A comparative summary of localization defaults in DGS and TİD

The patterns of overt localization defaults of two-referent and one-referent localizations for DGS and TİD are summarized in Table 4.30. The more frequent patterns are given as ‘Pattern 1’ (boldfaced) and the less frequent ones as ‘Pattern 2’. When we look at Pattern 1 for two-referent localizations, it can be seen that the two languages differ in realization of this pattern, especially in the productions of right-handed signers. That is, in DGS this pattern seems to be hand dominance dependent, namely R1 is assigned to the ipsilateral area and R2 to the contralateral area. On the other hand, in TİD the pattern can be interpreted as being dependent on the physical sides of the signing space. Thus, it is the left side (contralateral for right-handers, ipsilateral for left-handers) which is preferred for R1, and it is the right side (ipsilateral for right-handers and contralateral for left-handers) which is preferred for R2. However, Pattern 2 used for two-referent localizations by right-handers, deviates from Pattern 1 within each language indicating intra-language variation.

As for single referent localizations, in DGS the ipsilateral side is primarily used to localize R1 and R2 by both handedness groups. As a secondary pattern, contralateral side is used to localize single occurrences of R2. For TİD signers, single localizations follow a less unified pattern. Pattern 1 is consistent with the one used with two-referent localizations in

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the same language, namely R1 is assigned to the contralateral side (left side for right-handers and right side for left-handers) while R2 is either assigned either to the ipsilateral or contralateral sides. Pattern 2 shows the opposite picture, where R2 is assigned to the contralateral (left) side by right-handers and each of R1 and R2 are assigned to the ipsilateral (left) side by left-handers.

Table 4.30: A general overview of the patterns used for two-referent and one-referent localizations by right- and left-handed signers of DGS and TİD

language handedness R1 loc> R2 loc R2 loc> R1 loc R1 loc R2 loc

DGS RH Pattern 1 ipsi>contra contra>ipsi ipsi ipsi Pattern 2 contra>ipsi contra>ipsi -- contra LH Pattern 1 ipsi>contra contra>ipsi ipsi ipsi

Pattern 2 ipsi>contra ipsi>contra -- contra TİD RH Pattern 1 contra>ipsi ipsi>contra contra ipsi

Pattern 2 ipsi>contra contra>ipsi -- contra LH Pattern 1 ipsi>contra contra>ipsi contra contra

Pattern 2 -- -- ipsi ipsi

4.4 Discussion

Previous research on DGS (Steinbach & Onea 2016; Wienholz et al. 2018a) has shown that signers follow right-left (or ipsi-contra) default pattern to overtly or covertly assign discourse referents to the signing space. That is, in case of two discourse referents the first-mentioned one is assigned to the right (ipsilateral) and the second-mentioned one to the left (contralateral) side of the signing space, for right-handed signers. Chapter 3 has shown that spatial defaults of covert localization used for interpretation of pronominal IX in the context of reciprocal verbs, is ipsi-contra (for left-handed) DGS signers and right-left for TİD signers, irrespective of their handedness.

The current qualitative study investigated spatial distribution of default overt localization in elicited production data of DGS and TİD using a free sentence continuation

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task. Right- and left-handed participants (i.e. the same signers as in Chapter 3) were presented with sentence prompts containing no localization cues and were instructed to repeat and continue them with the themes about one of the referents introduced in the prompt sentences. Their productions were analyzed according to the contrastive localization of both referents (i.e. R1 and R2) and the localization of single referents (i.e. R1 or R2).

Production data suggest two types of variation with respect to the two-referent overt localization default: inter-language variation and intra-language variation. The latter type includes inter-signer as well as intra-signer variation. In particular, DGS and TİD seem to differ in realization of the pattern, such that the former can be defined according to the hand dominance (i.e. ipsi-contra), in line with the previous studies and comprehension results in Chapter 3. On the other hand, the latter can rather be defined according to the physical sides in the signing space (i.e. left-right) irrespective of the handedness, which is a mirror image of the pattern (i.e. right-left) used in comprehension of pronominal IX.

Another logical possibility to describe the pattern in TİD, might be to assume that right-handed signers follow a contra-ipsi pattern and left-handed signers follow an ipsi-contra pattern. Thus, in terms of hand-dominance, right- and left-handed signers could be described to use reverse patterns. In any case, it seems that at least right-handed signers of DGS and TİD make use of the same spatial areas to assign referents; however, they do so in a different order, i.e. DGS signers start to assign their referents on their ipsilateral side, while TİD signers start on the left side of the signing space.

Such variation in usage of the lateral spatial axis might be attributed to the typological difference between the two languages. In fact, that languages might show variation in their usage of spatial axes for default localization, has already been suggested by Geraci (2014).

Table 4.31 (initially presented in Chapter 2, Section 2.1 and here repeated with inclusion of

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DGS and TİD) provides an overview of the realization of spatial axes across various sign languages.

Table 4.31: (Potential) parametric variation observed in the usage of spatial axes

dThis table is formed on the basis of suggestions by Geraci (2014).

Another scenario regarding differential realization of the defaults, might be contact of DGS and TİD with the gestural pattern of the spoken languages (i.e. German and Turkish).

