Coarticulation in American Sign Language Fingerspelling

Fingerspelling is a category of American Sign Language (ASL) signs that are signed sequentially as an alphabetic representation. The present study proposes to examine the coarticulation and feature-spreading characteristics of fingerspelling. A preliminary study identified feature categories to be examined. In keeping with these results and feature categories, three hypotheses were constructed: (1) anticipatory effects are more common than perseverative effects, (2) coarticulation is most prevalent word medially, rather than word initially or word finally, and (3) larger articulators show spreading more often than smaller articulators and spread across multiple handshapes. To test these hypotheses, five fluent ASL fingerspellers were recorded and the data was examined in reference to these three hypotheses. After analysis of this data, the first hypothesis was found to be supported. The second hypothesis was strengthened by this data. The third hypothesis developed from a simple division of large articulators versus small articulators into a complex hierarchy of features. These findings are discussed in terms of frequency patterns, physiological constraints, and spoken coarticulation models.

Name thesis:degree_name

Linguistics

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Linguistics

Year

2012

Author dc:creator

• Channer, Caitlin S.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Morford, Jill P.
• Wilcox, Sherman
• Wilcox, Phyllis Perrin

• American Sign Language
• fingerspelling
• coarticulation
• phonology
• sign language
• coarticulation model
• handshape
• reduction

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ling_etds/8

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:ling_etds-1007