoarfrost or dew. We provide analysis of specific lexical items, their motivation, and the constructions in which they occur. Our aim is to investigate the polysemical potentiality of these meteorological terms (Paykin 2002). Our assumption is that the gestural configuration at the origin of these signs accounts for the fact that they are more or less involved in naming the natural element as well as in expressing events, states or processes. For example, the FSL term for the natural element ‘snow’ and that denoting the process and event ‘snow-fall’ do not belong to the same family, having different motivation origins. The former comes from the action linked to the element (making snowballs), while the latter is linked to the perceptible process (the fall of snowflakes).Only certain phenomena are designated by terms available in FSL dictionaries. However, the only available dictionaries today are translation dictionaries providing FSL equivalents to French terms, far from containing the majority of FSL terms. The term ‘dew’, for instance, absent in French/FSL dictionaries, can be found exclusively in the form of paraphrase (Spreadthesign, multilingual dictionaries) or of definition (Elix).For our study, therefore, we could not use FSL dictionaries, nor use annotated corpora, inexistent in FSL. We, thus, worked with native French Sign Language signers invited to communicate on their experience of weather phenomena, on the basis of their personal experiences and some photos showing the phenomena in question. We also used available videos where weather phenomena are described in FSL.Show less >
Show more >As has been largely argued (cf. Bouvet 1997, Cuxac 2000, Fusellier 2006 among others), lexical terms in sign languages are motivated: they originate in gestural representation of perceptible phenomena and employ depictive resources or deictic gestures. One can, thus, identify in their structure designation gestures, shape tracing, role play or moving forms in space. The link between the concept and the displayed shape can be direct, metonymical or metaphorical. Lexicalization processes (generalization, conceptualization, stabilization and articulatory economy) have resulted in standardized forms of tracing in the signing space, which can include or exclude the signer’s bust. In discourse, these conventionalized signs (words in a sign language) are all motivated but their meaning is not always transparent. Lexical or inflexional derivation applied to such standardized signs restores original motivation to center-stage. Semantic families of signs, semantically and formally related, have thus been constituted (Millet 2019), such as, for example: rain-fall / snow-fall / smoke- rise (denotating masses of droplets falling or rising by a same kind of gestures).Our presentation is an exploratory study of some weather terms in French Sign Language (FSL) expressing phenomena linked to humidity, i.e. clouds, fog, snow, hoarfrost or dew. We provide analysis of specific lexical items, their motivation, and the constructions in which they occur. Our aim is to investigate the polysemical potentiality of these meteorological terms (Paykin 2002). Our assumption is that the gestural configuration at the origin of these signs accounts for the fact that they are more or less involved in naming the natural element as well as in expressing events, states or processes. For example, the FSL term for the natural element ‘snow’ and that denoting the process and event ‘snow-fall’ do not belong to the same family, having different motivation origins. The former comes from the action linked to the element (making snowballs), while the latter is linked to the perceptible process (the fall of snowflakes).Only certain phenomena are designated by terms available in FSL dictionaries. However, the only available dictionaries today are translation dictionaries providing FSL equivalents to French terms, far from containing the majority of FSL terms. The term ‘dew’, for instance, absent in French/FSL dictionaries, can be found exclusively in the form of paraphrase (Spreadthesign, multilingual dictionaries) or of definition (Elix).For our study, therefore, we could not use FSL dictionaries, nor use annotated corpora, inexistent in FSL. We, thus, worked with native French Sign Language signers invited to communicate on their experience of weather phenomena, on the basis of their personal experiences and some photos showing the phenomena in question. We also used available videos where weather phenomena are described in FSL.Show less >
Language :
Anglais
Peer reviewed article :
Oui
Audience :
Internationale
Popular science :
Non
Collections :
Source :