Results based on verb type

Response data were further grouped according to three types of the verbs occurring in the introduction sentences (see Section 3.1.2). The first group consists of plain verbs, the second group includes a sub-group of plain verbs, i.e. reciprocal verbs. The third group contains agreement verbs of both single and double agreement (forward and backward agreement) type and no further distinctions were done in this group since all sub-groupings show a similar pattern in response data with a high amount of R2 selections (see Table 3.5 for details).

Frequency of participants’ referent choices was calculated for each verb type and each language (see Figure 3.8). The findings show that referent choice differed between verb types. Specifically, agreement verbs (DGS: R1 = (24%), R2 = (67%), R1R2= (9%); TİD: R1

= (30%), R2 = (61%), R1R2=8/90 (9%)), plain verbs (DGS: R1= (8%), R2 = (85%), R1R2

= (7%); TİD: R1= (24%), R2 = (74%), R1R2 = (2%), and reciprocal verbs (DGS: R1 = (30%), R2= (48%), R1R2 = (22%); TİD: R1 = (44%), R2 = (42%), R1R2 = (15%)).

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Figure 3.8: Overall proportions of participant responses of referent selections for DGS (left panel) and TİD (right panel) separated by verb type

The significance of the verb type as a factor influencing the referent choice was determined via Chi-Square test of independence applied to the data comparing referent choice frequencies (see Table 3.5) grouped by verb type. Verb type was found to be a significant factor in the choice of referents in both languages (DGS: X² (4, N = 199) = 19.5, p < .05; TİD: X² (4, N = 197) = 13.7, p < .05). This suggests that the type of the verb might have an influence on the interpretation of IX signs.

Table 3.5: Frequency and percentage of participant responses by referent selections and by verb type for DGS and TİD

language verb type R1 R2 R1R2 total #

DGS agreement 19 (24%) 54 (67%) 7 (9%) 80

plain 5 (8%) 50 (85%) 4 (7%) 59

reciprocal 18 (30%) 29 (48%) 13 (22%) 60

TİD agreement 27 (30%) 55 (61%) 8 (9%) 90

plain 14 (24%) 44 (74%) 1 (2%) 59

reciprocal 21 (44%) 20 (42%) 7 (15%) 48

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The findings show that the choice of the referents differs depending on the verb type.

In particular, R2 was selected the most with plain verbs and secondly with agreement verbs and lastly with reciprocal verbs where the amount of R1 and R2 selections were the closest.

Given the picture provided by the verb types, it seems that plain verbs and agreement verbs behave differently than reciprocal verbs in that R2 has been selected more with the former two groups than the latter. Given that R1 and R2 were chosen equally often with reciprocal verbs in both DGS and TİD, a more detailed analysis of this grouping based on the direction of IX and handedness was performed and is presented in the following sections.

3.3.4.1 Results based on reciprocal verbs: IX direction

In order to determine whether signers’ selection of referents differed according to the spatial direction of IX occurring in the context of reciprocal verbs, the response data were split by the direction of IX for each language separately.Thefrequency of referent selections was calculated for both right and left directions of IX per language (see Figure 3.9).

Comparing referent selections for IXRand IXL in DGS,participants tended to identify IXRas R2 (R1 = (20%), R2 = (63%), R1R2 = (17%)) and for IXL they preferred to select R1 and R1R2(R1=(40%),R2=(33%),R1R2=(27%)). However, the reverse pattern is observed in TİD. Thus, participants preferred to identify IXRas R1 and R1R2 (R1= (60%), R2 = (20%), R1R2 = (20%)), while they were likely to select R2 for IXL(R1=(27%),R2=(65%),R1R2

=(9%)).To recap, in both languages an asymmetry between IXRand IXLwas observed such that, in DGS IXRwas interpreted as R2 (and R1R2) while IXLas R1, the reverse pattern has been observed for TİD, IXRbeing interpreted as R1 (and R1R2) and IXLas R2.

