Re: Some thoughts on mutli-modal (signing / speech) languages and communication.

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Sai Emrys <saizai@...> wrote:
>
> ASL "money" is more like the ?Italian gesture - one clasped hand
> tapping base open hand.

I didn't mean to imply that the finger-rubbing money sign-- I'll call
it MONEY-- is a sign in ASL.  It's a word in my own dialect of
American English.  But I do feel sure that it's a sign, not a gesture.
 For instance it fills a place in the grammar in sentences like this,
which I've seen often: "He was just after the [MONEY], you know what I
mean?"

Another sign which I believe can have full-class status in English is
the sign of moving your index finger in a circle near your ear-- I'll
call it CRAZY-- which I've often seen in sentences like: "That guy was
a little [CRAZY], but he meant well."  (Or there's a less common sign
of tapping the forehead twice with an index finger, I might call that
sign MENTAL.)

One sign that acts as a verb sometimes is punching the open palm of
one hand with the fist of another-- I'll call it POUND-- as in "I'm
going to [POUND] that guy when I see him."  (I've also seen/heard a
variation of POUND which has an accompanying vocalization, sort of
like "UNNH!", which is an interesting twist.)

Here's another one: The sign of an L on the forehead-- I'll call it
LOSER-- as in "That guy was such a [LOSER]."  (Or there's an older
sign, drawing out a SQUARE with two index fingers, "Come on man, don't
be a [SQUARE].")

So it's my opinion that English as I observe and speak it is
multi-modal, though the number of signs is quite small, and the number
that participate to any great degree in the grammar is even smaller.

I've been trying to think of examples of a sign taking a vocalized
affix in English, because I feel sure even that's possible (though of
course unusual).  The only one I can think of that I feel sure I've
seen is the sign of making a circle with the index and thumb of one
hand and penetrating it with the index finger of the other-- I'll call
it FUCK-- which I've seen take an -ing, as in "Yeah, I heard the two
of them were [FUCK]ing."

I can't say for sure whether I've seen anyone else say it, but to me
the sentence "He was even [CRAZY]er than her" feels sensible and
grammatical (though it's a bit odd, and I'd be more likely to say "He
was even more [CRAZY] than she was").  Or for instance I could bring
myself to say "and then bam, he [POUND]ed the guy."  Does anyone else
here allow this kind of multimodal affixing in their idiolect of a
mostly-spoken language?

Here's a multimodal sentence that could theoretically occur in my
english idiolect, that might give a flavor of a what a heavily mixed
sign/speech language could feel like:

"That [LOSER] she was [FUCK]ing was so [CRAZY] about [MONEY]; I wanted
to [POUND] him!"


<3,
mungojelly

Reply