Producing Spoken English Interpretations of Classifer-based Texts

Producing Spoken English
Interpretations of
Classiﬁer-based Texts
Doug Stringham
2008 USDB Winter Workshop

©2008 Doug Stringham

What we hope to
accomplish today:


not learn all the different kinds of
applications of classifiers in ASL (Dan’s class)

Understand basic notional and functional
roles of classifiers in ASL discourse
Understand how spoken English discourse
deals with notional and functional roles
Create personal strategies for working with
classifiers in signed texts
Set up group terminologies in preparation to
Produce interpretation work

Functional and notional
roles of classiﬁers in
ASL discourse


How/Where do ASL
users use classiﬁers?


(1) ASL users use
classiﬁers to
(simultaneously) satisfy
notional purposes.


Classiﬁer Predicates
Predicates say something about nouns/noun
phrases (‘the boy is sick’; ‘is sick’ is the
predication on the noun); types of CL predicates:
whole entity (object as a whole)
surface
instrumental
depth and width
extent (amounts or volumes)
perimeter-shape
on-surface (groups of objects)
Valli & Lucas, 2000


Base Classifier Phonemes

A fist (A, S, T) L thumb + index (L, L!)
B flat hand (B, 4) 3 vehicle (3)
5 spread hand (5) 0 tapered (O, M)
C cupped (C, C!) R crossed fingers (R)
E claw (E, E!) V index + middle (V, V!)
F “okay” (F, F!) W thumb + pinkie (W, W!)
G point (G, D, 1) X hook (X, X!)
H index + middle (H, N, U) Y ix/thumb + pinkie (Y, Y!, ILY)
I pinkie (I) 8 bent middle (8, 8!)
K “chopsticks” (K, P)

Pronominals


Subject Pronouns
Pronoun English ASL

First person singular I PRO.1

First person plural we WE, TWO-OF-US,
THREE-OF-US…

Second person singular you PRO.2 (singular)

Second person plural you PRO.2 (plural), TWO-OF-
YOU, THREE-OF-YOU…

Third person singular he, she, PRO.3-IX, PRO.3-thumb
it

Third person plural they THEY, TWO-OF-THEM,
THREE-OF-THEM
(Jeff Pollock, 2007)

Object Pronouns
Pronoun English ASL

First person singular me PRO.1

First person plural us WE, TWO-OF-US,
THREE-OF-US…



Third person singular him, her, PRO.3-IX, PRO.3-thumb
it

Third person plural them THEM, TWO-OF-THEM,
THREE-OF-THEM

‘X persons’: CL:{#}
not #-OF-US


Verbs


‘put an object up’:
(2h)CL:C“raise overhead”
(note initial nominal clariﬁcation)

‘blender movement’:
CL:1“spinning {part}”
(see SN 16: How things work)


Adjectival modifers


‘big car,’ (2h)CL:L or (2h)CL:C
‘small cars from
an airplane,’ CL:G“size”


Adverbial modiﬁers


(closely tied to
verbal information)


‘blender movement’:
CL:1“spinning {part}”
‘car in and out of traffic’
CL:B“car weaving in traffic”
(how the car moves)

Police story (Martin)
CL:B“car weaving in traffic”
(CL:Y’“airplane”, how the plane flies
around; (2h)CL:3, how the cars are
pulled over)

“David Meets The Police”
http://teach-asl.blogspot.com/2007/02/asl-storytelling-scary-experience-with.html


Adpositionals/Locatives


most commonly perceived
usage of ASL classiﬁers


Speciﬁcity in ASL locative
units is very efﬁcient.


ASL’s implicit phonology
and morphology
(pronunciation) allows for
near absolute speciﬁcity.


“New York School f/t Deaf”
watch (2h)CL:A‘school and hospital’

“Deaf Ninja”
watch for multiple locative relationships
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L91KVUXRBq8

(2) ASL users use
classiﬁers to satisfy
functional purposes.


not to make ASL “look cool”


not to make ASL
“look more ASL”


To satisfy/represent
pronominal object
spatial or conceptual
relationship agreement.


“New York School f/t Deaf”
(spatial and conceptual relationships)

To satisfy/represent
descriptive size and
shape speciﬁer (SaSS)
descriptions.


SaSSes themselves don’t
function as pronominals
Describe pronominals’/
objects’ character, not its
movement or “objectness”
e.g. ‘CL:1’ or ‘CL:V!’ doesn’t
indicate its nominal nature


Why?


Because ASL employs a
topic/comment
syntactical structure,
spatial relationships
and SaSS descriptions
must be deﬁned.

