A corpus study of mouthing and fingerspelling in Russian Sign Language: description and implications for cross-modal contact

• Applicant: Dr. Anastasia Bauer
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391074016

While some selected aspects of Russian Sign Language (RSL) have recently been researched, many topics in the grammar of RSL remain un(der)studied and nothing is known about fingerspelling or mouthing in RSL. This project aims at providing the first detailed corpus-based description of these two phenomena in RSL and showing how they bear on current debates regarding their linguistic status in sign languages. Due to particular aspects of the visual-gestural modality, fingerspelling and mouthing are specific cases of language contact that do not have a direct equivalent in spoken languages. Inasmuch as fingerspelling and mouthing constitute cross-modal language contact phenomena, this study will provide further insights into the interaction of three different modalities (sign, speech and writing) and the grammatical system(s) underlying this interaction. The project gains insights into how the spoken and written Russian, in the form of mouthing and fingerspelling, combines with and affects RSL. The processes of nativization of fingerspelled words of the Russian manual alphabet into the sign language lexicon will be tested according to the cross-linguistic nativization model. By investigating the co-occurrence and variation of mouthings on the basis of a set of frequently occurring signs in RSL, the project will shed light on the linguistic status of mouthings. The occurrences of fingerspelling and mouthing will be investigated as they are produced by and between native RSL signers in the recently created RSL Corpus (2012-2015, Novosibirsk State Technical University, Russia) containing more than 100,000 signs in 230 video clips presented by 59 native RSL signers. The project adds significantly to the documentation of RSL, contributes to the debate on the linguistic status of mouthing and fingerspelling in sign language grammar, and discusses how these two phenomena suit the existing phonological and morphological models in the sign language and bimodal bilingualism research.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Russia
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Svetlana Burkova