Stance in Flemish Sign Language
A multimodal and polysemiotic phenomenon
In this contribution, we offer a first exploration of stance expressions in Flemish Sign Language (VGT).
Biber and Finegan (1989) define stance as the expression of feelings, attitudes,
judgments, commitments, and assessments. The few studies focusing on stance in signed languages have shown that stance can be
expressed by various structures and mechanisms such as lexical signs, manual gestures (e.g., Palm Up gestures) and
embodiment/mental space blends. We will examine if these findings apply to Flemish Sign Language, and we will identify other means
of expressing stance in VGT.
In this exploratory study, we focus on the following questions: (1) which articulators and semiotic resources can
be used in Flemish Sign Language to express stance?; and (2) How are visible bodily actions through different articulators
integrated temporally in stance expressions?
Our study is based on the analysis of about five hours of data from the Corpus Flemish Sign Language. We
present examples from our dataset to illustrate that stance can be expressed through a range of structures and mechanisms (such as
lexical signs, manual gestures, enactment, and non-manual features), expressed either sequentially or simultaneously by a
multitude of articulators. Moreover, we zoom in on the phenomenon of stance-stacking and analyse how multiple stance expressions
can be combined in VGT.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Research aims, data and method
- 3.Analyzing the examples
- 3.1Articulators used for stance expression
- 3.2Stance continuum in relation to used articulators
- 3.3Enacted stance
- 3.4Use of space and spatial relations
- 3.5Stacked stance and simultaneous expression of multiple stances
- 4.Discusssion of the preliminary observations
- 5.Future research
- 6.To conclude
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
References (56)
References
Adami, Elisabetta. 2016. “Multimodality.” In Oxford
Handbook of Language and Society, ed. by Ofelia Garcia, Nelson Flores, and Massimiliano Spotti, 451–472. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beukeleers, Inez. 2020. “On
the Role of Eye Gaze in Flemish Sign Language: A Multifocal Eye-Tracking Study on the Phenomena of Online Turn Processing and
Depicting.” PhD dissertation, KU Leuven.
Beukeleers, Inez, and Myriam Vermeerbergen. 2017. “Raumnutzung in Der Flämischen Gebärdensprache: Eine Vergleichende Studie Zum Einfluss Des
Elizitierungsmaterials [The use of space in Flemish Sign Language: A
comparative study on the influence of elicitaion material].” Das Zeichen: Zeitschrift Für Sprache
Und Kultur
Gehörloser 1071: 468–478.
Beukeleers, Inez, and Myriam Vermeerbergen. 2022. “Show
Me What You Have B/Seen: A Brief History of Depiction.” Frontiers in
Psychology 131: 808814.
Biber, Douglas, and Edward Finegan. 1989. “Styles
of Stance in English: Lexical and Grammatical Marking of Evidentiality and Affect.” Text –
Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of
Discourse 9 (1): 93–124.
Chindamo, Massimo, Jens Allwood, and Elisabeth Ahlsén. 2012. “Some
Suggestions for the Study of Stance in Communication.” In 2012
International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust and 2012 International Conference on Social
Computing, 617–622. Amsterdam: IEEE.
Cienki, Alan. 2013. “Cognitive
Linguistics: Spoken Language and Gesture as Expressions of
Conceptualization.” In Body – Language – Communication,
38/1, ed. by Cornelia Müller, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silva Ladewich, David McNeill, and Sedinha Tessendorf, 182–201. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Clark, Herbert H. 1996. Using
Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clift, Rebecca. 2021. “Embodiment
in Dissent: The Eye Roll as an Interactional Practice.” Research on Language and Social
Interaction 54 (3): 261–276.
Dancygier, Barbara. 2012. “Negation,
Stance Verbs, and Intersubjectivity.” In Viewpoint in Language: A
Multimodal Perspective, ed. by Barbara Dancygier, and Eve Sweetser, 69–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dancygier, Barbara, Sally Rice, and Terry Janzen. 2019. Stance-Stacking
in Language and Multimodal Communication. Paper presented at
the International Cognitive Linguistics
conference, 2019, Nishinomiya,
Japan.
Debras, Camille, and Alan Cienki. 2012. “Some
Uses of Head Tilts and Shoulder Shrugs during Human Interaction, and Their Relation to
Stancetaking.” In 2012 International Conference on Privacy, Security,
Risk and Trust and 2012 International Conference on Social
Computing, 932–937. Amsterdam: IEEE.
