Towards a feature-based semantics of ASL loci
Abstract
American Sign Language famously disambiguates pronoun antecedents with the use of space. In ASL, NPs can be signed at different locations (‘loci’) in the signing space; pronouns later retrieve these NPs by pointing at the same locus. Many analyses of ASL pronouns assume that these spatial loci are the overt realization of formal variables (Lillo-Martin and Klima 1990, a.o.), based on the observations that there are arbitrarily many loci and that pronominal ambiguity can be resolved under multiple levels of embedding. In this paper, I argue that loci should not be analyzed as variables, but rather as morphosyntactic features. These results directly bear on the theory of Variable-Free Semantics (Jacobson 1999). A feature-based fragment is provided.Downloads
How to Cite
Kuhn, J. (2019). Towards a feature-based semantics of ASL loci. Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung, 18, 235–252. Retrieved from https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/315
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