Subject/Object Marking Auxiliaries in Japanese Sign Language

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520487
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Kobe City College of Technology
• Principal Investigator: IMAZATO Noriko 神戸市立工業高等専門学校, その他部局等, 教授 (90259903)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 主語目的語標示 / 日本手話 / 文法化 / 助動詞 / 連続動詞構文 / 類型論 / 日本手話西日本方言 / 認知言語学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Subject/object marking auxiliaries such as AUX1 and AUX2 were first identified by Smith (1990) in Taiwan Sign Language (TSL). Later, Fischer (1996) also recognized AUX1 in JSL’s eastern dialect ( JSL-e). Smith’s research proves that AUX2 is derived from the verb SEE because of their similarity in phonetic configuration. However, close observations of these two sign languages by Smith and Fischer do not elucidate the developmental process of AUX1. Sapountzaki’s (2012) comparative study of 11 sign languages hypothesizes that AUX1 is “a smoothed series of indexical pronouns,” but his argument is not supported by either TSL or JSL-e data. Observing newly collected data from the JSL’s western dialect ( JSL-w), which has both AUX1 and AUX2, our analysis proposes an alternative hypothesis that “AUX1 was created as the result of grammaticalization of the verb SEE (MIRU) by way of AUX2.” Our research also investigates the adequacy of the new hypothesis.

Free Research Field

言語学