Du Bois, John W. 2007. “The Stance
Triangle.” In Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, Evaluation,
Interaction, ed. by Robert Englebretson, 139–182. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Dudis, Paul. 2004. “Body
Partitioning and Real-Space Blends.” Cognitive
Linguistics 151: 223–238.
Engberg-Pedersen, Elisabeth. 1993. Space
in Danish Sign Language: The Semantics and Morphosyntax of the Use of Space in a Visual
Language. Hamburg: Signum.
Ferrara, Lindsay, and Gabrielle Hodge. 2018. “Language
as Description, Indication, and Depiction.” Frontiers in
Psychology 91: 716.
Fischer, Susan, and Wynne Janis. 1990. “Verb
Sandwiches in American Sign Language.” In Current Trends in European
Sign Language Research, ed. by Sigmund Prillwitz, and Tomas Vollhaber, 279–293. Hamburg: SIGNUM Verlag.
Hinnell, Jennifer, and Sally Rice. 2019. The
Embodied Marking of Stance in North American English: Stacked and Idiomatic. Paper presented
at the 15th International Cognitive Linguistics
Conference, Nishinomiya, Japan, August 7. [URL]
Hodge, Gabrielle, and Lindsay Ferrara. 2014. “Showing
the Story : Enactment as Performance in Auslan
Narratives.” In Selected Papers from the 44th Conference of the
Australian Linguistic Society (2014), ed. by Lauren Gawne and Jill Vaughan, 372–397.
Hodge, Gabrielle, and Lindsay Ferrara. 2022. “Iconicity
as Multimodal, Polysemiotic, and Plurifunctional.” Frontiers in
Psychology 131:808896.
Iwasaki, Shoichi. 2022. “Stancetaking
in Motion: Stance Triangle and Double Dialogicality.” Text &
Talk 32(4): 1–24.
Janzen, Terry. 2019. “Shared
Spaces, Shared Mind: Connecting Past and Present Viewpoints in American Sign Language
Narratives.” Cognitive
Linguistics 30 (2): 253–279.
Janzen, Terry, and Barbara Shaffer. 2013. “The
Interpreter’s Stance in Intersubjective Discourse.” In Sign Language
Research, Uses and Practices, ed. by Laurence Meurant, Aurélie Sinte, Mieke Van Herreweghe and Myriam Vermeerbergen, 63–84. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Kärkkäinen, Elise. 2006. “Stance
Taking in Conversation: From Subjectivity to Intersubjectivity.” Text &
Talk 26 (6): 699–731.
Kaukomaa, Timo, Anssi Peräkylä, and Johanna Ruusuvuori. 2015. “How
Listeners Use Facial Expression to Shift the Emotional Stance of the Speaker’s
Utterance.” Research on Language and Social
Interaction 48 (3): 319–341.
Kress, Gunther. 2009. Multimodality:
A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary
Communication. London: Routledge.
Kusters, Annelies, Massimiliano Spotti, Ruth Swanwick, and Elina Tapio. 2017. “Beyond
Languages, beyond Modalities: Transforming the Study of Semiotic Repertoires.” International
Journal of
Multilingualism 14 (3): 219–232.
Louhema, Karoliina. 2018. “From
Unisemiotic to Polysemiotic Narratives: Translating across Semiotic Systems.” MA
dissertation, Lund University.
Martin, J., and Peter R. R. White. 2007. The
Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in
English. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Martínez, Rocío, Sara Siyavoshi, and Sherman Wilcox. 2020. “Advances
in the Study of Signed Languages within a Cognitive Perspective.” Hesperia: Anuario de
Filología Hispánica 231: 29–56.
Mondada, Lorenza. 2019. “Contemporary
Issues in Conversation Analysis: Embodiment and Materiality, Multimodality and Multisensoriality in Social
Interaction.” Journal of
Pragmatics 1451: 47–62.
Müller, Cornelia, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silva Ladewig, David McNeill, and Jana Bressem, eds. 2014. Body –
Language – Communication: An International Handbook on Multimodality in Human
Interaction. Berlin/München/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Peräkylä, Anssi, Pentti Henttonen, Liisa Voutilainen, Mikko Kahri, Melisa Stevanovic, Mikko Sams, and Niklas Ravaja. 2015. “Sharing
the Emotional Load: Recipient Affiliation Calms Down the Storyteller.” Social Psychology
Quarterly 781: 301–323.
