Abstract:

We present one of the first detailed studies on hesitation marking in a sign language. Based on the analysis of a set of monologues and dialogues from the Corpus NGT (Crasborn and Zwitserlood 2008; Crasborn, Zwitserlood, and Ros 2008), we describe the form and position of manual and nonmanual markers of hesitation in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). We show that palm-up, used as a hesitation marker, is akin to a "filled pause" in spoken language, both in its formal properties and its distribution. palm-up is regularly used to mark hesitation in dialogues, but far less commonly in monologues, which we suggest indicates that palm-up is used deliberately by signers to signal a delay in signing (cf. e.g., Maclay and Osgood 1959). Other manual markers of hesitation include sign holds and breaks in signing; their form and patterning in the data suggest they are closer to "unfilled pauses" in speech. As for nonmanuals, we show that all instances of hesitation in our data are marked by a change in the direction of eye gaze, suggesting that this is a clear pragmatic cue that signers use—intentionally or not—to signal a planning problem in signing. This fits well with previous observations that eye gaze plays an important role in turn-taking regulation in sign languages (e.g., Baker 1977).

摘要：

我们提出了第一个关于手语犹豫标记的详细研究。基于对语料库 NGT中的一组独白和对话的分析（Crasborn 和 Zwitserlood 2008；Crasborn、Zwitserlood 和 Ros 2008），我们描述了荷兰手语 (NGT) 中手动和非手动犹豫标记的形式和位置。我们表明，用作犹豫标记的手掌向上类似于口语中的“填充停顿”，无论是在形式属性还是分布方面。手掌朝上通常用于表示对话中的犹豫，但在独白中则少见得多，我们认为这表明手掌朝上是手语者故意使用手掌朝上来表示手语延迟的信号（例如，Maclay 和 Osgood 1959）。其他犹豫的手动标记包括手语保持和手语中断；它们在数据中的形式和模式表明它们更接近于语音中的“未填充停顿”。至于非手册，我们表明，我们数据中的所有犹豫实例都以眼睛注视方向的变化为标志，这表明这是一个明显的实用提示，手语者有意或无意地使用它来表示手语中的计划问题。这与之前的观察非常吻合，即眼睛注视在手语的轮流调节中起着重要作用（例如，Baker 1977）。