BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:16757-d77555fdb82850f0f9cc2a3debd925ed@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260307T145528Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T103000 SUMMARY:Center for Language Science Speaker Series: Tory Sampson DESCRIPTION:\nThis presentation examines the development of movement rep etition in American Sign Language (ASL) and its emergence from iconic\, depictive strategies into an abstract morphophonological device. While n oun–verb pairs have long been analyzed through synchronic accounts of no minalizing reduplication (Supalla &\; Newport\, 1978\; Abner\, 2013\; 2017)\, such accounts fail to explain the full range of signs that exhi bit movement repetition\, including those outside the nominal domain. Dr awing on diachronic evidence and parallel architecture (Jackendoff\, 200 2)\, I propose that movement repetition entered the ASL lexicon through multiple converging pathways. Semantically\, repetition arises from the communicative need to distinguish objects and states from their associat ed actions. Syntactically\, pluractionality and relative clause embeddin g provide environments where repeated actions are reanalyzed as enduring states or referential entities. Phonologically\, modality-specific pref erences for repeated\, restrained movements further promote its conventi onalization\, even in the absence of iconic motivation. Together\, these interacting pressures fostered the development of movement repetition i nto a morphophonological feature\, now pervasive across the ASL lexicon. By situating this development in a diachronic perspective\, the study d emonstrates how signers recruit an iconic parameter and restructure it i nto a less iconic parameter. These findings highlight the unique afforda nces of the visual-gestural modality while contributing to general theor ies of language emergence and the interplay between form\, meaning\, and modality in language change.\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu .edu/event/csc-speaker-series-tory-sampson/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

This presentati on examines the development of movement repetition in American Sign Lang uage (ASL) and its emergence from iconic, depictive strategies into an a bstract morphophonological device. While noun–verb pairs have long been analyzed through synchronic accounts of nominalizing reduplication (Supa lla & Newport, 1978; Abner, 2013; 2017), such accounts fail to expla in the full range of signs that exhibit movement repetition, including t hose outside the nominal domain. Drawing on diachronic evidence and para llel architecture (Jackendoff, 2002), I propose that movement repetition entered the ASL lexicon through multiple converging pathways. Semantica lly, repetition arises from the communicative need to distinguish object s and states from their associated actions. Syntactically, pluractionali ty and relative clause embedding provide environments where repeated act ions are reanalyzed as enduring states or referential entities. Phonolog ically, modality-specific preferences for repeated, restrained movements further promote its conventionalization, even in the absence of iconic motivation. Together, these interacting pressures fostered the developme nt of movement repetition into a morphophonological feature, now pervasi ve across the ASL lexicon. By situating this development in a diachronic perspective, the study demonstrates how signers recruit an iconic param eter and restructure it into a less iconic parameter. These findings hig hlight the unique affordances of the visual-gestural modality while cont ributing to general theories of language emergence and the interplay bet ween form, meaning, and modality in language change.

For more deta ils: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/csc-speaker-series-tory-sampson/

URL:https://cls.la.psu.edu/news-events/cls-speaker-series/ LOCATION:102 Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR