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Depicting signs fall into three categories:
Entity: Motion and location signs with entity handshapes. The handshape is supposed to be an object (examples: a car, a person, a piece of paper, a rock) and it is moved around in space to show movement or location.
Handling: The handshape is supposed to be a human hand holding or touching something and it is moved around to show that thing being moved around by someone.
SASS (Size And Shape Specifiers): The hand is pretending to trace the outline of an object in some way, in order to describe its shape and or surface
Verb Types
There are three main categories of verb available in Auslan:
plain verbs
indicating verbs
depicting verbs
Plain verbs are also described as being 'body anchored', which is often an easy way to identify them. In the video, James uses the sign THINK. There is a point of contact on the body, and the sign must be produced using this contact. It is therefore anchored to the body. Some examples of other verb signs which are clearly body anchored, and therefore plain verbs, are REMEMBER, LAUGH, EAT, etc.
The sign RUN that James showed in the video, is an example of a sign that is less obviously body anchored. It does not have a point of contact on the body, however it is anchored to the position immediately in front of the body. As James explained, the hands cannot be relocated to produce the sign in another location.
Indicating verbs, as shown in the video, are those which can be modified from their citation form to show who is doing what to whom. The location and movement parameters can be manipulated (which sometimes affect orientation), when combined with referents, to make obvious that one person has produced an action that has an effect upon another. YOU-HELP-ME, SHE-GIVE-HIM, ME-PAY-YOU, AUDIENCE-WATCH-THERE, etc.
Depicting verbs are depicting signs that include verbal information.
Depicting verbs include:
entity
handling
SASS
These are terms that you are already familiar with, so being able to apply them now to verbs should not be a difficult step. In each type, information about the action contained within the depiction is a valid form of verb type which is used in Auslan.
Types of space
So far we've talked about the citation form of signs, the parameters (both manual and non-manual) of signs, and how signs can be modified, as well as discussing minimal pairs. Part of the discussion about where signs are used was covered under the location parameter, but there's another element to consider here as well, and that is the matter of space. Because hands have the ability to move around, in ways that the mouth does not, signed languages are able to utilise the space around the signer to convey different meaning. Think of it as 3D talking!
There are three main types of space that signers make use of when they produce signs.
The first is real space. If there is a chair next to you, and you want to talk about the chair, you will point to it. It's really there, so it is said to be in real space (also called shared space). Similarly, if Cheryl is with you, and you are talking to Frank about something that you and Cheryl did, you can point to Cheryl because she is there.
The second is topographical space. You might remember back to your geography lessons in school, where they (should have) explained that a map with its contour lines shows the topography of the landscape and by understanding the symbols used on a topographical map, you can visualise the height of mountains, the dip of valleys, the positioning of trees or landmarks, etc. In Auslan, a signer can set things up in topographical space that are not currently present (as in real space), so that you can visualise where they were in relation to other things. Let's say you are telling Frank that you and Cheryl went to the movies and while you were waiting in line to buy your tickets, Theresa happens to walk by and you invite her to join you. As you are signing to Frank, neither Cheryl nor Theresa are present. You can describe the scene of the movie theatre, where you and Cheryl were standing, which direction Theresa approached from, and the position of the ticket booth. You can also include the length of the ticket queue, the position of the 'candy' bar, etc. If you describe this scene as if you were looking at a map, it is known as diagrammatic space, whereas if you describe the scene as if you were standing in the map, it is called viewer space. Both of these are sub-categories of topographical space.
A third type of space used in Auslan is called abstract space. This describes the placement of people or objects in a certain location that is not strictly topographical. For example, you are telling the story about your mother and your father. You can set your parents up in their own abstract spaces (e.g., mother to your right, father to your left, or vice versa). Then, instead of having to re-sign MOTHER every time you want to talk about her or something that she said or did, you can simply point to her abstract space. And every time you point to your father's abstract space, the person you are communicating with knows that you mean your father.
Types of space in Auslan:
real space
topographical space (diagrammatic or viewer)
abstract space
Parameters of Auslan signs
You have already been introduced to the parameters of Auslan, but in this unit, we will cover them in more detail, as well as introduce some other linguistic features of Auslan. Special thanks must be given to Anne Bremner, who features in a series of video clips produced by Vicdeaf Resources Information, which presents information about Auslan linguistics in Auslan. All videos are captioned, but please try to watch them without having to refer to the captions, if you can.
In spoken languages such as English, phonemes are the smallest units of sound that combine to make words. They are not to be confused with the letters of words - they are called graphemes and relate to written language.
For the word 'back', the phonemes are the sound /b/, with the sound /æ/ with the sound /k/.
