This book presents in revised form and as a single monograph three papers on a sign language from the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea. Originally published in 1980, for more than twenty years these papers remained the only report of a sign language from that part of the world. The detailed descriptive analyses that the author provided are still fresh today, and in some respects they anticipate insights into the nature of sign languages that were not further explored until much more recently. The monograph is accompanied by two essays: Sherman Wilcox comments on value and relevance of the author’s work in the light of much more recent work on the linguistics of sign languages. An essay by Lauren Reed and Alan Rumsey provides an up to date survey of what is now known about sign languages in Papua New Guinea. Information about sign languages in the Solomon Island is also included.
Author(s): Adam Kendon
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 219
City: Amsterdam
Sign Language in Papua New Guinea
Title page
Copyright page
Table of contents
Preface
Films used in the analysis
Conventions for signs and utterance examples: Conventions followed in referring to signs in the text and in the presentation of examples of signed utterances
Introduction
0.1 Ethnographic status of the sign language
0.2 The corpus
0.2.1 EKD I, II
0.2.2 EKD III
0.2.3 EKD IV.1
0.2.4 EKD IV.2
0.2.5 Additional material
0.3 Procedures of analysis
0.3.1 Preparation of the films and the apparatus used
0.3.2 Obtaining a gloss
1. General properties of signs
2. Processes of sign formation
2.1 The formation of Enga signs
2.1.1 The formation of manual signs
2.1.1.1 Locus of articulation
2.1.1.2 Hand configurations
2.1.1.3 Movement
2.2 Comparison of aspects of Enga sign formation with that of other sign languages
2.3 Combined action signs
2.3.1 Trunk action
2.3.2 Head action
2.3.3 Facial action
2.3.4 Mouth action
2.4 Signs for bodily feelings and emotional state
2.5 Facial signs
3. Iconicity: How signs relate to their referents
3.1 Processes of signification
3.2 Base realization and feature selection
3.2.1 Presenting
3.2.2 Pointing
3.2.3 Characterizing
3.2.3.1 Enactment
3.2.3.2 Body modeling
3.2.3.3 Virtual depiction
3.3 How the base relates to the referent
3.3.1 Presenting signs
3.3.2 Pointing signs
3.3.3 Characterizing signs: Enactment
3.3.3.1 Mimetic enactment signs
3.3.3.2 Analogic enactment signs
3.3.4 Characterizing signs realized by modeling, sketching, and measuring
3.3.5 Conclusions
3.4 Sign realization devices in two unrelated sign languages
4. On the uses of pointing
4.1 Pronominal reference
4.2 Spatial reference
4.3 Moving points
4.4 Nonspatial pointing
4.5 Anaphoric uses of pointing
4.6 Discussion
5. Concurrent action
5.1 Simultaneous signing
5.2 ‘Affixual’ actions
5.3 Sustained concurrent action
5.3.1 Bracketing functions of concurrent action
5.3.2 Metacommunicative functions of concurrent action
5.3.3 Supplementing functions
5.3.4 Display of current attitude
6. Aspects of discourse construction
6.1 Phrasal juncture
6.2 The sequential.arrangement of signs in phrases
6.3 How subjects and objects are related to their verbs
6.4 The handling of temporal reference
6.5 Questions
6.5.1 Manual question signs
The double palm presentation
Single upward lateral hand flip
Where?
6.5.2 Facial question markers
6.5.3 Place of the question marker in the sign sequence
6.5.4 Termination of question utterances
6.5.5 Discussion: Kinesic features of questioning
7. Conclusions
References
Appendix: Signs from the Upper Lagaip Valley (Enga) described
Description of signs
Signs for bodily feeling
Signs for feelings and emotions
Sign Languages in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
1. Introduction
2. What is known of SLs in PNG?
2.1 The Highlands
Ku Waru
Sinasina
2.2 Papua
Rossel Island
Mt. Avejaha, Oro Province
2.3 Momase
Toricelli Ranges: Mehek
Toricelli Ranges: Wanib
Middle Sepik Region
Arafundi Region, East Sepik Province
2.4 Islands Region of PNG
Southern New Ireland
East New Britain
2.5 Solomon Islands
3. Papua New Guinea Sign Language (PNGSL)
4. ‘Culture sign’
5. Similarity and difference among PNG sign languages
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References
Kendon’s work on a signed language from the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea: Some Implications
References
Name Index
Topic Index
