American Sign Language and the architecture of phonological theory
Temas
Detalles
We have examined three derivational and two phonological rules of ASL, arguing that derivational rules feed each other, phonological rules feed each other, and derivational rules feed phonological rules, as the architecture of the theory in (2) predicts. Further, we have argued for a post-lexical phonological component in ASL by showing that the outputs of Weak Drop must be prevented from undergoing the Characteristic Adjective Rule — a derivational rule. With derivational rules in the lexicon and Weak Drop in a post-lexical phonological component, this, too, is predicted.
Sign language phonology provides novel support for generative phonology. Without explicit rules and grammars, one would focus on sounds and signs themselves — entities so different that the commonality of oral and signed languages would go undiscovered. Once the rules that account for the lexical and phonological structure of ASL are discovered, however, it is striking that they interact in ways predicted by the theory.