Auslan signs are not comprised of sounds, of course, but similar comparisons have been drawn and sign language linguists have determined that the phonemic information of signs can be classified by what we call sign parameters. There are essentially four parameters which are universally agreed, with a fifth parameter sometimes still contested by some.
In 1960, William Stokoe (the grandfather of sign language linguistics) reported that all signs are produced using a handshape, a location and a movement. In 1978, Robert Battinson added orientation to the field of research.
Auslan, and other signed languages, make extensive use of facial expression, mouth gestures, mouth (or partial mouthing) of words, movements of the head and shoulders and body positioning to add meaning to signs. These are all referred to as non-manual features because they are not produced with the hands themselves and they are almost always added to the production of a manual sign.
The acronym HOLME was coined as a mnemonic, a word that helps us remember the different phonemic parameters of signs.
H handshape
O orientation
L location
M movement
E expression (or more accurately, non-manual features including expression)
This is also written sometimes as HOLMN, exchanging 'expression' for 'non-manual features'.
Handshape refers to the shape of the hand used to produce the sign. There are 35 main handshapes that have been identified as being native to Auslan. It is possible for a sign to include more than one handshape, but more than two handshapes in a single sign is extremely rare and unlikely.
Orientation refers to the direction that the hand is pointing to, and is usually described in terms of palm-orientation and fingertip-orientation. If I were to simply give you an instruction to hold both your hands flat out in front of you, you would not know if I wanted your palms facing up, down, in (towards each other), out (away from each other), or forward or back. Then, do I mean that your fingers should be pointing up or down, in or out, on a diagonal, etc.
Location refers to the location in which the sign is produced. Signs can be produced almost anywhere that the arm/s can reach, but are most commonly produced on/around the head and face, or on/around the region of the torso. Signs may also have a primary and a secondary location, if they include some kind of movement.
Movement refers to the movement of a sign and movements can be either primary or secondary. Primary movements can be either path movements, which move from one location to another (e.g. TRAIN, NOT), or local movements which change either handshape or orientation (e.g., FORGET, DROP. Secondary movements involve rapidly repeated local movements, either in a single location or within a path movement (e.g., MIRROR, AUSLAN).
Expression/Non-Manual Feature has already been explained above. As in most cases, NMFs can be altered to produce various shades of meaning within a single sign, they do not usually appear in dictionaries such as Auslan Signbank. There is an exception to this where the sign requires a mouth gesture to complete the sign - without the mouth gesture, the sign loses its meaning (e.g., BIZARRE).
Identifying new signs
New signs that are added to Auslan may include:
lexicalisation of depicting verbs (appears very common), that is when a depicting verb becomes a sign that is recognised as having a particular meaning outside of the context of its original depiction, it has moved from a depiction to a lexical sign in its own right
noun-verb pairs refer to a sign that can be modified to show it's corresponding noun or verb form. The sign GUN can be shown, meaning 'gun', or used, meaning 'to shoot'. The meaning of BRUSH has been semantically extended from the noun to also mean the verb 'to brush'. Semantic extension does not only refer to noun-verb pairs. Think of the word 'mouse'. It used to exclusively refer to the rodent. It now also refers to a hand-held device that can be used to manipulate information on a computer screen.
compounding describes the combining of two separate signs to produce a single, new sign with its own meaning, e.g. RED + BALL has been compounded to mean 'tomato'.
lexical borrowing is when Auslan signers borrow a sign from another sign language, and the sign becomes an accepted Auslan sign. Lexical borrowing can also occur between Auslan and English. A particular mouth pattern can be applied to a sign which effectively extends its meaning to something which varies from the sign when it is produced without the mouth pattern.
partial lexicalisation of fingerspelling refers to a sign being produced which has grown from the fingerspelling of the word in English. In the partly lexicalised new sign, not all letters have survived, and those that do remain between the primary and final handshapes are not fully articulated.
Modifying signs from their citation form
As previously mentioned, signs in their citation form can be modified to alter their meaning. This can be done using a manual parameter, but more often are modified with NMF.
As well as modifying the location of some signs, fluent signers engaged in conversation will modify other manual parameters (within reason) to make the signing appear more fluid. In a natural conversation, signs do not appear as individual signs, but as a stream of signs. This is similar to spoken English, where each word is not always clearly and perfectly articulated. Sometimes, we might drop a final consonant, or elongate a vowel sound, because 'it sounds better' - it is more naturalistic.
