From gesture to language: The emergence of nonmanual-markers in Nicaraguan Sign
Language
Will present in ASL
The appearance of common gestures as lexical signs indicates that gesture can serve as
raw material for a sign language’s lexicon. Can gesture similarly be the source of
grammatical forms? Sign languages typically use facial movements (nonmanualmarkers) to convey grammatical information. For example, in American Sign Language,
wh-questions are marked with a brow furrow: a common facial expression indicating
puzzlement in American speakers. It has been proposed that nonmanual-markers in sign
languages derive from the facial gestures used by local speakers (Janzen & