Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:47:12.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sign networks: Nucleated network sign languages and rural homesign in Papua New Guinea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2021

Lauren W. Reed Open the ORCID record for Lauren W. Reed [Opens in a new window]
Lauren W. Reed*
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Lauren W. Reed Australian National University ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language Australian National University HC Coombs Building 9 Fellows Road Canberra ACT 2600, Australia [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The sociodemographic typology of sign languages classifies them based on the characteristics and configurations of their users. When considering homesign and sign languages in rural areas, this typology needs further refinement. Here, I present new concepts to enable this. The study is based on fieldwork with twelve deaf people in Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea, and review of studies worldwide. Sign language communities can be mapped as sign networks. Using this mapping, I propose a new typological category for languages with one central deaf user and many fluent hearing signers: nucleated network sign language. I use sign base analysis to determine lexical consistency between unconnected deaf signers in Western Highlands. The high level of consistency among largely unconnected deaf people is explained by a regional sign network connecting deaf and hearing signers. This research emphasises the role of both deaf and hearing signers in sign language emergence and maintenance. (Sign languages, social networks, sign networks, typology, homesign, rural sign languages, Papua New Guinea)*

Type
Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , September 2022 , pp. 627 - 661
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This article is based on my Master's thesis (Reed 2019), supervised by Alan Rumsey. This work is intellectually indebted to many fruitful conversations and correspondence with Alan. I thank Alan for generously sharing his 2011, 2015, and 2017 data with me. I thank all of the signers I worked with in Western Highlands and Port Moresby, and I refer readers to the acknowledgements section of Reed (2019). I thank two anonymous reviewers whose feedback greatly improved this article. I also thank Jenny Cheshire, Francesca Merlan, Ronald Planer, and Alan Rumsey for helpful comments on drafts. A version of Sign networks and Nucleated network sign languages was presented as a poster by myself and Rumsey at the 13th annual Theoretical Issues in Sign Linguistics Research in 2019. A version of Lexical similarity among Nebilyer/Kaugel sign languages was presented as a paper at the Australian Linguistic Society annual conference in 2019. This work was funded by a Research Grant from the Australian Linguistic Society, and a Language Documentation Grant from the Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. I thank the Centre of Excellence for loans of field equipment.

References

Bahan, Ben, & Poole Nash, Joan Cottle (1995). The formation of signing communities. In Mann, J. (ed.), Deaf studies IV: ‘Visions of the past – Visions of the future’, 1–26. Washington, DC: College for Continuing Education, Gallaudet University.Google Scholar
Baynton, Douglas C. (1996). Forbidden signs: American culture and the campaign against sign language. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branson, Jan; Miller, Don; & Marsaja, I. Gede (1996). Everyone here speaks sign language, too: A deaf village in Bali, Indonesia. In Ceil Lucas (ed.), Multicultural aspects of sociolinguistics in deaf communities, 39–57. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Carrigan, Emily M., & Coppola, Marie (2017). Successful communication does not drive language development: Evidence from adult homesign. Cognition 158:10–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coppola, Marie (2002). The emergence of grammatical categories in home sign: Evidence from family-based gesture systems in Nicaragua. New York: University of Rochester PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Davis, Jeffrey, & Supalla, Samuel (1995). A sociolinguistic description of sign language use in a Navajo family. In Ceil Lucas (ed.), Sociolinguistics in deaf communities, 77–106. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
de Vos, Connie (2011). Kata Kolok color terms and the emergence of lexical signs in rural signing communities. The Senses and Society 6(1):68–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vos, Connie, & Nyst, Victoria (2018). The time depth and typology of rural sign languages. Sign Language Studies 18(4):477–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vos, Connie, & Zeshan, Ulrike (eds.) (2012). Sign languages in village communities: Anthropological and linguistic insights. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Dolman, David (1986). Sign languages in Jamaica. Sign Language Studies 1052(1):235–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenlon, Jordan, & Wilkinson, Erin (2015). Sign languages in the world. In Schembri, Adam C. & Lucas, Ceil (eds.), Sociolinguistics and deaf communities, 5–28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedner, Michele I. (2011). ‘Future life how?’: The making of deaf sociality and aspiration in urban India. