Situating simultaneity: an initial schematization of the lexicogrammatical rank scale of British Sign Language

Abstract

A central tenet of systemic functional theory is the rank scale: an ordered representation of the part-whole relationships of units within semiotic systems. Linguists have schematized the rank scales for the lexicogrammars of English, French, Spanish and Chinese, to name a few. However, such schematization has yet to occur for languages in the visual-spatial modality (i.e. sign languages).This paper contributes to current literature by establishing a working schematization of the lexicogrammatical rank scale of British Sign Language (BSL). By taking a glottocentric perspective and with reference to systemic functional theory and BSL data, this work demonstrates that it is possible to create an organized rank scale for a language operating the visual-spatial modality as long as the productive simultaneity found within is accounted for sufficiently. This is enacted through a more detailed elaboration of the morpheme rank, so that higher ranks may be represented accurately. This study provides the foundations for similar rank scales of semiotic systems operating in the visual-spatial modality to be schematized, while also suggesting areas for further empirical investigation in both systemic functionalism and sign linguistics.

Keywords:

• British sign language
• lexicogrammar
• morpheme
• rank scale
• simultaneity
• systemic functional linguistics
• visual-spatial modality

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Ellie Dennington Gray and Victoria Punch for their assistance in discussing and visualizing the BSL examples provided in this paper. The author also wishes to thank the anonymous reviewers for their responses to an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The function-rank matrix for English can be found in Appendix 4 of Matthiessen (1995: 797–810).

2 Halliday and Matthiessen (2014) also use the term “exhaustiveness” later in their work, in the sense of “everything in the wording has some function at every rank” (84). This latter reading is not intended here.

3 Following conventions in sign linguistics, small caps are used to represent sign glosses.

4 Importantly, as this kind of construction is partly-lexical, there is a strong reliance on context and co-text. The same depicting construction could, for example, represent a seated parachutist caught in an updraft, had the context have supported such an interpretation.

5 A few notes regarding terminology are necessary at this point. “Clause” is used here to remain consistent with other systemic functional work. However, as noted by Hodge (2013) and Hodge and Johnston (2014), the author acknowledges that the use of “clause” for a signed language is problematic. “Group” is used without “phrase” as the concept of a phrase in systemic functional terms has yet to be identified securely (see Rudge, forthcoming, for further discussion on this point). Finally, “Word,” similar to “clause,” is used in its systemic functional sense: a rank in the grammar of a language (see Matthiessen et al. 2010). The author does not wish to suggest that sign languages comprise of words as the term is understood in the spoken and written modalities. Rather, this choice has been made to allow for consistency in systemic functional terms.

6 In this example, “I” is not overtly signed as the first-person Senser of this mental process is implicit. Signing pt:pro1sg pt:pro3sg know would also be felicitous.

7 “pt:___” indicates a pointing sign. In instances where points identify pronominal referents, the convention of “pt:pro(person)(plurality)” is used, hence “pt:pro1sg” indicates “first-person singular.”

8 A more accurate gloss, following conventions provided by Cormier et al. (2017), would be: “DSEW(1-VERT)-MOVE:HUMAN (move-following-LH: policeman following thief)” (with a similar gloss for the other hand). However, for ease of interpretation and to maintain a level of simplicity in the rank scales, the author has chosen to use a more contextualized gloss, especially as the use of Figures assists with interpretation.

9 This may also be translated as “The police watch the thief who is passing by,” to use a hypotactic construction, or “The police watch the passing thief” in an attempt to reduce the structure to one main clause in English. This latter was identified by an anonymous reviewer, leading to the discussion in the remainder of the section.