대한언어학회 전자저널

대한언어학회

Table of Contents

33권 2호 (2025년 6월)

Universal 20 and Antisymmetry: The Nominal-Internal Order in Korean Sign Language

Jinwoo Jo

Pages : 75-99

DOI :

PDF보기

리스트

Abstract

Jo, Jinwoo. (2025). Universal 20 and antisymmetry: The nominal-internal
order in Korean Sign Language. The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal, 33(2), 75-99. In this paper, I attempt to evaluate previous analyses of word order of demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun, through an informal questionnaire survey for native signers of Korean Sign Language. The previous analyses make different predictions about the acceptability of five nominal-internal orders, and the survey has asked the participants to provide judgments of the sentences containing noun phrases with the five orders. The results of the survey suggest that an analysis of nominal-internal order does not require the view that phrases have the specifier-head-complement branching order, and that movements producing unmarked nominal-internal orders target a constituent containing N as well as occur only to the left. The results also indicate that noun phrases in signed languages are hierarchically structured even though they show variable word order. The conclusion in the paper once again demonstrates the possibility that investigation of signed languages may help to refine our understanding of linguistic universals.

Keywords

# word order # noun phrase # Universal 20 # antisymmetry # Korean Sign Language

References

  • Abels, K., & Neeleman, A. (2009). Universal 20 without the LCA. In J. M. Brucart, A. Gavarró, & J. Solà (Eds.), Merging features: Computation, interpretation, and acquisition (pp. 60-79). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Abels, K., & Neeleman, A. (2012). Linear asymmetries and the LCA. Syntax, 15(1), 25-74.
  • An, D.-H. (2014). Genitive case in Korean and its implications for noun phrase structure. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 23, 361-392.
  • Bouchard, D., & Dubuisson, C. (1995). Grammar, order & position of wh-signs in Quebec Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 87, 99-139.
  • Bruening, B. (2009). Selectional asymmetries between CP and DP suggest that the DP hypothesis is wrong. In University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 15: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium, 27-35.
  • Bruening, B. (2018). An even simpler account of Dem Num A N orders. Unpublished manuscript.
  • Bruening, B., Dinh, X., & Kim, L. (2018). Selection, idioms, and the structure of nominal phrases with and without classifiers. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 3, 42.
  • Cecchetto, C. (2012). Sentence types. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & B. Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 292-315). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  • Cinque, G. (2005). Deriving Greenberg's Universal 20 and its exceptions. Linguistic Inquiry, 36(3), 315-332.
  • Fischer, S. D. (2008). Sign language and linguistic universals. Sign Language & Linguistics, 11(2), 241-264.
  • Georgi, D., & Müller, G. (2010). Noun-phrase structure by reprojection. Syntax, 13(1), 1-36.
  • Greenberg, J. H. (1963). Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In J. H. Greenberg (Ed.), Universals of grammar (pp. 73-113). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Jieqiong, L., & Tang, G. (2020). Nominal-internal word order in Hong Kong Sign Language and Cantonese: A comparative study. Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory, 3, 43-55.
  • Kayne, R. (1994). The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Leeson, L., & Saeed, J. (2012). Word order. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & B. Woll (Eds), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 245-264). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  • Liddell, S. K. (1980). American Sign Language syntax. The Hague: Mouton.
  • Mantovan, L., & Geraci, C. (2017). The syntax of nominal modification in Italian Sign Language (LIS). Sign Language & Linguistics, 20(2), 183-220.
  • Neidle, C., Kegl, J., Maclaughlin, D., Bahan, B., & Lee, R. G. (2000). The syntax of American Sign Language: Functional categories and hierarchical structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Neidle, C., & Nash, J. (2012). The noun phrase. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & B. Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 265-292). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  • Petronio, K. (1991). A focus position in ASL. In Papers from the Third Student Conference in Linguistics 1991 (MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 14), 211-225.
  • Petronio, K., & Lillo-Martin, D. (1997). Wh-movement and the position of Spec-CP: Evidence from American Sign Language. Language, 73(1), 18-57.
  • Ross, J. R. (1967). Constraints on variables in syntax. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
  • Senft, G. (1986). Kilivila: The language of the Trobriand Islanders. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  • Stokoe, W. C. (1960). Sign language structure: An outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf. In Studies in linguistics: Occasional papers. Buffalo: University of Buffalo.
  • Tang, G., & Sze, F. (2002). Nominal expressions in Hong Kong Sign Language: Does modality make a difference? In R. P. Meier, K. Cormier, & D. Quinto-Pozos (Eds.), Modality and structure in signed and spoken Languages (pp. 296-320). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Tervoort, B. T. (1968). You me downtown movie fun? Lingua, 21, 455-465.
  • Zhang, N. N. (2007). Universal 20 and Taiwan Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics, 10(1), 55-81.