Emergence or Grammaticalization? The Case of Negation in Kata Kolok

Roland Pfau,Connie de Vos,Hannah Lutzenberger

doi:10.3390/languages7010023

Roland Pfau, Connie de Vos + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7010023

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Abstract

Typological comparisons have revealed that signers can use manual elements and/or a non-manual marker to express standard negation, but little is known about how such systematic marking emerges from its gestural counterparts as a new sign language arises. We analyzed 1.73 h of spontaneous language data, featuring six deaf native signers from generations III-V of the sign language isolate Kata Kolok (Bali). These data show that Kata Kolok cannot be classified as a manual dominant or non-manual dominant sign language since both the manual negative sign and a side-to-side headshake are used extensively. Moreover, the intergenerational comparisons indicate a considerable increase in the use of headshake spreading for generation V which is unlikely to have resulted from contact with Indonesian Sign Language varieties. We also attest a specialized negative existential marker, namely, tongue protrusion, which does not appear in co-speech gesture in the surrounding community. We conclude that Kata Kolok is uniquely placed in the typological landscape of sign language negation, and that grammaticalization theory is essential to a deeper understanding of the emergence of grammatical structure from gesture.

Highlights

Studies on sign languages from all around the world have demonstrated that signed languages—just like spoken languages—vary from each other, and that, for the most part, the attested variation aligns well with typological patterns identified for spoken languages
Standard negation is one of the domains of linguistic inquiry that gave the impetus to the field of sign language typology (Pfau 2016; Zeshan 2004)
We address the following questions: (i) Is NEG the main negator in Kata Kolok, while the headshake plays a minor role? (ii) What is the role of non-manual markers in Kata Kolok negation? (iii) Is there evidence for language change in the expression of standard negation across generations of Kata Kolok signers? Based on examples previously elicited by Marsaja (2008), we expect to find few instances where NEG co-occurs with a negative headshake

Summary

Introduction

Studies on sign languages from all around the world have demonstrated that signed languages—just like spoken languages—vary from each other, and that, for the most part, the attested variation aligns well with typological patterns identified for spoken languages. A fairly recent addition to the typological study of signed languages are rural isolates, which typically arise in areas of the Global South with high incidences of hereditary deafness (Zeshan et al 2013; de Vos and Pfau 2015). Standard negation is one of the domains of linguistic inquiry that gave the impetus to the field of sign language typology (Pfau 2016; Zeshan 2004). We add to the picture data from Kata Kolok (KK), a rural, isolate sign language from Bali. Our goal is twofold: First, we aim to situate Kata Kolok typologically with respect to other sign languages, contributing to our understanding of variation in this grammatical domain.

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