Some methods of pluralizing:
1. Use
a number
2. Incorporate a number into the sign
3. Use a quantifier such as "MANY, FEW, SEVERAL"
4. Use a classifier such as "SCADS-OF"
5. Use with a phrase: STORE, I GO-to, (shift) GO-to, (shift) GO-to.
6. Sweep
7. Reduplication
8. Inflection of the movement (e.g. people)
9. Reposition
PERSONAL PRONOUNS:
Pronouns that are used as substitutes for proper or common nouns
can be pluralized by sweeping. Typical examples include: "I,
we, you, he, she, it, they."
For example the
concept of "THEY." I would point slightly off to the right
and sweep it more to the right. Of course if the people are present
then you can simply point to them.
For "YOU ALL" I would point
slightly to the left and sweep to the right. The more people there are the bigger the sweep.
Question from a student: "Does the sweep always move
horizontally?"
Answer: It depends on what you are talking about. If I am
talking about a group that is organized vertically then I will sign (sweep)
from top to bottom in an vertical motion. For example if I'm referring
to items in a list, or a stack of items.
Noun
signs and their plural forms:
Question: A researcher asks:
I am aware of the fact that in most cases ASL noun plurals are
expressed by just putting a numeral or quantifier like MUCH or MANY
in front of the noun to be pluralised. I have also read (in Wilbur
1987 and Supalla & Newport 1978) that sometimes, plural can be
expressed directly on the noun, by repeating the noun sign a couple
of times, or in the case of two objects, using the "dual inflection"
where the noun sign is repeated once and the body shifts from one
side to the other. I suppose this way of plural marking isn't very
frequent, but do you have an intuition when it is more likely to
occur? Maybe there are contexts when it occurs more often than in
others, and to elicit these plural forms I could try to build up
such a context.
I am not referring to dual or plural inflection on the VERB but to
pluralisation of the NOUN itself. By pluralisation I actually mean
all the different ways there are of marking a noun directly for
plural, i.e. not via quantifiers and numerals but through
duplicating the noun sign, duplicating it with a body shift, or
whatever other way of plural marking on nouns there is that I am not
aware of. Could you tell me about contexts where nouns can be
directly marked for plural in ASL?
Answer: Bill replies:
The ways of directly marking the noun would include:
* Sweep: HE becomes THEY / IT becomes THOSE
* Inflection of the movement: PERSON becomes PEOPLE
* Reduplicate: ADOPT vs ADOPTIONS, TEACH vs TEACHINGS, CANCEL vs
CANCELATIONS
* Reposition: CL:3 (vehicle) becomes "A car here, one here, and one
here" via repositioning.
Reduplication in the same location tends to occur when you turn a
process into a pluralized noun. TEACH is a process.
TEACHINGS are nouns. CANCEL is a process, CANCELATIONS are nouns.
This is certainly related to "noun/verb" pairing, but there is a
subtle difference. We do not reduplicate the sign "ADOPT" to mean
"ADOPTION." We either rely on context, we add some other sign such
as "PROCESS," and/or we add a mouth morpheme.
Thus there are verbs that when
reduplicated become plural nouns.
Note: You asked how to elicit
examples.
To elicit examples of various noun usage I suggest you show your
language models videos of plural nouns and ask the models to
describe what they saw. For example you could show a video of a car
accident involving multiple cars and ask them to retell what they
saw.
2008/8/14 Dr. Bill writes:
Cornelia
Are you from Europe? You are spelling pluralisation with an "s." My
spell check tends to use a "z" (e.g. pluralization.) Are you doing
your dissertation? Writing a book? Got me curious now.
In a message dated 8/14/2008 11:21:19
A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, cornelia.loos writes:
Hi Bill,
I am indeed from Europe, specifically from Germany, and I've adopted
the 's' for any -ise and -isation words cause that way I don't get
muddled up with z and s and just keep it consistent.
I am writing my undergrad thesis on compound formation in ASL, and
thanks a lot for putting the note up on your page. Unfortunately, I
don't have any process nouns among the nouns I'm testing. The idea
behind my asking for pluralisation of nouns is that I want to look
at headedness in ASL nominal compounds, and one characteristic of a
head (the more prominent element of a compound, e.g. 'house' in
'greenhouse') is that it takes plural marking. So one way of proving
that e.g. the formal head of the compound BOOK^SHELF is the sign
SHELF is by showing that plural marking on more than one BOOK^SHELF
goes onto the sign SHELF, e.g. by signing several shelves next to
each other or below each other. I am indeed using pictures to elicit
the compound nouns in question, but for lots of them I fear native
signers won't reduplicate the noun to show pluralisation, e.g.
BABY^COW, JESUS^BOOK, MUSIC^GROUP, DEATH^ARTICLE; BOAT^PADDLE,
COAT^HOOD; SKIN^YELLOW, MEDICINE^CALM-DOWN. So my question earlier
was aiming at getting contexts where signers would reduplicate the
heads of the signs just mentioned to indicate plural.
I hope my explanations is clear, I'm kind of tired - I've been
packing all day cause I'm flying to Toronto in a few days to
interview native signers :)
Thanks for your interest and help,
Cornelia
Cornelia,
Your explanations are really very good. Especially the most recent
one.
I can indeed see your challenge and I suspect there is no "easy"
solution, but since you've asked for help in brainstorming I'll
suggest the following:
It seems to me that you might want to try asking your models to
"exhaust" their repertoire of variations by showing you "every" way
they can think of to describe what is in the picture or video. Thus
they will end up showing you many variations and hopefully include
the variations you are looking for. Then, afterward you can ask them
to discuss which ones "feel" best. And then you can ask them to
specifically comment on the items you are seeking to explore.
--Bill