Sandler, Wendy. 2022. “Redefining
Multimodality.” Frontiers in
Communication 61: 758993.
Shaffer, Barbara. 2004. “Information
Ordering and Speaker Subjectivity: Modality in ASL.” Cognitive
Linguistics 15(2): 175–195.
Shaffer, Barbara. 2012. “Reported
Speech as an Evidentiality Strategy in American Sign
Language.” In Viewpoint in Language, ed.
by Barbara Dancygier, and Eve Sweetser, 139–155. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shaffer, Barbara, Lorraine Leeson, and Terry Janzen. 2017. What
I Know Is Here; What I Don’t Know Is Somewhere Else: Deixis and Gesture Spaces in American Sign Language and Irish Sign
Language. Paper presented at the International Cognitive
Linguistics Conference 14, Tartu, Estonia, July 10–14,
2017.
Shaw, Emily. 2019. Gesture
in Multiparty Interaction. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Stampoulidis, Georgios. 2020. “Polysemiotic
Communication vs. Multimodality.” SAUC – Street Art and Urban
Creativity 5 (2): 26–31.
Stevanovic, Melisa, and Anssi Peräkylä. 2014. “Three
Orders in the Organization of Human Action: On the Interface between Knowledge, Power, and Emotion in Interaction and Social
Relations.” Language in
Society 43 (2): 185–207.
Tannen, Deborah. 1989. Talking
Voices: Repetition, Dialogue and Imagery in Conversational
Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tannen, Deborah. 2011. “Introducing
Constructed Dialogue in Greek and American Conversational and Literary
Narrative.” In Introducing Constructed Dialogue in Greek and American
Conversational and Literary Narrative, ed. by Florian Coulmas, 311–360. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Van Herreweghe, Mieke, Myriam Vermeerbergen, Eline Demey, Hannes De Durpel, Hilde Nyffels, and Sam Verstraete. 2015. Het Corpus VGT. Een digitaal open access corpus van videos and annotaties van Vlaamse Gebarentaal, ontwikkeld
aan de Universiteit Gent ism KU Leuven. [The Corpus VGT. An open access
corpus of videos and annotations in Flemish Sign Language, developed at the University of Ghent in cooperation with KU
Leuven.] <[URL]>.” [URL]
Van Herreweghe, Mieke, and Myriam Vermeerbergen. 2012. “Verbal
Predicates in Flemish Sign Language (VGT) and South African Sign Language
(SASL).” In Le Verbe En Verve: Réflexions Sur La Syntaxe et La
Sémantique Verbale, ed. by Marleen Van Peteghem, Peter Lauwers, Els Tobback, Annemie Demol, and Laurence De Wilde, 401–420. Ghent: Academia Press.
Vermeerbergen, Myriam. 1996. “ROOD KOOL TIEN PERSOON IN. Morfo-Syntactische Aspecten van de Vlaams-Belgische
Gebarentaal [RED CABBAGE TEN PERSON IN. Morpho-syntactic aspects of
Flemish-Belgian Sign Language].” PhD dissertation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Wilkinson, Erin. 2022. Changes
in Language Ecology, Discourse and Grammar: A Typological-Functional Analysis of Embodied Intersubjectivity in
LIS. Presented at the Sign Café
2, Ragusa, October 2022.
Wittenburg, Peter, Henie Brugman, Albert Russel, Alex Klassmann, and Han Sloetjes. 2006. “ELAN:
A Professional Framework for Multimodality Research.” In Proceedings
of the 5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2006), ed.
by Nicoletta Calzolari, Khalid Choukri, Aldo Gangemi, Bente Maegaard, Joseph Mariani, Jan Odijk, and Daniel Tapias, 1556–1559. Genoa: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Zeshan, Ulrike. 2006. Interrogative
and Negative Constructions in Sign
Language. Nijmegen: Ishara Press.
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Al Zidjaly, Najma
2024.
Stance and food activism on Arabic Twitter (X): a multimodal analysis.
Multimodal Communication 13:2
► pp. 97 ff.
de Vries, Clarissa, Fien Andries & Katharina Meissl
2024.
Mocking enactments: a case study of multimodal stance-stacking.
Frontiers in Psychology 15
Andries, Fien, Katharina Meissl, Clarissa de Vries, Kurt Feyaerts, Bert Oben, Paul Sambre, Myriam Vermeerbergen & Geert Brône
2023.
Multimodal stance-taking in interaction—A systematic literature review.
Frontiers in Communication 8
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.