Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T06:54:52.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 18 - Linguistic Interference in Interpreting from English to South African Sign Language

from III - Language Interfaces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2019

By
Ella Wehrmeyer
Edited by
Raymond Hickey
Raymond Hickey
Affiliation:
Universität Duisburg–Essen
Get access

Summary

Users of natural sign languages such as South African Sign Language (SASL) resist the influence of phonetically based languages such as English that are spoken by hearing people. However, languages that come into regular contact interfere with each other, with the dominant language creating greater interference in the non-dominant language than vice versa. In the case of sign languages, this interference is proposed to manifest in the predominance of SVO sentence structure, mouthing (full or partial miming of spoken words), increased emotive rather than grammatical use of facial features (e.g. brow actions) and increased use of artificial signs, nonce words and fingerspelling. This study explores these interference features in a pioneer corpus project consisting of news broadcasts interpreted into SASL by two hearing interpreters (native SASL users). A discussion of how phonological, grammatical, syntactic and discourse features of SASL differ from their English counterparts is followed by a discussion of the corpus and relevant annotations. The results show high frequencies of SV sentence constructions and mouthings, and relatively high frequencies of fingerspelling, artificial signs and nonce words; brow actions are more resistant to interference.

Keywords

South African Sign Language (SASL)corpus-based interpreting studies (CIS)spoken-language interferencemouthingsign language syntaxnon-manual featuresfingerspelling
Type
Chapter
Information
English in Multilingual South Africa
The Linguistics of Contact and Change
 , pp. 371 - 393
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aarons, Deborah (1994). ‘Aspects of the syntax of American Sign Language’, unpublished PhD thesis, Boston University.Google Scholar
Akach, Philemon (1997). ‘The grammar of sign language’, Language Matters 28: 7–35.Google Scholar
Baker-Shenk, Charlotte (1983). ‘A microanalysis of the nonmanual components of questions in American Sign Language’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of California.Google Scholar
Baker-Shenk, Charlotte and Cokely, David (1981). American Sign Language: A Teacher’s Resource Text on Grammar and Culture. Washington: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Bank, Richard, Crasborn, Onno and Van Hout, Roeland (2015). ‘Alignment of two languages: the spreading of mouthings in Sign Language of the Netherlands’, International Journal of Bilingualism 19(1): 40–55.Google Scholar
Bank, Richard, Crasborn, Onno and Van Hout, Roeland (2016). ‘The prominence of spoken language elements in a sign language’, Linguistics 54(6): 1281–1306.Google Scholar
Boyes Braem, Penny (2001). ‘Functions of the mouthings in the signing of Deaf early and late learners of Swiss German Sign Language (DSGS)’, in Boyes Braem, Penny and Sutton-Spence, Rachel (eds.), The Hands are the Head of the Mouth: The Mouth as Articulator in Sign Languages. Hamburg: Signum Press, pp. 99–132.Google Scholar
Caponigro, Ivano and Davidson, Kathryn (2011). ‘Ask, and tell as well: clausal question-answer pairs in ASL’, Natural Language Semantics 19(4): 323–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crasborn, Onno, van der Kooij, Els, Waters, Dafydd, Woll, Bencie and Mesch, Johanna (2008). ‘Frequency distribution and spreading behaviour of different types of mouth actions in three sign languages’, Sign Language and Linguistics 11(1): 45–67.Google Scholar
Crasborn, Onno, Van der Kooij, Els, Ros, Johan and de Hoop, Helen (2009). ‘Topic agreement in NGT (Sign Language of the Netherlands)’, Linguistic Review 26: 355–70.Google Scholar
Davis, Jeffrey (1990). ‘Linguistic transference and interference: interpreting between English and ASL’, in Lucas, Ceil (ed.), Sign Language Research: Theoretical Issues. Washington: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 308–21.Google Scholar
De Beuzevillea, Louise, Johnston, Trevor and Schembri, Adam (2009). ‘The use of space with indicating verbs in Aslan: a corpus-based investigation’, Sign Language and Linguistics 12(1): 53–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dryer, Matthew (1997). ‘Are grammatical relations universal?’, in Bybee, Joan, Haiman, John and Thompson, Sandra A. (eds.), Essays on Language Function and Language Type: Dedicated to T. Givon. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 115–43.Google Scholar
