Trevor Alexander Johnston
List of John Benjamins publications in which Trevor Alexander Johnston is involved.
2019 Clause constituents, arguments and the question of grammatical relations in Auslan (Australian Sign Language): A corpus-based study Studies in Language 43:4, pp. 941–996 | Article
This study investigates clause constructions in Auslan. It looks at the alignment of constituent semantic role with constituent position and order in clauses, changes in the morphology of signs according to position and/or role, and the interpretation of omitted arguments. The aim is to… read more
2013 Towards a comparative semiotics of pointing actions in signed and spoken languages Gesture 13:2, pp. 109–142 | Article
Co-speech pointing actions have been under-analysed or ignored in language description and linguistic theory and this has led to an over-interpretation of their role and status in signed languages as signs belonging to particular grammatical classes, such as pronouns, determiners, and locatives. I… read more
2010 From archive to corpus: Transcription and annotation in the creation of signed language corpora International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 15:1, pp. 106–131 | Article
Annotations are an important resource in corpus-based linguistic research. In fact, the most important feature of a modern signed language corpus should be that it has been annotated rather than simply transcribed. Digital multi-media annotation software can now transform language recordings into… read more
2009 The use of space with indicating verbs in Auslan: A corpus-based investigation Sign Language & Linguistics 12:1, pp. 53–82 | Article
One of the most salient and interesting aspects of the grammar of signed languages is their use of space to track referents through discourse. One way in which this has been observed is the spatial modification of lexical verbs to show semantic roles associated with the verb’s arguments. In this… read more
2001 The lexical database of Auslan (Australian Sign Language) Sign Transcription and Database Storage of Sign Information, Bergman, Brita, Penny Boyes Braem, Thomas Hanke and Elena Antinoro Pizzuto (eds.), pp. 145–169 | Article
The form and content of the lexical database of Auslan (Australian Sign Language) is described and explained. The type of database utilized and its precise structure (relational or flat, the type and number of fields, the design of the data entry interface, etc.) is first described. This is… read more
1999 On Defining Lexeme in a Signed Language Sign Language & Linguistics 2:2, pp. 115–185 | Article
In this paper we attempt to define the notion of ‘lexeme’ in relation to signed languages. We begin by defining signs as a distinct kind of visual-gestural communicative act, different from other communicative uses of gesture. This is followed by a discussion of the most important categories of… read more