Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-9nbrm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-28T20:47:16.511Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why space is not one-dimensional: Location may be categorical and imagistic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2017

Marcel R. Giezen ,
Brendan Costello  and
Manuel Carreiras
Marcel R. Giezen
Affiliation:
BCBL – Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, 20009 Donostia–San Sebastián, Spain. m.giezen@bcbl.eu b.costello@bcbl.eu m.carreiras@bcbl.eu http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/marcel-giezen/ http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/brendan-costello/ http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/manuel-carreiras/
Brendan Costello
Affiliation:
BCBL – Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, 20009 Donostia–San Sebastián, Spain. m.giezen@bcbl.eu b.costello@bcbl.eu m.carreiras@bcbl.eu http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/marcel-giezen/ http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/brendan-costello/ http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/manuel-carreiras/
Manuel Carreiras
Affiliation:
BCBL – Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, 20009 Donostia–San Sebastián, Spain. m.giezen@bcbl.eu b.costello@bcbl.eu m.carreiras@bcbl.eu http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/marcel-giezen/ http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/brendan-costello/ http://www.bcbl.eu/people/staff/manuel-carreiras/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In our commentary, we raise concerns with the idea that location should be considered a gestural component of sign languages. We argue that psycholinguistic studies provide evidence for location as a “categorical” element of signs. More generally, we propose that the use of space in sign languages comes in many flavours and may be both categorical and imagistic.

In their target article, Goldin-Meadow & Brentari (G-M&B) discuss several observations suggesting that the use of space is imagistic and may not form part of the categorical properties of sign languages. Specifically, they point out that (1) the number of locations toward which agreeing verbs can be directed is not part of a discrete set, (2) event descriptions by users of different sign languages and hearing nonsigners exhibit marked similarities in the use of space, and (3) location as a phonological parameter is not categorically perceived by native signers. It should be noted that G-M&B acknowledge that categorical properties of location and movement may simply not have been captured yet because the proper investigative tools are not yet readily available.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e56
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barberà, G. (2014) Use and functions of spatial planes in Catalan Sign Language (LSC) discourse. Sign Language Studies 14(2):147–74. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1353/sls.2014.0000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baus, C., Gutiérrez, E. & Carreiras, M. (2014) The role of syllables in sign language production. Frontiers in Psychology 5:1254. Available at: http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01254.Google Scholar
Baus, C., Gutiérrez-Sigut, E., Quer, J. & Carreiras, M. (2008) Lexical access in Catalan Signed Language production. Cognition 108(3):856–65. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.05.012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Best, C. T., Mathur, G., Miranda, K. A. & Lillo-Martin, D. (2010) Effects of sign language experience on categorical perception of dynamic ASL pseudosigns. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics 72(3):742–62. Available at: http://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.3.747.Google Scholar
Carreiras, M., Gutiérrez-Sigut, E., Baquero, S. & Corina, D. P. (2008) Lexical processing in Spanish Signed Language (LSE). Journal of Memory and Language 58(1):100–22. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.05.004.Google Scholar
Caselli, N. K. & Cohen-Goldberg, A. M. (2014) Lexical access in sign language: A computational model. Frontiers in Psychology 5:428. Available at: http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00428.Google Scholar
Corina, D. P. & Emmorey, K. (1993) Lexical priming in American Sign Language. Poster presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Corina, D. P. & Hildebrandt, U. C. (2002) Psycholinguistic investigations of phonological structure in ASL. In: Modality and structure in signed and spoken languages, ed. Meier, R. P., Cormier, K. & Quinto-Pozos, D., pp. 88–111. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Corina, D. P. & Knapp, H. P. (2006) Lexical retrieval in American Sign Language production. In: Papers in laboratory phonology, vol. 8, ed. Whalen, D. H. & Best, C. T., pp. 213–40. Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Costello, B. (2015) Language and modality: Effects of the use of space in the agreement system of lengua de signos española (Spanish Sign Language). LOT.Google Scholar
Engberg-Pedersen, E. (1993) Space in Danish Sign Language: The semantics and morphosyntax of the use of space in a visual language. Signum Press.Google Scholar
Fry, D. B., Abramson, A. S., Eimas, P. D. & Liberman, A. M. (1962) The identification and discrimination of synthetic vowels. Language and Speech 5(4):171–89. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1177/002383096200500401.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, E., Müller, O., Baus, C. & Carreiras, M. (2012) Electrophysiological evidence of phonological priming in Spanish Sign Language lexical access. Neuropsychologia 50:1335–46. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.02.018.Google Scholar
Hohenberger, A., Happ, D. & Leuninger, H. (2002) Modality-dependent aspects of sign language production: Evidence from slips of the hands and their repairs in German Sign Language. In: Modality and structure in signed and spoken languages, ed. Meier, R. P., Cormier, K. & Quinto-Pozos, D., pp. 112–42. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, J. (2015) ASL loci: Variables or features? Journal of Semantics 33(3):449–91. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffv005.Google Scholar
Liddell, S. K. (2000) Indicating verbs and pronouns: Pointing away from agreement. In: The signs of language revisited: An anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima, ed. Emmorey, K. & Lane, H., pp. 303–20. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Stevens, K. N., Liberman, A. M., Studdert-Kennedy, M. & Ohman, S. E. G. (1969) Cross-language study of vowel perception. Language and Speech 12(1):1–23.Google Scholar
Thompson, R., Emmorey, K. & Gollan, T. H. (2005) “Tip of the fingers” experiences by deaf signers: Insights into the organization of a sign-based lexicon. Psychological Science 16(11):856–60. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01626.x.Google Scholar