The dynamics of sign language grammar: Morphology, language change, iconicity, and social structure in signing communities

SignMorph aims to address two of the most fundamental questions in the language sciences: how much do the languages of the world resemble each other and how do they differ, and what factors account for both the cross-linguistic similarities and the differences?

SignMorph will provide answers to these questions about the nature of human language through a focus on the sign languages of deaf communities.

This project will also be the first to focus on key aspects of the grammar across three distinct subtypes of signing communities: (1) established macro-community sign languages used across an entire national deaf community, (2) established micro-community sign languages which are languages in smaller communities within a nation state, and (3) emerging sign languages which are sign languages that have only begun to emerge in the late 20th century.

The driving research question is: sign languages are natural languages, but what kind of languages are they?

SignMorph aims to better understand similarities and differences in the grammar of sign languages, and how these are shaped by language-internal and language-external factors.

The factors to be investigated in the study include (1) the role of iconicity in mapping grammatical meanings onto form, (2) the relatively recent emergence of sign languages, and how their short history has impacted on the processes which create grammatical structure, and (3) the sociolinguistic structure of signing communities, particular the effect of the large proportion of child to child (rather than parent to child) transmission of sign languages, varying ages of first language acquisition, and variation in interaction individuals have with native signers through their social networks.

The study of this distinctive combination of characteristics in sign languages means that this project will make a vital contribution to an understanding the human language capacity more generally.