English has grammar rules, which need to be followed to convey meaning in the language. Users of the language need to know these rules so they can understand it and use the language more effectively and in the correct manner without making mistakes. We have seen how English includes negatives in the language now we can look at these grammar rules and compare them to BSL, to establish if these rules exist in BSL and to find out how negation is incorporated in BSL.
We can find some of these negative rules in BSL which are expressed by using signs, head movements, non-manual features hand shape and movements These negative markers can be incorporated by using any of these negative forms. “BSL has a number of different ‘negative markers’ which provide the user with a range of options for expressing negation…At least some of these negative markers appear to have the status of inflectional affixes” Brennan (1992:111). There is not an actual sign for, ‘not,’ in BSL, we could finger spell it but it may not make any sense to the language users. We can incorporate this negative word in BSL by other negative markers such as a negative headshake and non-manual features. For example, when signing the sentence, ‘I am not working,’ we would sign, ‘working’ and simultaneously shake our head from side to side to show negation which would interpret, ‘not working.’ This shows that the word, ‘not,’ can be shown in BSL by using other features of the language. There are signs in BSL for, ‘nothing, and never,’ these are signed by using the flat hand shape going across the mouth accompanied by the lip pattern, ‘poo,’ and a negative head shake to the side. This sign would mean, ‘nothing.’ The sign for, ‘never,’ would be one hand in a fist held out in front of you and the other in a flat hand shape, cutting down across the front of the fist to indicate, ‘never.’ Therefore, BSL can have the possibility to express NLI’s in a sentence to negate it through these signs. There are also negative markers that can be translated as pronouns. There are signs in BSL for, ‘none, and nobody.’ This is done by signing with the index finger and thumb joined known as the ‘F’ hand shape, circling in front of you and a negative headshake. Translated, it would mean, ‘nobody, or nothing.’ This shows that negative pronouns can be shown in BSL signs. Affixes and suffixes can also be shown to exist in BSL. By using a negative headshake while signing, ‘happy,’ would negate it as, ‘unhappy.’ We would also need to do a negative face to indicate unhappy if we did not then it would not be grammatically correct in BSL. In addition, using a negative headshake while signing, ‘allow,’ would be negated as ‘disallow.’ This shows affixes can be incorporated in the language by using the negative headshake, which can be said to be the affix. In BSL, negation is expressed through a change in the verb form, a change in movement, a negative headshake and negative non-manual features, therefore it can be said that this would be equal to double negatives and it is quite acceptable to do this. “In BSL it is common to have more than one negation marker in the sentence”. Sutton, Spence and Woll, (1999:78).
It can be said that BSL does incorporate negation. As we have seen, it shows many aspects of English grammar within the language and can incorporate NLI’s, pronouns, affixes, and negative words. Therefore, it can be argued that grammatical rules can be made to follow. As negative headshakes, negative facial expressions, movement and lip pattern all express negation in BSL, rules can be created from this information.
Researchers such as Brennan (1992), Sutton Spence and Woll (1999) and Deucher (1984) have researched BSL. Concerning negation, they found similar rules that incorporate negation. Brennan (1992:111) states it is possible to express negation through denial, rejection, and challenging certain meanings. We can make negative clauses by using these negative expressions. She also notes that these negative markers seem to be added onto verbs in BSL. She lists many negative markers, for example, the negative headshake, the slight head turn to the left or right, signs for, ‘not yet, nothing, nobody,’ the lip pattern, ‘poo,’ which is used when signing, ‘nothing,’ is described. A description of how to use the signs accompanied by lip pattern and non-manual features for negation is also given, for example, “Neg 4 involves both a manual and a non-manual element. The lips are pressed together and drawn back at the start of the sign. As the B hand moves in front of the mouth, the mouth opens sharply with the lips rounded…..it may occur either immediately before or after the verb.” Brennan (1992:111-112).
BSL is a language, which changes over time and the grammar rules seem to change as the users of the language changes. Some of the descriptions for the negative signs may not be in use now and maybe disappearing as the language changes. However, the, ‘poo,’ sign still seems to be used by many users of BSL to indicate, ‘nothing.’ Also the sign for, ‘nobody,’ can still be found in use. Examples of this can be found in the clips on wolf on the University of Wolverhampton website.
