An Exploration in the Domain of Time: From Yucatec Maya Time Gestures to Yucatec Maya Sign Language Time Signs
Temas
Detalles
Time is generally considered an abstract conceptual domain and although it can be divided on the basis of more or less complex calendar calculations, all human cultural groups have some ways of expressing temporal relations in language, which can be spoken or signed. This chapter discusses how linguistic divisions for time have been constructed in an emerging language, Yucatec Maya Sign Language (hereafter YMSL) used by individuals in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Because of its sociolinguistic setting, YMSL is actively in contact not only with spoken Yucatec Maya but also with Yucatec Maya co-speech gestures that provide signers with manual input for the construction of the time domain. I will argue that Yucatec Maya speakers produce gestures with time reference that have been taken up and adapted in YMSL by signers.
En: U. Zeshan & C. De Vos (Eds.), Sign Languages in Village Communities: Anthropological and Linguistic Insights, Sign Language Typology Series Vol. 4, pp. 209–250.