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In:Language Contact, Continuity and Change in the Genesis of Modern Hebrew
Edited by Edit Doron, Malka Rappaport Hovav, Yael Reshef and Moshe Taube
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 256] 2019
► pp. 337–364

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Variation and conventionalization in language emergence

The case of two young sign language of Israel

 | University of Haifa
 | University of Haifa
Published online: 18 September 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.256.13mei
Languages are constantly formed and changed by the opposing forces of variation and conventionalization. Yet it is not clear whether one of the two forces is prior to the other in language emergence, nor do we know how the two interact early in the life of a language. By comparing two young sign languages, Israeli Sign Language (ISL) and Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), both about 90 years old, we argue that the initial stages of a language are characterized by great variation. Conventionalization ensues, but it does not proceed in a unified manner in all linguistic domains of a language or in all languages equally; some domains and structures conventionalize before others, and in some languages the drive towards conventionalization is stronger than in others. We provide evidence for the claim that the drive towards conventionalization is the result of various socio-linguistic factors, such as time, the expansion of the community, the expansion of language use to new communicative domains, and the need to signal social identity.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Conventionalization and variation in language
  • 2.ABSL and ISL: Two types of sign language
  • 3.The lexicon: Basic vocabulary
  • 4.The lexicon: Compounding
    • 4.1Lexical variation in compounds
    • 4.2Increased structural regularity in compounds
    • 4.3Variation and conventionalization in ABSL compounds
  • 5.Phonology: Sublexical variation
    • 5.1A comparative study of sublexical variation in three sign languages
    • 5.2Sublexical variation and characteristics of the community
  • 6.Signaling community identity: A signature accent in ABSL
  • 7.Discussion and conclusions: From variation towards conventionalization
    • 7.1Variation at the initial stages of a language
    • 7.2Later stages: Pressure for conventionalization
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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