Sutton Spence and Woll (1999) note “three main elements of negation,
1) Facial expression
2) Head movement
3) Negation signs, or signs with negation incorporated in them.” Sutton Spence and Woll (1999:73). They state negation can be expressed through using the headshake, a negative sign and facial expressions. One element would not incorporate negation without the other. They note that the facial expressions can be extreme or just slight when used with negation, “there are different degrees of general negation facial expressions”. Furthermore mouth patterns such as, ‘boo’,’vee’,’thaw’, would need to be included when using a negative sign or it would not be a complete sign. Two negative head movements are described. One would be used with negative signs such as, ‘nothing’, ‘never’, ‘not yet’, and would be a half turn to the side. The other would be a headshake from side to side this could be used alone to negate a sentence or with other non-manual features such as, “nose wrinkling or drawn down lips”. They list many negative signs, which can be found in the BSL dictionary, there are signs for, ‘nothing, nobody, not yet,’ and other general negation signs in BSL. They also talk about double negatives, they go on to say that, double negatives are common in BSL, and when they are used in a sentence, it gives it a form of strong negation. “In BSL it is common to have more than one negation marker in a sentence. In BSL, a sentence such as DON’T-KNOW NOTHING is just a strong form of negation. ” Sutton, Spence and Woll (1999:77)
Furthermore, Deuchar (1984) finds the same negative headshake to indicate negation in BSL. She also finds a set of signs that incorporate negation by a change in hand shape and movement, these include, “WILL, LIKE, WANT, BELIEVE, AGREE, GOOD and possibly KNOW”, Deuchar (1984:89). It is not known how these signs come to share this likeness as they are signed differently from each other, yet work in the same way. She finds a similar group of signs in American Sign Language (ASL) French Sign Language (FSL), and Danish Sign Language that incorporate negation in a similar sort of way, by a change in hand shape and movement. Therefore, it could be said that there are some similarities in the languages and this could mean they could be universals if they have similar rules.
Looking at verbs in BSL, there seems to be two groups that behave in different ways to incorporate negation. One group will change its movement or its hand shape therefore has different signed forms. The other group will add on non-manual features or certain head movements to show negation and so cannot change their verb forms. Some verbs that change verb forms are, ‘can, will, agree, possible’. These can change to, ‘can’t, won’t disagree, impossible’. In some of these signs, the movement or hand shape will change. For example the sign, ‘possible,’ would change its hand shape and location to sign, ‘impossible,’ the sign, ‘will,’ changes it lip pattern to say, ‘won’t,’ some will change movement, non manual features and lip pattern and so will change sign form. Some of the verbs will have a head nod from side to side to show negation. If we talk about verbs and do this at the same time as the verb then it negates it. Non-manual features used to incorporate negation can be, wriggling of the nose, furrowed eyebrows and corner of lips turned down. It seems to be that this small group of verbs are known as plain verbs in BSL. Plain verbs are body anchored and so can take on more information in movement and hand shape to incorporate negation. Other verbs would need extra information to express negation through the negative head nod while signing which will negate the verb. As we can see verbs in BSL and other, sign languages can incorporate negation. They will take on as much information as they can to give us extra information. Some take on information by changing hand shape and movement, some by adding extra information with non-manual features, lip pattern and head movement to give us information about negation. Verbs can give information by adding extra language features with the sign. Negation in BSL is not complex it has some of the rules that English and other sign languages follow and can be seen to incorporate negation by changing verb forms and by adding extra information with negative headshake, non-manual features, hand shape, and movements. Facial expressions are used to convey more meaning and are compulsory in sign languages. However, in English, it is optional and most people do not use it intentionally as a grammar rule, though it can be used naturally without us knowing that we are actually making faces. It is not just signs that give us meaning in BSL, but a combination of hand shape, movement, and non-manual features.
Looking into the rules of negation in English and BSL, we can see that BSL does incorporate negation and following this, the grammatical rules for negation could be:
Rule 1: negative headshake while signing.
This would mean shaking the head while simultaneously signing makes the positive clause into a negative.
Sign and headshake = negation
Examples of this can be found in the following clips on wolf
1. My first x-ray
‘CLIMB LADDER,’ negative headshake was used throughout the whole sentence while signing.
2. Role model
‘INTERESTED SIGN,’ negative headshake was used throughout the whole sentence while signing.
3. Waardenburg’s syndrome
‘HAVE DEAF SISTER,’ negative headshake was used throughout the whole sentence while signing.
Rule 2: use of a negative sign
A negative sign such as, ‘poo or nothing,’ which would indicate nothing
Negative insertion and a sign = negation
Examples of this can be found in the following clips on wolf
1. Waardenberg’s Syndrome
‘NOTHING PEOPLE HAVE STRIPE.’
2. My first x-ray
‘POO TILES.’