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Frishberg, Nancy (1987). Home sign. In John V. Van Cleve (ed.), Gallaudet encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness, vol. 3, 128–31. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Fuselier-Souza, Ivani (2006). Emergence and development of signed languages: From a semiogenetic point of view. Sign Language Studies 7(1):30–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan (2003). Resilience of language: What gesture creation in deaf children can tell us about how all children learn language. Hove: Taylor & Francis Group.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology 78(6):1360–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, E. Mara (2014). The nature of signs: Nepal's deaf society, local sign, and the production of communicative sociality. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Guerra Currie, Anne-Marie P.; Meier, Richard P.; & Walters, Keith (2002). A crosslinguistic examination of the lexicons of four signed languages. In Meier, Richard P., Cormier, Kearsy, & Quinto-Pozos, David (eds.), Modality and structure in signed and spoken languages, 224–39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hartzell, Ethan; Ergin, Rabia; Kürşat, Leyla; & Jackendoff, Ray (2019). Lexical variation in Central Taurus Sign Language. Poster presented at TISLR13 (13th Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research conference), University of Hamburg.Google Scholar
Haviland, John B. (2013). The emerging grammar of nouns in a first generation sign language: Specification, iconicity, and syntax. Gesture 13(3):309–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendriks, Bernadet (2007). Negation in Jordanian Sign Language: A cross-linguistic perspective. In Perniss, Pamela M., Pfau, Roland, & Steinbach, Markus (eds.), Visible variation: Comparative studies on sign language structure, 103–28. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Horton, Laura (2020). Representational strategies in shared homesign systems from Nebaj, Guatemala. In Le Guen, Safar, & Coppola, 97–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hou, Lynn (2016). ‘Making hands’: Family sign languages in the San Juan Quiahije community. Austin: University of Texas, Austin PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Hou, Lynn (2018). Iconic patterns in San Juan Quiahije Chatino Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 18(4):570–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jepsen, Julie Bakken; Clerck, Goedele De; Lutalo-Kiingi, Sam; & McGregor, William B. (eds.) (2015). Sign languages of the world: A comparative handbook. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jepson, Jill (1991). Two sign languages in a single village in India. Sign Language Studies 1070(1):47–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendon, Adam (1988). Sign languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, semiotic and communicative perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kendon, Adam (2020). Sign language in Papua New Guinea: A primary sign language from the Upper Lagaip Valley, Enga Province. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisch, Shifra (2008). ‘Deaf discourse’: The social construction of Deaf in a Bedouin community. Medical Anthropology 27(3):238–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konrad, Reiner (2013). The lexical structure of German Sign Language (DGS) in the light of empirical LSP lexicography: On how to integrate iconicity in a corpus-based lexicon model. Sign Language & Linguistics 16(1):111–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuschel, Rolf (1973). The silent inventor: The creation of a sign language by the only deaf-mute on a Polynesian island. Sign Language Studies 3:1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuschel, Rolf (1974). A lexicon of signs from a Polynesian outliner island. København: Psykologisk Laboratorium.Google Scholar
Kusters, Annelies (2015). Deaf space in Adamorobe: An ethnographic study in a village in Ghana. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lave, Jean, & Wenger, Etienne (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Guen, Olivier (2012). An exploration in the domain of time: From Yucatec Maya time gestures to Yucatec Maya Sign Language. In de Vos & Zeshan, 209–49.Google Scholar
Le Guen, Olivier; Safar, Josefina; & Coppola, Marie (2020). Emerging sign languages of the Americas. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macleod, Catriona (1973). A deaf man's sign language: Its nature and position relative to spoken languages. Linguistics 101:72–88.Google Scholar