It has been observed that not only sign languages, but also spoken languages make use of the visual modality (i.e. gestural space) for expression of gestures co-occurring with the speech (i.e. referential expressions). The studies have shown that, speakers make use of contrastive areas in gestural space to express meaning as well (So et al. 2005; Calbris 2008;

Smith & Kam 2012; Smith & Kam 2015; Herrmann 2018). Calbris (2008) discusses that hearing individuals (i.e. a case of the French prime minister) as well follow left-right pattern in enumeration of the entities while they prefer right-left pattern when contrasting two entities in gesturing. Herrmann (2018) in a behavioral task, has observed that German speakers make use of right-left default placement of gestures (i.e. palm up) to identify referents of ambiguous pronouns.

In the light of those, DGS signers might share the same spatial pattern as speakers of German in gesturing. On the other hand, TİD signers either might have diverged from that

Spatial axes subject/R1 object/R2 language

X-axis ipsi contra LIS X-axis and Z axis ipsi/proximate contra/distant --

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because the left-right pattern became grammaticalized in this sign language or they might as well be adapting the gestural default pattern of speakers of Turkish. However, we need to look at comparative data on spatial modification including gesture of Turkish/German speakers and sign of DGS/TİD signers to verify these assumptions.

The default patterns of localization are not absolute but rather relative (Table 4.30:

Pattern 2), and can differ even in the productions of the same signers (i.e. intra-signer variation). This might as well be another evidence for the spatial defaults, by nature being overridable and gradient as suggested by Geraci (2014).

Inter-signer variation with respect to two-referent localizations, within the same language as well as the same handedness group was observed for both sign languages as well. For instance, in DGS participants G10 and G04, while in TİD participants T06 and T01, all right-handed, used opposing patterns of localization in their productions. This difference can be attributed to the sociolinguistic factors such as the region of the participants, register they tend to use in daily life (i.e. formal vs. informal) as well as sign language input (i.e. sign language history of the family).

In the light of those, if we look at two DGS signers with varying localization patterns, we can see that both have high level of education, but G04 has a deaf family and comes from Berlin (east of Germany) while G10 has a hearing family and comes from Frankfurt area (south of Germany) (see Appendix A for the metadata information). As both of the signers teach DGS, it might be the case that they are using a clear localization pattern (manual and non-manual). However, variation in realization of the pattern might as well be due to either regional differences (a comparable variation was observed for Turin region signers of LIS by Geraci (2014)), or the sign language input the signers were exposed from the very beginning. As these are the only signers coming from the two regions, there was no chance to compare regional variation, and needless to say it has to be investigated further.

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As for the TİD signers of the same handedness group, T01 followed a contra-ipsi pattern typical of his right-handed peers while T06 consistently used the reverse-pattern.

Both signers were raised by hearing families and are currently certified instructors of TİD.

While T01 was raised in the western part of Turkey, T06 was raised in the eastern part of Turkey. Moreover, one of the parents of T06 was a hearing teacher of TİD and might potentially be using a localization pattern which is particular to the education context or affected by the gestural system of Turkish. Therefore, T06’s deviation from the expected contra-ipsi (left-right) pattern used by right-handed signers might be attributed to the influence of the gestural pattern of the Turkish speakers (i.e. potentially right-left/ipsi-contra).

In terms of the one-referent localizations, both right and left-handed DGS signers, primarily started from the ipsilateral side, irrespective of the referent type. In some cases, localizations of R2 were on the contralateral side, for those occurrences we can assume that R1 is covertly localized on the ipsilateral side, even though there is no visible contrast in overt localization. These occurrences confirm the pattern observed for two-referent localizations.

When we look at the patterns observed for one-referent localizations in TİD, it seems that right-handed signers might be covertly localizing one of the referents hence single localizations of R1 are realized on the contralateral (left) and R2 on the ipsilateral (right) side, following the overt localization pattern of two-referents. They can as well start single R2 localizations from the left, in those cases R2 seem to be treated as first irrespective of R1. As for the left-handed signers, they either start from the contralateral (right) side or from the (ipsilateral) left side to localize R1 and R2. In the first case, they might simply treat these referents as first-mentioned irrespective of their type, in the second case the signers might have already localized covertly one of the referents on the left, hence the right side is used

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for the remaining referent irrespective of its type. All in all, the default pattern of overt localization is as well confirmed in the cases of one-referent localizations in TİD.

To recap, it was shown that the signers’ production of localization defaults (i.e. usage of lateral spatial axis for initial localization) is quite scarce and subject to variation. In fact a similar picture was observed for the British Sign Language (BSL) Corpus, where only a small frequency (9,4%) of the agreement/indicating verb tokens involved side-to-side spatial modification of the third person referents (Cormier, Fenlon & Schembri 2015). In the current data, the production of relatively small amount of lateral localizations might be caused by the nature of the prompt sentences themselves. That is, the participants might have been primed by sentences without localization cues, and produced as well either no localization at all, or only a few occurrences of it. To verify the frequency of usage of the lateral axis both for localizing verbs and pronominal IX signs, corpus data from DGS and TİD need to be analyzed.

Given that the defaults are easily overridable and occur scarcely in the natural or elicited production data, the question is whether they should be considered as a part of the grammar at all, and, if yes, how to handle, and more importantly how to integrate, all those variation in a model of the grammar. It is also important to note that the current task only looked at free continuation data, but different discourse contexts (e.g. contrast, comparison, coordination) might use divisions in space in different ways, and hence may trigger different patterns of defaults. Therefore, each of those contexts should be investigated separately with signers from different populations to determine the defaults (i.e. marked vs. unmarked structures), the deviations from those defaults, their function in discourse, and the potential factors overriding them.

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