Emmory, Karen, Borinstein, Helsa B. and Thompson, Robin (2005). ‘Bimodal bilingualism: code-blending between spoken English and American Sign Language’, in Cohen, James, McAlister, Kara, Rolstad, Kellie and MacSwan, Jeff (eds.), ISB4: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism. Somerville: Cascadilla Press, pp. 663–73.Google Scholar
Fromkin, Victoria, Rodman, Robert and Hyams, Nina (2007). An Introduction to Language. 8th ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Hickey, Raymond (2010). ‘Language contact: reconsideration and reassessment’, in Hickey, Raymond (ed.), The Handbook of Language Contact. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Janzen, Terry, O’Dea, Barbara and Shaffer, Barbara 2001. ‘The construal of events: passives in American Sign Language’, Sign Language Studies 1(3): 281–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Trevor (2016). ‘Auslan corpus annotation guidelines’, http://media.auslan.org.au/attachments/Auslan_Corpus_Annotation_Guidelines_November2016.pdf (last accessed 21 May 2019).Google Scholar
Johnston, Trevor, Van Roekel, Jane and Schembri, Adam (2016). ‘On the conventionalization of mouth actions in Australian Sign Language’, Language and Speech 59(1): 3–42.Google Scholar
Kimmelman, Vadim (2012). ‘Word order in Russian Sign Language’, Sign Language Studies 12(3): 414–44.Google Scholar
Kimmelman, Vadim and Pfau, Roland (2016). ‘Information structure in sign languages’, in Féry, Caroline and Ishihara, Shinichiro (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 814–33.Google Scholar
Leeson, Lorraine (2005). ‘Making the effort in simultaneous interpreting: some considerations for signed language interpreters’, in Janzen, Terry (ed.), Topics in Signed Language Interpreting: Theory and Practice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 51–68.Google Scholar
Leeson, Lorraine and Saeed, John (2012). Irish Sign Language: A Cognitive Linguistic Account. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Liddell, Scott (1980). American Sign Language Syntax. New York: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Liddell, Scott (2003). Grammar, Gesture and Meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lillo-Martin, Diane and Meier, Richard (2011). ‘On the linguistic status of ‘agreement’ in sign languages’, Theoretical Linguistics 37(3–4): 95–141.Google Scholar
Lucas, Ceil and Valli, Clayton (1990). ‘ASL, English and contact signing’, in Lucas, Ceil (ed.), Sign Language Research: Theoretical Issues. Washington: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 288–307.Google Scholar
Mohr, Susannah (2014). Mouth Actions in Sign Languages: An Empirical Study of Irish Sign Language. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Nadolske, Marie and Rosenstock, Rachel (2007). ‘Occurrence of mouthings in American Sign Language: a preliminary study’, in Perniss, Pamela, Pfau, Roland and Steinbach, Markus (eds.), Visible Variation: Comparative Studies on Sign Language Structure. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 35–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Napier, Jemima (2002). ‘University interpreting: issues for consideration’, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 7(4): 281–301.Google Scholar
Napoli, Donna Jo and Sutton-Spence, Rachel (2014). ‘Order of the major constituents in sign languages: implications for all language’, Frontiers in Psychology 5: 376–405.Google Scholar
Neidle, Carol, Kegl, Judy, MacLaughlin, Dawn, Bahan, Benjamin and Lee, Robert G. (2000). The Syntax of American Sign Language: Functional Categories and Hierarchical Structure. Cambridge: MIT.Google Scholar
Nicodemus, Brenda, Swabey, Laurie, Leeson, Lorraine, Napier, Jemima, Petitta, Giulia and Taylor, Marty M. (2017). ‘A cross-linguistic analysis of fingerspelling production by sign language interpreters’, Sign Language Studies 17(2): 143–71.Google Scholar
Penn, Claire and Reagan, Timothy (1994). ‘The properties of South African Sign Language: lexical diversity and syntactic unity’, Sign Language Studies 85: 319–27.Google Scholar
Penn, Claire, Ogilvy-Foreman, Dale, Doldin, Debbie and Anderson-Forbes, Meribeth (1994). Dictionary of Southern African Signs for Communication with the Deaf. Pretoria: HSRC.Google Scholar
Pfau, Roland and Steinbach, Markus (2015). ‘PERSON climbing up a tree (and other adventures in sign language grammaticalization)’, in Rutkowski, Paweł (ed.), Signs and Structures: Formal Approaches to Sign Language Syntax. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 71–101.Google Scholar
