Prosody in Israeli sign language

This is a study of the interaction of phonology with syntax, and, to some e xtent, with meaning, in a natural sign language. It adopts the theory of pr osodic phonology (Nespor & Vogel, 1986), testing both its assumptions, whic h had been based on data from spoken language, and its predictions, on the language of the deaf community in Israel. Evidence is provided to show that Israeli Sign Language (ISL) divides its sentences into the prosodic consti tuents, phonological phrase and intonational phrase. It is argued that prominence falls at the end of phonological phrases, as t he theory predicts for languages like ISL, whose basic word order is head f irst, then complement. It is suggested that this correspondence between pro minence pattern and word order may have important implications for language acquisition. An assimilation rule whose domain is the phonological phrase provides further evidence for the phonological phrase constituent. The rule involves a phonetic element that has no equivalent in spoken language: the nondominant hand. In this way, it is shown how a phonetic system that bear s no physical relation to that of spoken language is recruited to serve a p honological-syntactic organization that is in many ways the same. The study also provides evidence for the next higher constituent in the pro sodic hierarchy, the intonational phrase. Elements such as topicalized cons tituents form their own intonational phrases in ISL as in spoken languages. Intonational phrases have clear phonetic correlates, one of which is facia l expressions which characterize entire intonational phrases. It is argued that facial expressions are analogous to intonational melodies in spoken la nguages. But unlike the tones of spoken language, which follow one another in a sequence, facial articulations can occur simultaneously with one anoth er and with the rest of the communicative message conveyed by the hands. Th is difference, it is argued, results from the fact that the many facial art iculators are independent, both of each other and of the primary articulato rs, the hands. The investigation illuminates the similarities as well as the differences o f prosodic systems in the two natural human language modalities, and points out directions for future research.