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Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 43:4 (2019) ► pp.941–996

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Clause constituents, arguments and the question of grammatical relations in Auslan (Australian Sign Language)

A corpus-based study

ORCiD logo with link | Macquarie University
Published online: 23 January 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.18035.joh
Abstract
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 determine if there are grammatical relations in Auslan. The most frequent constituent order parallels English, thus Auslan might be said to also instantiate a basic SVO word order. However, every possible constituent order pattern is also attested without there being other coding and behavioural properties associated with grammatical relations that could explain this flexibility. I conclude that constituent order in Auslan is the result of the interaction of pragmatic and semantic factors, visual representation, and language contact with English, rather than autochthonous grammatical relations. Auslan grammar draws on both so-called gestural and so-called linguistic resources at the clause level, not just at the word (sign) level.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Symbolic units
    • 2.2Clauses
    • 2.3Grammatical relations
  • 3.Previous research
    • 3.1Other signed languages
    • 3.2Auslan
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1The source of the data
    • 4.2Study specific data preparation and annotation
      • 4.2.1Sign aligned annotations
      • 4.2.2Clause aligned annotations
      • 4.2.3Semantico-syntactic roles
      • 4.2.4Constructed action
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Coding properties
      • 5.1.1Constituent order
        • 5.1.1.1Transitive clauses
        • 5.1.1.2Intransitive clauses
        • 5.1.1.3Verbless attributive clauses
        • 5.1.1.4Doubling constructions
        • 5.1.1.5Summary of constituent order
      • 5.1.2Other potential coding properties
        • 5.1.2.1Morphological coding mechanisms
        • 5.1.2.2Verb modification and constructed action
        • 5.1.2.3Agent defocussing (‘passives’)
      • 5.1.3Summary of coding properties
    • 5.2Behavioural properties
      • 5.2.1Obligatory syntactic slots
      • 5.2.2Syntactic pivots
      • 5.2.3Distinctive constituent orders in subordinate clauses
      • 5.2.4Summary of behavioural properties
    • 5.3Summary of results
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Transitivity and omitted arguments
    • 6.2Morphology, enactment & gesture
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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