Colour signs in two indigenous sign language
Temas
Detalles
Colour has been one of the most discussed semantic domains across disci- plines from linguistic anthropology, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and philosophy, to biology and molecular genetics (Berlin & Kay 1969, Kay & McDaniel1978, Palmer 1999, Thompson 1995, Steels and Belpaeme 2005, Mollon et al. 2003 among others). In this paper we investigate colours expressed in two typologically unrelated village sign languages: Yolngu Sign Language (henceforth YSL) in Australia, and Konchri Sain (henceforth KS) in Jamaica. YSL represents a unique case in this volume because it func- tions as an alternate and a primary sign language in the North East Arnhem Region, NT, Australia (Cooke & Adone 1994). KS is the indigenous sign language used in the St Elizabeth community in Southern Jamaica, which is characterised by a high degree of bilingualism. The study supports the general findings regarding basic colour terms in sign languages and the data appear to follow the patterns reported for other village sign languages. Addi- tionally, this paper highlights a number of unique structures that have not been reported previously, including the semantic extension of kinship termi- nology to discuss colours in YSL. By comparing these two unrelated sign languages it becomes clear that each individual village sign language may make substantial contributions to the field of sign language typology.
En U. Zeshan y C. de Vos (2012), Sign languages in village communities: anthropological and linguistic insights.