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Figure 3.9: Overall proportions of the referent selections for DGS (left panel) and TİD (right panel) separated by spatial direction of IX in the context of reciprocal verbs

A Chi-Square test of independence comparing the frequency of referent choices (see Table 3.6) for IX grouped by the dependent variable IX direction for DGS and TİD, confirmed that frequencies of the referent selections differ by direction of the IX in TİD and differ only marginally for DGS (DGS: X² (2, N=60) = 5.48, p > .05; TİD: X² (2, N= 48) =10.077, p <

.05) in the context of the reciprocal verbs.

Table 3.6: Frequency and percentage of participant responses by referent selections and by spatial direction of IX in the context of reciprocal verbs in DGS and TİD

language IX direction

R1 R2 R1R2 total #

DGS IXR 6 (20%) 19 (63%) 5 (17%) 30

IXL 12 (40%) 10 (33%) 8 (27%) 30

TİD IXR 15 (60%) 5 (20%) 5 (20%) 25

IXL 6 (27%) 15 (65%) 2 (9%) 23

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In sum, looking at the data for a subset of the verbs, i.e. reciprocal verbs, referent selections seem to differ based on the direction of IX.For TİD, there seems to be a preference of selecting R1 for IXRand R2 for IXL. On the other hand, DGS shows such an asymmetry as well, but in a less strong manner especially for IXLwhere R1 is selected only in a slightly higher amount than other referents.

3.3.4.2 Results based on reciprocal verbs: handedness and IX direction

Selection of referents in the context of reciprocal verbs seem to differ based on the direction of IX and show opposing patterns in DGS and TİD. In this section, the factor handedness is added to the analysis and the data are split according to the handedness of participants.Frequency of participants’ referent choices were calculated for both IXRand IXL

as well as right- and left-handed participants per language (Table 3.7).

In DGS, right-handed signers selected R2 and R1R2 equally often and more than R1 for IXR(R1 = (17%), R2 = (42%), R1R2 = (42%)). Likewise, IXLwas also interpreted mostly as R2 and then as R1R2, (R1= (22%), R2 = (44%), R1R2 = (33%)) but compared to IXR,the selection of R1 was slightly higher. Left-handed DGS signers showed a clearer asymmetry in their referent selections. Thus, IXRwas mainly identified as R2 (R1= (22%), R2 = (78%), R1R2 = (0%)) while IXLwas mostly identified as R1 (R1 = (67%), R2 = (17%), R1R2 = (17%)).

In TİD, right-handed signers selected R1 for IXRmore often than R2 (R1= (54%), R2

= (31%), R1R2 = 15%) and IXL was interpreted more often as R2 than as R1 (R1= (17%), R2 = (67%), R1R2 = (12%)). Left-handed TİD signers showed a similar pattern such that

IXR was identified most as R1 (R1 = (67%), R2 = (8%), R1R2 = (25%)) while IXLwas mainly identified as R2 (R1 = (36%), R2 = (65%), R1R2 = (0%)).

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To sum up, TİD signers interpreted IXR as R1 and IXLas R2 irrespective of their handedness. On the other hand, left-handed DGS signers showed reverse pattern selecting

IXR as R2 and IXLas R1. However, no clear asymmetry can be seen between IXR and IXLfor right-handed signers. Thus, R1 was selected the least for both directions, but only for IXL. R2 appeared to be selected more than R1R2 while for IXRthe referents other than R1 were selected equally often.

Figure 3.10: Overall proportions of participant responses by referent selections and by spatial direction of IX occurring in the context of reciprocal verbs in DGS and TİD

In order to determine whether spatial direction of IX is a significant factor in the choice of the referents in each sub-group of the data based on handedness, a two-tailored Fisher's Exact test was calculated for frequencies of responses (see Table 3.7). For

left-88

handed signers, IX was found to be significant factor in referent selection in DGS (p=0.002) and TİD (p=0.007). On the other hand, for right-handed signers, IX was not found to be significant in DGS (p=0.99) or in TİD (p=0.16). Nevertheless, the visual inspection of Figure 3.10 suggests that for right-handed signers of DGS and TİD, there might be a preference for

IXL to be interpreted as R2, and at least for TİD, IXRseems to be preferred to be selected as R1.

Table 3.7: Frequency and percentage of participant responses by referent selections, IX,spatial direction of IX and by handedness of the participants in the context of reciprocal verbs in DGS and TİD