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21 - Acceptability Judgments in Sign Linguistics

from Part III - Experimental Studies of Specific Populations and Language Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

By
Vadim Kimmelman
Edited by
Grant Goodall
Grant Goodall
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

Much of the current research on grammar of sign languages involves using acceptability judgments by native signers. In contrast to spoken languages, very little research has been done to investigate the validity and reliability of this method. In this chapter, I discuss the current practice of using acceptability judgments in sign linguistics. I further discuss some cases of empirical disagreement among researchers working on the same phenomena demonstrating the need for more thorough methodological research. I also argue that the fact that sign languages exist in the visual modality, and some unusual sociolinguistic features of sign languages, can also influence the use of acceptability judgments, which should be investigated further. I conclude with some practical recommendations for collecting acceptability judgments from native signers, and include an example of a hypothetical study designed according to these recommendations.

Keywords

sign languageacceptability judgmentsmodality effectsiconicitysimultaneitybimodal bilingualism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax , pp. 561 - 584
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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