How does spoken
English discourse deal
with similar functional/
notional roles?


Some English subject
pronominal hangups:


Singular ‘they’:
“When I tell a joke,
they laugh.”


gender-neutrality:
“That student ﬁnished
his/their homework.”


Object Pronouns
Pronoun English ASL

First person singular me PRO.1

First person plural us WE, TWO-OF-US,
THREE-OF-US…



Third person singular him, her, PRO.3-IX, PRO.3-thumb
it

Third person plural them THEY, TWO-OF-THEM,
THREE-OF-THEM

Lexically:
concrete action words
(‘run’, ‘jump,’ ‘sing’)


Lexically:
abstract action words
(‘love,’ ‘think,’ ‘grow’)


Lexically:
verbiﬁcation/verbing
(‘Fedex,’ ‘email,’ ‘chair’)


Modiﬁers


Lexically:
adjectival lexemes and
phrases: ‘small,’ ‘blue,’
‘oversized,’ ‘bouncing
baby boy,’ ‘once in a
lifetime’

adjectival lexemes may also be
positive, comparative, and
superlative: ‘rich,’ ‘richer,’
‘richest’; ‘beautiful,’ ‘more
beautiful,’ ‘most beautiful
specificity in English adjectival
modifiers is inefficient
(‘deciduous’ vs. ‘evergreen,’
‘computer’ vs. ‘laptop’) but
lexically rich

Lexically:
manner adverbial
lexemes and afﬁxes:
‘really,’ ‘very,’ afﬁx ‘ly’


Lexically:
redeﬁned nominal
and verbal lexemes:
‘so,’ ‘much,’ ‘wicked,’
‘butt,’ ‘way,’ ‘sick,’ ‘phat’


Lexically:
redeﬁned interjectory
or intensifer lexemes
(‘damn,’ ‘f*****g,’)


Lexically:
determiners/articles
(‘a,’ ‘the,’ ‘that,’ ‘those’)


Lexically:
nominal/pronominal
possessives
(‘his,’ ‘yours,’ ‘the girl’s’)


Lexically:
portmanteau
(abso-f*****n-lutely,
podagogical, funtastic)


Lexically:
-like and -ish afﬁxes
(‘rainbow-like,’ ‘ﬁve-ish’)


Tonally:
phonemic/morphemic
extensions
‘be-you-tiful,’ ‘re-hee-
heelly,” “that was
awwwesome!”

Tonally:
insinuate alternative
meaning—sarcasm,
feigned interest
(‘great,’ ‘uh,’ ‘right’)


Metaphorically:
comparative phrases
(‘hot as hell,’ ‘soft as a
baby’s bottom’)


Other modifer types?


Adpositions/Locatives


Lexically:
prepositionals and
prepositional phrases


time, location, movement
typically always in a
prepositional phrase
“[preposition] the [object]”


Samples of English
prepositionals:


before, in front of, on, behind,
under, beneath, beside, next to,
before, between, on, into, near,
through, off, over, upon, across,
of, concerning, like, except,
about, in, for, without, toward,
to, around, by, past, at, against,
during, until, throughout, after

Speciﬁcity in English
prepositional units is
inefﬁcient.


more speciﬁcity = more
prepositional lexemes


‘the ball is next
to the glove.’


{preposition}

‘the ball is next
to the glove.’
{prepositional phrase}


‘the ball is extremely
close to the glove, about
three inches from the
top of the webbing, not
on the right side, but
over on the left side.’

Create personal
strategies for working
with classiﬁers in
signed texts


interpretation = “work”


interpretation ! “me”


Avoiding judgmental
language in interpreter talk
Evaluative/judgmental Non-evaluative/-judgmental
S/he/you/me The interpret -ation/-er
Could have, should have When I saw/heard ____, I
I would have... understood it to mean...

Clear, good, right/wrong, I saw a pattern; here is
more/less, better/worse an/are example(s) that
might help illustrate
I liked the way...
I thought it worked I saw/heard ______; to
me that means _______

©2001 Betty Colonomos, Bilingual Mediation Center

Group text analysis/
interpretation of signed
classiﬁer-based texts


Additional Readings
onlineslangdictionary.com
etymonline.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/english_grammar
Valli, C. & Lucas, C. (2000). “Classiﬁer
Predicates and Locative Verbs” (ch. 7) and
“Classiﬁer Predicates and Signer
Perspective” (ch. 8). In Linguistics of
American Sign Language. Washington, D.C.:
Gallaudet University Press.


Thank you.
dstringham@gmail.com


Producing Spoken English Interpretations of Classifer-based Texts

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