Cross-categorial singular and plural reference in sign language

Abstract

Cross-categorial singular and plural reference in sign language Jeremy Kuhn (Ph.D. New York University, 2015) This dissertation addresses a range of semantic topics—anaphora, plurality, dependency, telicity, and pluractionality—and investigates them from the point of view of sign language, focusing on data from American Sign Language (ASL) and French Sign Language (LSF). The importance of sign language to these debates arises from its visuospatial modality, in which the hands and face generate a signal that is perceived with the visual system. From a semantic perspective, this modality offers several unique expressive possibilities, including the ability to use space in a meaningful way, and the pervasive availability of iconic, picturelike representations. In this dissertation, I argue that the use of space in sign language provides a new window into the machinery underlying the compositional system; I leverage the properties of the visuospatial modality to gain new insights into theories of natural language semantics. Two themes run throughout the work. First I investigate the compositional treatment of plurality and dependency in natural language, focusing in particular on recent dynamic frameworks that manipulate plurals (Chapters 3, 4, 7). Second, I investigate the incorporation of iconic meaning into the combinatorial grammar, focusing on points of interface between the two (Chapters 6, 7).