Linguistics: Syntax

Linguists study the fundamental principles underlying human language: both universals and modality-specific differences in packaging and conveying information. This overview considers several types of syntactic constructions, focusing on ways in which signed languages exploit means of expression unique to this modality. Attention here is limited primarily to American Sign Language (ASL), although a rapidly expanding literature investigates other signed languages. Cross-linguistic/cross-modal comparisons hold promise for revealing the deep commonalities and full range of variation across human languages.

Use of signed languages by the deaf was observed as far back as the ancient Greeks. However, recognition by linguists that these are full-fledged languages comparable in structure to spoken languages—although with important modality-specific properties—dates back only to the 1960s. Pioneering work by William Stokoe marked the beginning of the study of ASL from the perspective of modern linguistic theory.

The framework of generative syntax seeks formal descriptions of sentence structure to establish the properties all languages share and the effects of modality on their manifestation. Although research in other frameworks is beyond the scope of this chapter, it is noteworthy that the authors of some of the most influential early works demonstrating comparable grammatical properties in signed and spoken languages, such as Scott Liddell and William Stokoe, eventually moved away from formal approaches.

The goal of sign language syntax should not be to impose models developed for spoken languages on signed languages. Nor should it be, however, to demonstrate that signed languages are somehow so different from spoken languages that the analytic tools of linguistic theory cannot be applied and that signed languages must be studied without taking into account what is known about spoken languages.

Evidence from both modalities converges on the conclusion that sentences are built up out of smaller units called phrases (cf. X-bar theory, emerging from work by Noam Chomsky, Ray Jackendoff, and others). A sentence typically includes at least a noun phrase (NP) and verb phrase (VP), smaller phrases combine to form larger ones, and the hierarchical groupings of sentence constituents are linguistically important. For example, when syntactic processes apply to relate different types of constructions, such as the [Page 651]displacement of question phrases in English illustrated in (1), they target entire phrases.

The possibilities afforded by the visual–gestural modality give rise to additional types of evidence for such structures, as well as syntactic phenomena unique to this modality.