Tipos de diversidad y amenazas

Practical circumstances that may influence the language production constitute one

of the largest differences between the spoken and the signed modality. Some of these are predictable from the difference in perceptual systems, hearing vs. sight. For speech it is crucial that the addressee be located close enough to the speaker to be able to hear the signal, but it is not necessary that the participants in the conversation are actually able to see each other. In order for signing to be perceived it is necessary that the signer be not only within a reasonable distance of the addressee, but he also has to be located within the addressee’s visual field. Although

the human visual field extends about 160 degrees horizontally and 120 degrees vertically, only objects in the center of the visual field can be easily perceived.

It follows that the nature of ‘noise’ in the two modalities will differ as well. Noise that can interfere with the perceptibility of speech can be any loud acoustic signal, such as a train passing by. Visual perception of signing can be impeded by visual noise such as very strong back light or a blinking fluorescent light, but also by low light conditions such as a poorly lit room or an unlit room at night.

As far as I know, none of these practical circumstances have been studied for any sign language.28

Social circumstances that may influence language production and which are not

the direct result of variables associated with signer or addressee generally fall under the cover term ‘register’. This term comprises what other people term ‘register’, ‘style’, ‘genre’, or ‘discourse type’ (Atkinson & Biber 1994, Biber 1995). All these different terms “refer to any language variety associated with particular situational or use characteristics” (Atkinson & Biber 1994: 351).

The register may differ depending on the relation between the speaker and the addressee. For example, if the addressee has a much lower social status than the speaker, the register may be less formal, typically leading to more reductions. Likewise, differences in age, gender or social class may lead to differences in register. The social context and the topic of conversation may also influence the register. People tend to speak differently at weddings than at funerals, and discussing a plane crash may involve a different tone of voice than the announcement of a child birth.

There are a few sign language studies looking at differences in register, even though the different factors listed above have not been clearly distinguished in all of them. Mauk (1999) performed a quantitative study of movement size of nine ASL signs in two different conditions: when the signer was trying to sign in a relaxed manner, and when the signer was pretending to sign to somebody far away. A significant difference in size of hand movement was found, the movements being larger in the distant signing condition. No size differences were correlated to the different phonological locations of the test signs (in neutral space vs. on the torso vs. at the chin). With respect to the joints used to articulate the size difference, Mauk found that the wrist contributed significantly less to the size change than the elbow and shoulder, although it was never the case that wrist movement was completely replaced by shoulder movement, for example.

Schermer et al. (1991) remarked that formal styles are characterized by enlarged signs and the increased use of two-handed variants of one-handed signs. Lindemann (1999) interviewed two ASL signers about private talk in sign language. The signers indicate that the size of the signing is reduced in private talk, something that has

28 _{There is one specific type of signing used to communicate with deaf-blind people, whose visual} impairment could be equated with the situation of no available light for Deaf people. This is called ‘four- handed signing’ or ‘tactile signing’, in which an adapted version of a regular sign language is produced while the deaf-blind addressee continuously touches or holds the hands of the signer (e.g. Reed, Delhorne, Durlach & Fischer 1995, Mesch in press). It is not yet quite clear how and to what extent the signing in such situations changes, and to what extent these changes are person-specific.

been noted by others as well (Koenen, Bloem & Janssen 1993, Uyechi 1996).29 _One of Lindemann’s informants also remarks that the location of the overall signing space may be lower or off-center in private talk, calling this “whispering with the body”. Unfortunately, Lindemann does not discuss the precise effect of the changes in size: is every part of complex sign movements reduced proportionally, and does the decreased movement size affect the realization of the static parameters handshape, orientation, and location?

Uyechi (1996) does make one specific claim: if the movement of a two-handed sign is enhanced, the distance between the two hands is enhanced proportionally (and vice versa for reduction). Different realizations of the phrase DEAF PRESIDENT NOW_ASL were found, as the phrase was ‘shouted’ as a slogan in a protest march. In the citation form, the two-handed sign NOW is articulated by moving both hands down for about the same distance as the two hands are apart. Uyechi claims it would not be correct to ‘shout’ the sign by just increasing the size of the downward movement of the hands while not simultaneously increasing the distance between the hands. The reverse holds for ‘whispering’, Uyechi argues, although she does not present any data in support of this claim.