In Auslan, the signs location may change so that it is closer to the sign that either precedes (came before) or succeeds (comes after) it. Similarly, the movement of a sign may be reduced (e.g., a sign that is produced with a double-tapping movement may be reduced to a single-tap). The handshape, as well, might change to match the handshape of the preceding sign (e.g., DON'T-KNOW ME, meaning 'I don't know' can be produced with the sign ME being made with the B handshape instead of the I handshape).
Modifications such as these should not necessarily be practiced at this stage of your learning. They are expected at a higher level of proficiency. For now, it is enough to know that they exist and are a natural phenomenon in fluent signing.
The citation of a sign refers to the sign in its simplest form. All lexical signs have a citation form, which comprises its handshape/s, orientation/s, location/s and (if relevant) movement/s. Most signs in their citation form do not include a non-manual feature, even when the meaning of the sign suggests that a non-manual feature should be required.
For example, the sign HAPPY would easily be assumed to require a happy expression on the face, possibly including a smile and a raising of the eyebrows. However, if the sign is used in the sequence ME NOT HAPPY, the happy expression would be inappropriate. So the sign itself, in its citation form, is not given with the non-manual feature of a happy facial expression.
There are some signs in their citation form which do include a non-manual feature, such as lip pattern or mouth gesture. These signs are known as multi-channel signs because they are produced with more than one channel simultaneously (i.e., the manual channel, being the hands, and the non-manual channel, for example, the mouth). An example of a multi-channel sign is BIZARRE).
Signs that are shown on the Auslan Signbank website are all in citation form (hence the lack of expression that usually appears).
Most citation form signs can be modified to alter the meaning, or to provide adjectival or adverbial information, or to denote manner or affect. We will explore this in more detail.
Minimal pairs
Minimal pairs
In spoken languages, linguists make use of minimal pairs to attempt to differentiate phonemic differences between words that are very similar. If two words are found to be identical except for a single phoneme, they are said to be a minimal pair.
For example, 'jump'/'pump' are a minimal pair. From looking at the two words, you can see that the first letter of each word is different, but that relates to the way that the words a written, rather than spoken. To identify a true minimal pair, we need to consider the sounds that produce the words.
Written phonetically, the words become:
jump /ʤʌmp/ - /ʤ/ represents the sound made by the letter j, and sometimes g. It is considered to be one phoneme.
pump /pʌmp/
The /ʌmp/ is the same in both words, with the beginning symbol /ʤ/ and /p/ being the only differing phoneme.
jump /ʤʌmp/
junk /ʤʌŋk/
These words are not a minimal pair, even though they sound quite similar. The /m/ and the /p/ sounds in 'jump' are separate phonemes, as are the /ŋ/ and the /k/ sounds in 'junk'. So there are more than a single phonemic difference between the two words. They cannot be differentiated at the most minimal level.
In Auslan, we can also identify minimal pairs of citation signs as being two signs that are the same phonologically, except for a single differing manual parameter (handshape, orientation, location or movement). Do not consider examples of NMF when considering minimal pairs, because NMF (except for multi-channel signs) are a modification to a signs citation form, rather than a part of the citation form itself.
Resources
Watch the video The Evolution and Preservation of Auslan, Part 9 below.Note that Anne explains minimal pairs in terms of the different letters of comparable words. This is incorrect, as explained above, however to explain minimal pairs in terms of phonemes to a Deaf audience who do not rely on sound and who may no way of conceptualising auditory phonemic awareness would be nonsensical.
The establishment of Deaf schools in Australia
The establishment of Deaf schools in Australia
Deaf schools may include:
early schools supported by charity
large state schools for the Deaf
Catholic schools for the Deaf
Other private schools
inclusion programs within regular schools
Readings, Links and Resources
Thomas Pattison school for Deaf, Paddington, NSW established 1860
Victorian College of the Deaf, St Kilda Road, Melbourne also established in 1860
The key points of debates that have surrounded deaf education in Australia
Debates may include issues about:
the employment of Deaf staff
teaching methodology
the benefits of mainstream education compared to specialised education programs
role and delivery of early education programs
Changes in Deaf education
Changes in Deaf education
Please read about changes in Deaf education from the establishment of schools until the present. (see below readings, links and resources) and the list of resources on resources page.
Changes in Deaf education may include:
The shift towards oralism
The shift towards mainstreaming of Deaf students
Closure of Deaf schools
Increasing use of cochlear implants
Readings, Links and Resources
Welfare, social and political organisations may include:
Deaf societies
Deaf clubs and sporting groups
Deaf associations or groups formed for political purposes
Deaf Australia (formerly AAD - Australian Association of the Deaf) website explains its history: https://deafaustralia.org.au/about-2/history-and-achievements/
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