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23.06.2022

Cross-cultural variation in gesture and its impact on sign language typology

Colloquium by Victoria Nyst and Timothy Hadjah

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Time: 23rd June, 13:00

Speaker: Victoria Nyst and Timothy Hadjah

Title: Cross-cultural variation in gesture and its impact on sign language typology

Abstract: In West Africa, deaf education was introduced in the 1950s and up till today most deaf children do not have access to formal education. Coinciding with a relatively much higher incidence of deafness, this situation explains the large variety of types of signing and sign languages found there. Locally evolved West African sign languages, both established and emerging ones, are found to differ in a number of respects from sign languages studied so far. Most of the well-studied sign languages have their roots in Europe.
The field of emerging sign languages has revealed an important relation with hearing co-speech gesturing. This introduced many sign language scholars to the field of gesture studies, opening up new perspectives on gesturing. Our current research shows an important alignment in variation between cross-cultural variation in gesture on the one hand, and cross-linguistic variation between sign languages on the other.
In our presentation, we will report on three studies that aim to understand a) the geographical distribution of conventional gestures (emblems) across West Africa, b) their impact on sign language lexicons, and c) cross-linguistic/cultural variation in gestures illustrating size and shape, evaluating the sociolinguistic features driving that variation.
We will also touch on the question when sign languages are susceptible to influence from their gestural environment; only during their emergence, of after being fully established as well? The results imply that structural and lexical similarities between sign languages may not only follow from a shared history of descendance or contact, but also from similarities in gestural environment.

If you are interested in joining the Colloquium, please send a mail to monika.dollspam prevention@ifu.uni-tuebingen.de.

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