The modal SELF in ASL adjectival predication

Tory Sampson (Boston University)

In my talk, I present an experiment comparing the different strategies used in ASL adjectival predication. Across languages, the nominal and verbal strategies are the two primary strategies that govern adjectival predication, and that in languages that use both strategies, there is a split that corresponds to the permanence of adjectives. Nominal strategies are often used with more permanent adjectives, and verbal strategies are used with less permanent adjectives. I ask what strategies ASL use in adjectival predication, and identify the nominal strategy in using SELF-ONE as a copula used to predicate nominals in ASL (Sampson & Mayberry 2022), and the verbal strategy in using the pronominal point, IX. Using a Likert scale task, I ask adult deaf signers to rate the acceptability of sentences containing either SELF-ONE or IX and either more or less permanent adjectives. Results show that both types of adjectives are acceptable with IX, and more permanent adjectives are acceptable with SELF-ONE than with less adjectives. This shows that adjectives are predicational in the same way as ASL verbs are. The equal acceptability between SELF-ONE and IX for more permanent adjectives suggest disparate semantic contributions stemming from the use of SELF-ONE and IX. I posit that SELF-ONE induces a truth-conditional interpretation, indicating that the sentence now has a binary truth value. This contrasts with IX, as seen in J-O-H-N IX DOCTOR, where there is no such truth-conditionality and the statement merely reflects the signer’s observations or beliefs. The strategy of using SELF-ONE could have emerged to distinguish between explicit and implicit meanings.