Baker-Shenk & Cokely (1980) mention several features that distinguish ‘formal’ from ‘informal’ signing, adding that most research on ASL until then had focused on informal signing. Formal signing includes more use of two-handed variants of signs and larger and slower signing than informal signing. Informal signing is also characterized by more assimilations between signs, as well as by a centralization of locations, so that locations on the head are realized lower in space and the size of the movement is reduced. The choice of lexical items may also be influenced by register differences.

Kettrick’s (1983) ASL informants noted that a straight posture is important in formal styles, whereas posture may vary in casual styles. In casual signing the size and duration of movements may be reduced, and deletions such as one-handed articulations of two-handed signs occur. Kettrick notices that in many formal situations such as presentations to a large audience a formal style of signing overlaps with the need to communicate over distance, since signers cannot use microphones. Informants’ intuitions indicated that the increase in size is due to the distance. Kettrick’s conclusion is that this implies that speed is not likely to be lower in short- distance formal signing, since “reduced speed is directly proportional to increased distance”. This is only true, however, if the duration of the sign is constant, which remains to be established.

In the same study, Kettrick replicates a finding of Battison et al. (1975). They studied the occurrence of thumb extension in handshapes that are not phonologically specified for thumb, but found no differences in comparing signing in a lab setting to a deaf friend vs. to a hearing teacher, or when the signers were not aware of being recorded. Instead, they propose a variable rule involving a complex set of

29 _{Chris Miller (personal communication) notes a related phenomenon: in many LSQ conversations, the} addressee provides highly reduced back-channel signing in a very small lowered signing space. In this case, the reduction serves so as not to take the floor in the conversation.

phonological contexts that favor or disfavor thumb extension. Kettrick argues that the data supporting this proposal are not very robust. Her own experimental study shows that thumb extension is likely to be an assimilation process: it happens most frequently if the preceding sign has an extended thumb, and it happens more often in fast than in slow signing. There were also individual differences in the frequency of thumb extension that were not explained. Since it is implicit in the study that thumb extension also occurs if there is no thumb extension in the neighboring signs, it remains possible that some of the phonological factors that Battison et al. discussed do play a role.

Zimmer (1989) compares the signing of one subject in three situations: a lecture, an informal talk, and a television interview. The most striking difference between the three is the large size of the signing space and the somewhat lower speed of the movements in the lecture as opposed to the other two situations. Individual signs have a longer duration in the formal context, and also ‘final holds’ (lengthening of the end state of the sign) are longer. Head and body movements that are used for discourse purposes such as reported speech are larger in the formal context as well. Handshape assimilations as discussed by Liddell & Johnson (1986) occur more frequently in the informal registers, whereas hand-switching (also known as ‘dominance reversals’, Frishberg 1985) is used more frequently in the lecture.

There are a few studies looking at language contact situations where native ASL signers sign to hearing non-signers or hearing sign language learners. Myles-Zitzer (1990) found that signing directed to non-fluent hearing learners of ASL was slower and included larger movements. Reductions of signs from two-handed to one- handed articulations occurred only in addressing a native signer. Lucas & Valli (1992) also note that signs are larger in such ‘foreigner talk’.

Finally, several anecdotal references exist of Deaf children wishing to tell secrets, which they may do by hiding their strong hand behind a book or their weak hand, and using either fingerspelling or highly reduced regular signing (e.g. Lindemann 1999); I have observed this in SLN as well. Here too, the focus in the description is on the social context and the overall behavior, without describing in detail how signs are modified. Karen Emmorey (personal communication) informs me that in ASL fingerspelling is also used to tell secrets. Since fingerspelling mostly consists of movements of the fingers and changes in orientation of the hand, the space used can be very small and easily hidden from people other than the addressee.