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From:
Ulrike Zeshan Date: Tue Jul 6, 1999 3:53 am Subject: sign language typology project | |
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Dear list members, this message does not have anything particular to do with sign writing, but since I know that this is an international list of 'sign language persons', I am venturing to post the 'call for participation' below. I am conducting a world wide cross-linguistic project on questions and negatives in signed languages. So far I have recruited participants from 37 countries around the world, but there are still some countries and regions for which I have no source of information yet. In particular, I would like to get into contact with people from Brasil, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iran, Turkey, Ethiopia, and all Arabic speaking countries. So if you are form one of these countries anf think you could contribute something to the project as outlined below, please contact me. You don't have to be a linguist to participate in the project, you just have to know a sign language or be able to cooperate with a person who knows sign language. Thank you very much for any help. Ulrike Zeshan CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Project 'Interrogatives and Negatives in Signed and Spoken Languages' Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, Australian National University, Canberra Project Coordinator: Ulrike Zeshan BACKGROUND The Australian National Univeristy is going to start a cross-linguistic research project on signed and spoken languages within the framework of their typological project 'The categories of human languages', headed by Prof. R.M.W. Dixon and Prof. A.Y. Aikhenvald. This project has so far studied a number of grammatical categories in spoken languages only. Beginning in April, a sign language section will be added to the project. This is the very first time that signed languages figure in a large typological project, and it is a significant step towards making the results of sign language research known to the larger linguistic community. THE PROJECT The typological project is going to investigate interrogatives and negatives in as many signed languages as possible, and to compare the results to spoken language structures. The most important purpose is to gather comparative data in a limited grammatical domain from various sign languages that are goegraphically and genetically unrelated. This would lead to a better understanding and differentiation of modality-specific factors that are common to all sign languages and arbitrary factors that are language specific and not shared across different sign languages. This issue is still largely unexplored. YOUR PARTICIPATION The success of the project is entirely dependent on the participation of sign linguists and sign language informants around the world. We invite everybody who can provide information about how questions and negations are formed in a particular sign language to participate. The results of the project will be published. Contributions from countries outside Europe and Northern America are especially encouraged. Even a limited amount of information (from sign languages that have not been studies in detail) is valuable for us. The information you provide can be stated informally, without reference to a particular theoretical framework. HOW WE WILL PROCEED Detailed questionnaires will be developed in April and May and will then be mailed to the participants. We will ask you to provide information about questions such as the following: - What are the question words (wh-words) that exist in your sign language? - How many negative signs (no, not etc.) exist and how are they used? - What kind of facial expressions (if any) are used with questions and negations? - What are the possible positions of interrogative and negative signs in the sentence? - We will ask you to provide example sentences. Depending on the amount of information you will provide, you can expect from a few hours up to a week for completion of the questionnaire. It is not necessary to fill out all sections, just do as much as you can. CONTACT If you are interested in the project, if you want to participate or want further information, please contact: Ulrike Zeshan Research Centre for Linguistic Typology OAA.block F (building 4F) The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Phone: 0061-2-6249 5108 Fax: 0061-2-6249 0332 e-mail: ----------------------------------------- Ulrike Zeshan Research Centre for Linguistic Typology The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia ph. +61-2-62495108 fax +61-2-62490332 ---------------------------------------- |
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