Mandel, Mark (1977). Iconic devices in American Sign Language. In Friedman, Lynn A. (ed.), On the other hand: New perspectives on American Sign Language, 57–107. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Meir, Irit; Sandler, Wendy; Padden, Carol; & Aronoff, Mark (2010). Emerging sign languages. In Marschark, Marc & Spencer, Patricia E. (eds.), Oxford handbook of Deaf studies, language, and education, vol. 2, 267–80. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Merlan, Francesca, & Rumsey, Alan (1991). Ku Waru: Language and segmentary politics in the western Nebilyer Valley, Papua New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merlan, Francesca, & Rumsey, Alan (2017). Flexibles and polyvalence in Ku Waru: A developmental perspective. In Vapnarsky, Valentina & Veneziano, Edy (eds.), Lexical polycategoriality: Cross-linguistic, cross-theoretical and language acquisition approaches, 307–41. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, James, & Milroy, Lesley (1985). Linguistic change, social network and speaker innovation. Journal of Linguistics 21(2):339–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, Lesley (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Morgan, Hope E. (2017). The phonology of Kenyan Sign Language (southwestern dialect). San Diego: University of California, San Diego PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Mudd, Katie; Lutzenberger, Hannah; de Vos, Connie; Fikkert, Paula; Crasborn, Onno; & de Boer, Bart (2020). The effect of sociolinguistic factors on variation in the Kata Kolok lexicon. Asia-Pacific Language Variation 6(1):53–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neveu, Grace K. (2019). Lexical conventionalization and the emergence of grammatical devices in a second generation homesign system in Peru. Austin: The University of Texas at Austin PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Nonaka, Angela (2007). Emergence of an indigenous sign language and a speech/sign community in Ban Khor, Thailand. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Nyst, Victoria (2007). A descriptive analysis of Adamorobe sign language (Ghana). Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Nyst, Victoria (2010). Sign language in West Africa. In Diane Brentari (ed.), Sign languages: A Cambridge language survey, 405–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyst, Victoria (2012). Shared sign languages. In Pfau, Roland, Steinbach, Markus, & Woll, Bencie (eds.), Sign language: An international handbook, 552–74. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyst, Victoria; Sylla, Kara; & Magassouba, Moustapha (2012). Deaf signers in Douentza, a rural area in Mali. In de Vos & Zeshan, 251–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osugi, Yutaka; Supalla, Ted; & Webb, Rebecca (1999). The use of word elicitation to identify distinctive gestural systems on Amami Island. Sign Language & Linguistics 2(1):87–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padden, Carol, & Humphries, Tom (2005). Inside Deaf culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, Lauren W. (2019). Sign languages of Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea, and their challenges for sign language typology. Canberra: Australian National University Master's thesis.Google Scholar
Reed, Lauren W. (2020). ‘Switching caps’: Two ways of communicating in sign in the Port Moresby deaf community, Papua New Guinea. Asia-Pacific Language Variation 6(1):14–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richie, Russell; Fanghella, Julie; & Coppola, Marie (2012). Emergence of lexicons in family-based homesign systems in Nicaragua. In Geer, Leah C. (ed.), Proceedings from the 13th meeting of the Texas Linguistics Society, 55–67. Austin, TX: Texas Linguistics Forum.Google Scholar
Safar, Josefina (2019). Translanguaging in Yucatec Maya signing communities. Applied Linguistics Review 10(1):31–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandler, Wendy; Meir, Irit; Padden, Carol; & Aronoff, Mark (2005). The emergence of grammar: Systematic structure in a new language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102(7):2661–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuit, Joke (2012). Sociolinguistic profile of Inuit Sign Language. In de Vos & Zeshan, 389–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuit, Joke (2015). Inuit Sign Language. In Jepsen, De Clerck, Lutalo-Kiingi & McGregor, 431–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuit, Joke; Baker, Ann; & Pfau, Roland (2011). Inuit Sign Language: A contribution to sign language typology. Linguistics in Amsterdam 4(1):1–31.Google Scholar
Senghas, Ann; Senghas, Richard J.; & Pyers, Jennie E. (2005). The emergence of Nicaraguan Sign Language: Questions of development, acquisition, and evolution. In Langer, Jonas, Parker, Sue Taylor, & Milbrath, Constance (eds.), Biology and knowledge revisisted: From neurogenesis to psychogenesis, 287–306. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Torigoe, Takashi, & Takei, Wataru (2002). A descriptive analysis of pointing and oral movements in a home sign system. Sign Language Studies 2(3):281–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, James (1991). Sign language varieties in Costa Rica. Sign Language Studies 1073(1):329–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yau, Shun-Chiu (1992). Création gestuelle et débuts du langage: Création de langues gestuelles chez des sourds isolés. Paris: Langages Croisés.Google Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike (2004). Hand, head, and face: Negative constructions in sign languages. Linguistic Typology 8(1):1–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeshan, Ulrike (2011). Village sign languages: A commentary. In Napoli, Donna Jo & Mathur, Gaurav (eds.), Deaf around the world: The impact of language, 221–30. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar