Grounding, subjectivization and deixismodal constructions in catalan sign language and their interaction with other semantic domains

Resumo

This dissertation is framed in the overlap of two disciplines: educational linguistics and theoretical linguistics. We will focus on signed languages, the visual-gestural linguistic systems of the communities of Deaf people. The dissertation stems from the need to conduct research on Catalan Sign Language (LSC), an understudied language used by the deaf and deaf-and-blind signing community in Catalonia. Furthering this research will undoubtedly benefit education of deaf signer learners, since LSC constitutes a language of instruction guaranteeing accessibility and it is pivotal for the identity construction. The study investigates the linguistic expression of modality in Catalan Sign Language (LSC), a topic without previous research. It assumes a broad notion of modality including volitive values, and the traditionally labelled deontic/root and epistemic functions. Moreover, it deals with other semantic/functional domains, particularly, negation, evidentiality, and aspect in order to identify their interaction. The research adopts a cognitive-functional perspective on language (Barcelona, 2002; Bybee, 2010; Geeraerts, 2006; Janzen, 2012; Lakoff & Johnson, 1991; Shaffer, 2004; Talmy, 1988; Wilcox, 2004). The analysis is conducted according to the principles of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker, 1987, 2001, 2009, 2013 inter alia). It assumes, also, the principles of (Diachronic) Construction Grammar theory (Garachana, 2015; Hooper & Traugott, 1993, 2003; Traugott & Dasher, 2002; Traugott & Dasher, 2002; Traugott & Trousdale, 2013). As for the method, the study adopts a qualitative perspective. The source of the data is a small-scale corpus, which includes three semi-structured interviews to deaf signers, specifically designed for the study of modality, and a set of naturalistic texts of different typology from different media in the Catalan Sign Language community (mainly, news media on the internet, personal webs and story tales). The results show that the semantic domain of modality is expressed with constructions of different specificity (micro-, meso- and macro-constructions) with the insertion of substantive elements of different category (free markers, mental state predicates, adjective predicates, and discourse markers). The study takes into account conceptual semantics and syntactic distribution, both in information structure constructions and argumental syntactic constructions. As for negation, it focusses on the negation of modal resources and on modal negators. Regarding evidentiality, the study describes evidential constructions in LSC. We argue that modality and evidentiality constitute different categories in LSC. In addition, our research is concerned with two issues of the interface gesture-language. First, it evaluates the two-route hypothesis, according to which grams in signed languages develop from gesture via lexical elements and non-manual gestures become non-manual grammatical elements bypassing the lexical stage (Janzen & Shaffer, 2002; Wilcox, 2002, 2010). Subsequently, we posit a third developmental path, where manual gestural elements enter the language as discourse markers/gestures that acquire a grammatical function and are, therefore, a product of pragmaticalization. Concerning the grounding function, we argue that the full-fledged modals carry out a grounding function and constitute grounding predications, since they are highly grammaticalized, the conceptual import is related to the epistemic notion of reality and the ground is subjectively construed. The study concludes that modality constitutes a grammatical category in LSC. It contributes to on-going debates in three different areas enriching them with data and analysis of languages expressed in the gestural-visual modality: (i) the conceptualization and formal expression of modality, negation, evidentiality and aspect; (ii) the nature of a grammatical category; and (iii), controversial issues of language change studies, such as the lexicalization-grammaticalization and grammaticalization-pragmaticalization interface, the relation between grammaticalization, constructionalization and (inter)subjectification and the status of pragmaticalization.