The relationship between place of articulation and semantic features in a corpus of astronomical neologisms in Quebec Sign Language

Abstract

While the presence of a phonological level is not modality-dependent, modality doeshave an impact on the phonological structure of languages, as illustrated by the significantincorporation of simultaneity into the organization of sign languages compared towhat is found in spoken languages (e.g. Fenlon, Cormier, and Brentari 2017). Modalityalso allows for greater representation of iconicity in sign form(e.g. Östling, Börstell, andCourtaux 2018; Taub 2012). Considering the iconic potential offered by the visuo-spatialmodality of sign languages, this paper aims to answer the following research question:Does semantic motivation, and more precisely iconic motivation, influence the formationof structural components of signs, and specifically, the place of articulation (POA)for the lexical creation of astronomical signs in Quebec Sign Language (LSQ)? We hypothesizedthat, given the semantic domain for which the neologisms were created (i.e.,one that denotes physical/concrete objects, located far from humans), the POA wouldbe distal. Based on a descriptive analysis of the POA sublexical features of 99 neologismsof astronomy in LSQ, we found very little involvements of the POA in the representationof the referent. Although we can explain these results by articulatory-perceptual considerations,we suggest that the semantic domain could also interfere in the creation ofthose neologisms.