3. Water in raft
‘POO PAPER, POO PEN, POO WRITE.’
Rule 3: slight head movement to the side.
When using a negative verb form, a negative movement of the head should be used meaning a slight head movement to the left or the right.
Negative verb form and sign = negation.
Examples of this can be found in the following clips on wolf
1. Incident at Butlins,
‘NEVER FORGET.’ a slight movement of the head when signing ‘never.’
2. My first x-ray
‘NEVER SEEN.’ a slight movement of the head when signing ‘never.’
3. Water in raft
‘IMPOSSIBLE,’ a slight movement of the head when signing ‘impossible.’
These rules were created by looking into English and previous BSL research. Negation can be expressed in BSL and similar rules can be found in other sign languages. After observing, the video clips on wolf it can be noted that not all users of the language follow these rules. Some will use the rules whereas others may not. This could be because deaf people were not taught sign language they acquired it through their parents or later on in their school life. Research into BSL is done through deaf children of deaf parents and so it is not a true reflection of how the language is used by a vast amount of language users. “A random selection from the profoundly deaf population would not be appropriate, given the wide degree of variation both in the history of the individual's deafness (age of onset, type of deafness) and in the experience of exposure to BSL users. (The profoundly deaf child of hearing parents is unlikely to have had any contact with BSL prior to schooling, and in some cases may not have direct contact until leaving school.)” Brennan & Colville (1979). Ninety percent of deaf children have hearing parents this has an impact on their language acquisition and therefore they do not acquire sign language until they meet other deaf people. This can be at school however many deaf children go to mainstream schools and therefore do not meet deaf people until they leave school and go on to meet deaf adults which can be through deaf clubs. Deaf people are not taught sign language in schools they just acquire it through other deaf people therefore the rules that have been created may not be used by all deaf people as we can see from the clips on wolf. Although rules may not be followed, we can still understand deaf people when they converse. However, it is beneficial to learn the correct grammatical rules to help us understand the language better and would help learners of the language, so they can follow them and not make many mistakes.
BSL has evidence of negation we can identify this through comparing with English. Previous research also finds the same rules and it has been noted that these rules can also be found in other sign languages. However, not all language users follow these rules and therefore it can be asked whether these rules are needed. It is more beneficial for learners of the language to follow rules however; native users may not want to change the way they sign because they do not look at their signing and think they are doing it incorrectly.
References
Brennan M. (1992) The visual world of BSL: an introduction in Brien D. (ed) Dictionary of BSL/Eng, London: Faber and Faber
Brennan M & Colville M. (1979) A British Sign language Research Project in Stokoe W (ed) Sign Language Studies Volume 24 Fall Burtonsville: Linstok Press
Collins Cobuild. (1990) English Grammar Suffolk: Richard Clay Ltd
Deuchar M. (1984) British Sign Language, London: Routledge
Kyle J.G. & Woll B. (1985) Sign Language: the study of deaf people and their language, Cambridge: Cambridge University press
Sutton-Spence R. & Woll, B. (1999) The linguistics of BSL Cambridge: CUP.
Clips on wolf
Brewer, G. (2007) Role Model [online] University of Wolverhampton WOLF Sign Clip IG2201 [cited 13-11-2007]
Fowler, K (2007) My First X-Ray [online] University of Wolverhampton WOLF Sign Clip IG2201 [cited 13-11-2007]
Gibson, L. (2007) Water in Raft [online] University of Wolverhampton WOLF Sign Clip IG2201 [cited 13-11-2007]
McLean, F (2007) Waardensberg’s Syndrome [online] University of Wolverhampton WOLF Sign Clip IG2201 [cited 01-01-2008]
Richardson, S. (2007) Incident at Butlins [online] University of Wolverhampton WOLF Sign Clip IG2201 [cited 01-01-2008]
Bibliography
Brennan, M. & Turner G. (eds) 1994 Word order issues in sign language Durham
Crystal D (ed.) 1987 The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Deuchar. M. 1984 British Sign Language, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul
Greenberg J. 1966 Universals of language ed by Greenberg J. London: MIT Press
Kyle J.G & Woll B. 1998 Sign Language: The study of deaf people and their language Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Liddell, S. 1984 American Sign Language Syntax, Mouton, The Hague.
Lucas, C. (ed) 1990 Sign Language Research: Theoretical Issues, Gallaudet University Press, Washington, D.C.
Sutton-Spence, R. & Woll, B. 1999 The linguistics of British Sign Language, Cambridge: CUP.
2005 Sign Linguistics