Providence Island Sign Language in Interaction
Dissertation
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:2022-04-25
Erschienen:2023-12-15
Betreuer:Prof. Dr. Markus Steinbach
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Nivedita Mani
Gutachter:Dr. Ben Braithwaite
Dateien
Name:Omardeen_2021.pdf
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Description:Omardeen 2021 (Chapter 2 article)
Name:Omardeen et al_2021.pdf
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Description:Omardeen et al 2021 (Chapter 3 article)
Name:Omardeen_Dissertation_eDiss.pdf
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Description:Dissertation
Zusammenfassung
Englisch
This dissertation examines sign language in interaction in a small Caribbean community. Providence Island Sign Language, used among deaf and hearing residents of in Providence, Colombia (Spanish: Providencia), has been initially described in the 1970s and 80s but has had very little follow up documentation or research. PISL has been characterised in the literature as lacking specific semiotic and interactional features that are today thought to be common across the world’s signed and spoken languages. In this dissertation, I revisit the sign language used in Providence, performing a documentation project of PISL and using the resulting data to investigate how deaf signers use language in interaction. The dissertation consists of three sub-projects. In Chapter 2, I present and reflect on the documentation project of PISL that formed the basis of my research, discussing challenges and successes in the data collection process. In Chapters 3 and 4, I use dyadic conversation to examine how PISL signers resolve two fundamental challenges of communication: initial reference to non-present third persons (Chapter 3) and other-initiated repair (Chapter 4). In Chapter 3, I identified instances in which a non-present third person was introduced into the discourse and analysed the strategies signers used to do this. I find that despite person reference being previously characterised as ambiguous in the literature, deaf PISL signers appear to craft concise referring expressions that are fit to their communicative needs, and the needs of their interlocutors. Furthermore, in contrast to what has been claimed previously, I find evidence that signers use name signs, that is signs dedicated to identifying specific individuals in the community. In Chapter 4, I examined conversations for instances of other-initiated repair, x that is instances in which one signer signals difficulty with seeing or understanding what their conversation partner has expressed. I examined the overall frequency of these cases, and analysed the types and frequencies of different strategies used by signers to perform other-initiated repair. Despite PISL conversation being previously described as lacking repair strategies in the literature, I find that other-initiated repair is highly common and makes use of strategies that are similar to other signed and spoken languages. Interestingly, while previous descriptions of PISL document use of a single general question sign, I also note the use of an additional question sign specialised for number/quantity being used among signers. This dissertation contributes to the documentation and description of a small, understudied Caribbean sign language. In doing so, it helps to diversify our understanding of how language is used in interaction. Furthermore, by investigating core interactional challenges, I highlight incongruencies in how PISL has been described in the literature and how it is used today. These observations demonstrate the need for a nuanced approach to findings in the literature, taking into account the i) historic context of the relevant studies, and ii) acknowledging that different types of data may yield different findings. In sum, the findings of this dissertation have provided further evidence that while structural properties differ across the world’s languages, how language is used in conversation may demonstrate considerable similarities. They also demonstrate the importance of re-evaluating and re-contextualising old claims about lesser studied languages, in light of new methods, theories and frameworks.
Keywords: Providence Island Sign Language; Sign Language; Language Documentation; Repair; Reference