This paper investigates whether two-handed signs in Kenyan Sign Language, a relatively young school-based sign language, conform to the same constraints on combinations of movement and handshape that hold in other sign languages. An analysis of 467 two-handed signs, separated into four types based on complexity, found that KSL is highly constrained, with only a few signs that violate proposed conditions. Three hypotheses to account for handshape restrictions on the non-dominant hand in highly complex signs are tested. Findings show that a universal unmarked set accounts for most of these handshapes; a language-specific unmarked set does no better; and a constraint on markedness at the featural level essentially accounts for all the signs. Further analyses discover that a preference for unmarked handshapes in the most complex signs extends to all two-handed signs to some degree. Finally, a phonotactic preference for the G/1 handshape on the dominant hand in complex signs is uncovered. Some evidence suggests that this tendency may surface in other languages as well.
Mayberry, Rachel I., Tristan Davenport, Austin Roth & Eric Halgren
2018. Neurolinguistic processing when the brain matures without language. Cortex 99 ► pp. 390 ff.
MAYBERRY, RACHEL I. & ROBERT KLUENDER
2018. Rethinking the critical period for language: New insights into an old question from American Sign Language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 21:5 ► pp. 886 ff.
2014. From compensation to integration: Effects of the pro-tactile movement on the sublexical structure of Tactile American Sign Language. Journal of Pragmatics 69 ► pp. 22 ff.
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