The emergence of embedded structure: insights from Kafr Qasem Sign Language.

Itamar Kastner,Irit Meir,Svetlana Dachkovsky,Wendy Sandler

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00525

Itamar Kastner, Irit Meir + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00525

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Abstract

This paper introduces data from Kafr Qasem Sign Language (KQSL), an as-yet undescribed sign language, and identifies the earliest indications of embedding in this young language. Using semantic and prosodic criteria, we identify predicates that form a constituent with a noun, functionally modifying it. We analyze these structures as instances of embedded predicates, exhibiting what can be regarded as very early stages in the development of subordinate constructions, and argue that these structures may bear directly on questions about the development of embedding and subordination in language in general. Deutscher (2009) argues persuasively that nominalization of a verb is the first step—and the crucial step—toward syntactic embedding. It has also been suggested that prosodic marking may precede syntactic marking of embedding (Mithun, 2009). However, the relevant data from the stage at which embedding first emerges have not previously been available. KQSL might be the missing piece of the puzzle: a language in which a noun can be modified by an additional predicate, forming a proposition within a proposition, sustained entirely by prosodic means.

Highlights

If a woman sits on a sofa and a man shows her a picture, can we say that the man is showing the seated woman a picture? We can in English and in many spoken languages; the participle seated allows us to express a secondary predicate which is subordinate to the main clause
Studying the data from Kafr Qasem Sign Language (KQSL), we cannot claim that the secondary predicates we identified are nominal forms of verbs, since we have not discovered yet clear formal indication of parts-ofspeech categorization in the language; all we can say is that they occur in a modifier position, function as modifiers, and have a form which can be regarded as less independent than the main predicates from phonological and prosodic points of view
This study has showcased a certain phenomenon in KQSL in order to shed light on the question of embedding in the evolution of natural language

Summary

Introduction

If a woman sits on a sofa and a man shows her a picture, can we say that the man is showing the seated woman a picture? We can in English and in many spoken languages; the participle seated allows us to express a secondary predicate which is subordinate to the main clause. As we started to investigate an as-yet undocumented young sign language from the town of Kafr Qasem in Israel we noticed an unexpected moderate tendency to use secondary predicates as noun modifiers. We regard this phenomenon as embedding, and situate it within two contexts. The second is the question of how embedding and subordination may have evolved in natural language in general, over the ages. The latter is still a mystery for the most part, since we do not have documentation of early enough stages in the life of a language. The rise of embedding in KQSL, caught at a relatively early stage of development, could provide a clue to the initial stages of this phenomenon, and shed some light on the rise of syntactic complexity in general

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