Cover not available

Article published In: Sign Language & Linguistics
Vol. 17:1 (2014) ► pp.20–55

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Non-native or native vocabulary in Mexican Sign Language

 | Summer Institute of Linguistics
Published online: 6 June 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.17.1.02hen
This paper discusses lexicalized fingerspelling and initialization in Mexican Sign Language (LSM). It analyzes various phonological restructuring processes that take place when fingerspelled words become lexicalized and it argues that these lexicalized signs are part of the foreign/non-native lexicon of LSM, based on a model by Brentari and Padden (2001). As far as initialization, which is extremely common in LSM, is concerned, this article describes variation in the use of initialization by different signers of LSM, and the various lexical families based on initialization that exist in LSM. It also argues that, unlike lexicalized fingerspelling and unlike initialized signs in ASL, initialized signs are part of the core vocabulary of LSM, because they behave like native signs both phonologically and morphologically. To conclude, the morphological structure of initialized signs is discussed.
References (37)
Akamatsu, Tane. 1982. The acquisition of fingerspelling in pre-school children. PhD dissertation, The University of Rochester, New York.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Battison, Robbin. 1978. Lexical borrowing in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bickford, Albert. 1991. Lexical variation in Mexican Sign Language: One language or many? Sign Language Studies 721. 241-276. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane. 1990. Licensing in ASL handshape change. In Ceil Lucas (ed.), Sign language research: Theoretical issues, 57-68. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane. 1998, A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane. 2001. Introduction. Borrowed elements in sign languages: A window on word formation. In Diane Brentari (ed.), Foreign vocabulary in sign languages, ix-xx. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brentari, Diane & Carol Padden. 2001. Native and foreign vocabulary in American Sign Language. In Diane Brentari (ed.), Foreign vocabulary in sign languages, 87-119. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coulter, Geoffrey. 1982. On the nature of ASL as a monosyllabic language. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Linguistics Society of America , San Diego, California.
Cruz Aldrete, Miroslava. 2008. Gramática de la Lengua de Señas Mexicana. PhD dissertation, El Colegio de México, México D. F.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Faurot, Karla, Dianne Dellinger, Andy Eatough & Steven Parkhurst. 1999. The identity of Mexican Sign as a language. SIL Electronic Survey Reports, no. 2000–002.
Fox Tree, Erich. 2009. Meemul tziij: An indigenous sign language complex of Mesoamerica. Sign Language Studies 91. 324-366. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fridman Mintz, Boris. 2005. Tense and aspect inflections in Mexican Sign Language verbs. PhD dissertation, University of Georgetown, Washington, DC [published in 2010, Lambert Academic Publishing].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García Lanz, Hortensia, Gloria Arango Mejía & Donna Jackson Maldonado. 1983. Mis primeras señas: una introducción al lenguaje manual. México D. F.: Secretaría de Educación Pública.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guerra Currie, Anne-Marie, Richard Meier & Keith Walters. 2002. A cross-linguistic examination of the lexicons of four signed languages. In Richard Meier, Kearsy Cormier & David Quinto-Pozos (eds.), Modality and structure in signed and spoken languages, 224-236. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hendriks, Bernadet. Forthcoming. Kinship and colour terms in Mexican Sign Language. In Ulrike Zeshan & Keiko Sagara (eds.), Semantic domains in sign languages: Number, colour and kinship. Berlin/Nijmegen: Mouton de Gruyter/Ishara Press.
Johnson, Robert E. 1991. Sign language, culture & community in a traditional Yucatec Maya village. Sign Language Studies 731. 461-474. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnston, Trevor & Adam Schembri. 1999. On defining lexeme in a signed language. Sign Language and Linguistics 21. 373-418. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jullian Montañez, Christian G. 2001. Génesis de la comunidad silente en México. Licentiate thesis, UNAM, México D. F.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klima, Edward & Ursula Bellugi. 1979. The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liddell, Scott K. 2003. Grammar, gesture and meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
López García, Luis A., Rosa M. Rodríguez Cervantes, María G. Zamora Martínez & Susana San Esteban Sosa. 2006. Mis manos que hablan. México D. F.: Editorial Trillas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCarthy, John J. 1981. A prosodic theory of nonconcatenative morphology. Linguistic Inquiry 121. 373-418.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miranda, Juan C. 1997. Lengua de Señas de México. México D. F.: Asociación Mexicana de Sordos.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Padden, Carol. 1998. The ASL lexicon. Sign Language and Linguistics 11. 39-60. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perlmutter, David. 1992. Sonority and syllable structure in American Sign Language. Linguistic Inquiry 231. 407-442.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ramsey, Claire & David Quinto-Pozos. 2010. Transmission of sign languages in Latin America. In Diane Brentari (ed.), Sign languages. A Cambridge language survey, 46–73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy. 1990. Temporal aspects and ASL phonology. In Susan Fischer & Patricia Siple (eds.), Theoretical issues in sign language research. Vol.1: Linguistics, 7-36. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Secretaría de Servicios Educativos para el Distrito Federal. 2004. Diccionario Español – Lengua de Señas Mexicana. DIELSEME. México D. F.: Secretaría de Educación Pública. (Volume in compact disk ISBN 970-18-8538-4).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serafín García, María E. 1990. Comunicación manual, Tomo I. México D. F.: Secretaría de Educación Pública.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1991. Comunicación manual, Tomo II. México D. F.: Secretaría de Educación Pública.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serafín de Fleischmann, María E. 2011. Diccionario de Lenguaje Mexicano de Señas. México D. F.: Editorial Trillas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shuman, Malcolm K. 1980. The sound of silence in Nohyah: A preliminary account of sign language use by the deaf in a Maya community in Yucatan, Mexico. Language Sciences 21. 144-173. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shuman, Malcolm K. & Mary M. Shuman. 1981. A brief annotated sign list of Yucatec Maya Sign Language. Language Sciences 31. 124-185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith Stark, Thomas. 1986. La Lengua Manual Mexicana. Unpublished manuscript, El Colegio de México, México D. F.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valli, Clayton & Ceil Lucas. 1995. Linguistics of American Sign Language: An introduction, 2nd edition. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woodward, James. 1978. Historical bases of American Sign Language. In Patricia Siple (ed.), Understanding language through sign language research, 333-348. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Morfín-Chávez, Ricardo Fernando, Jesús Javier Gortarez-Pelayo & Irvin Hussein Lopez-Nava
2024. Fingerspelling Recognition in Mexican Sign Language (LSM) Using Machine Learning. In Advances in Computational Intelligence [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 14391], ► pp. 110 ff. DOI logo
Napoli, Donna Jo & Nathan Sanders
2024. An approach to path movement in the diachronic study of sign languages. Diachronica DOI logo
Naranjo-Zeledón, Luis, Mario Chacón-Rivas, Jesús Peral & Antonio Ferrández
2020. Phonological Proximity in Costa Rican Sign Language. Electronics 9:8 ► pp. 1302 ff. DOI logo
Zeshan, Ulrike & Sibaji Panda
2018. Sign-speaking: The structure of simultaneous bimodal utterances. Applied Linguistics Review 9:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue