Nominal expressions in Hong Kong Sign Language: Does modality make a difference?

Abstract

Introduction Signed language research in recent decades has revealed that signed and spoken languages share many properties of natural language, such as duality of patterning and linguistic arbitrariness. However, the fact that there are fundamental differences between the oral–aural and visual–gestural modes of communication leads to the question of the effect of modality on linguistic structure. Various researchers have argued that, despite some superficial differences, signed languages also display the property of formal structuring at various levels of grammar and a similar language acquisition timetable, suggesting that the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar (UG) apply across modalities (Brentari 1998; Crain and Lillo-Martin 1999; Lillo-Martin 1999). The fact that signed and spoken languages share the same kind of cognitive systems and reflect the same kind of mental operations was suggested by Fromkin (1973), who also argued that having these similarities does not mean that the differences resulting from their different modalities are uninteresting. Meier (this volume) compares the intrinsic characteristics of the two modalities and suggests some plausible linguistic outcomes. He also comments that the opportunity to study other signed languages in addition to American Sign Language (ASL) offers a more solid basis to examine this issue more systematically. This chapter suggests that a potential source of modality effect may lie in the use of space in the linguistic and discourse organization of nominal expressions in signed language.