Prinsloo, Aletta (2003). ‘An introductory South African Sign Language grammar for the beginner sign language student’, unpublished MA dissertation, University of the Free State.Google Scholar
Puglielli, Annarita and Frascarelli, Mara (2007). ‘Interfaces: the relation between structure and output’, in Pizzuto, Elena, Pietrandrea, Paula and Simone, Raffaele (eds.), Verbal and Signed Languages: Comparing Structures, Constructs, and Methodologies. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 133–67.Google Scholar
Reagan, Timothy (2008). ‘South African Sign Language and language in education policy in South Africa’, Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 38: 165–90.Google Scholar
Reilly, Judy, McIntire, Marina and Bellugi, Ursula (1990). ‘The acquisition of conditionals in American Sign Language’, Applied Psycholinguistics 11: 369–92.Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy (2009). ‘Symbiotic symbolization by hand and mouth in sign language’, Semiotica 174(1): 241–75.Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy (2010). ‘Prosody and syntax in sign languages’, Transactions of the Philological Society 108(3): 298–328.Google Scholar
Schermer, Trude (1985). ‘Analysis of natural discourse of deaf adults in the Netherlands: observations on Dutch Sign Language’, in Stokoe, William and Volterra, Virginia (eds.), Proceedings of the Third International Sign Language Research Symposium, Rome, June 22–26, 1983. Silver Spring: Linstock Press, pp. 281–8.Google Scholar
Steyn, Minna (2015). ‘Investigating the course of L1 SASL development and L2 Afrikaans reading development in young deaf children following a newly introduced curriculum with SASL as both LoLT and school subject’, unpublished MA thesis, Stellenbosch University.Google Scholar
Stokoe, William (1960/2005). ‘Sign language structure: an outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf’, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 10(1): 3–37.Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, Rachel and Woll, Bencie (2006). The Linguistics of British Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sze, Felix (2011). ‘Nonmanual markings for topic constructions in Hong Kong Sign Language’, Sign Language and Linguistics 14(1): 115–47.Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah (2010). ‘Contact explanations in linguistics’, in Hickey, Raymond (ed.), The Handbook of Language Contact. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 31–47.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon (2012). Descriptive Translation Studies – and Beyond: Revised Edition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Van der Kooij, Els, Crasborn, Onno and Emmerik, Wim (2006). ‘Explaining prosodic body leans in Sign Language of the Netherlands: pragmatics required’, Journal of Pragmatics 38: 1598–614.Google Scholar
Van Herreweghe, Mieke and Vermeerbergen, Myriam (2012). ‘Verbal predicates in Flemish sign language (VGT) and South African sign language (SASL)’, in Van Peteghem, Marleen, Lauwers, Peter, Tobback, Els, Demol, Annemie, and de Wilde, Laurence (eds.), Le Verbe en verve: Réflexions sur la syntaxe et la sémantique verbales. Ghent: Academia Press, pp. 401–20.Google Scholar
Vermeerbergen, Myriam, van Herreweghe, Mieke, Akach, Philemon and Matabane, Emily (2007). ‘Constituent order in Flemish Sign Language (VGT) and South African Sign Language (SASL)’, Sign Language and Linguistics 10(1): 23–54.Google Scholar
Vinson, David, Thompson, Robin, Skinner, Robert, Fox, Neil and Vigliocco, Gabriella. (2010). ‘The hands and mouth do not always slip together in British Sign Language: dissociating articulatory channels in the lexicon’, Psychological Science 21(8): 1158–67.Google Scholar
Wehrmeyer, Ella 2015. ‘Comprehension of television news sign language interpreters – a South African perspective’, Interpreting 17(2): 195–225.Google Scholar
Wehrmeyer, Ella 2016. ‘An annotation system for signed language interpreting corpora’, Hermeneus 17: 279–318.Google Scholar
Wehrmeyer, Ella (2019). ‘A corpus for signed language interpreting research’, Interpreting 21(1): 62–90.Google Scholar
Wilbur, Ronnie (2015). ‘The point of agreement: changing how we think about sign language, gesture, and agreement’, in Rutkowski, Paveł (ed.), Signs and Structures: Formal Approaches to Sign Language Syntax. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 103–39.Google Scholar
Wilbur, Ronnie (2012). ‘Information structure’, in Pfau, Roland, Steinbach, Markus and Woll, Bencie (eds.), Sign Language: An International Handbook. HSK Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 462–89.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×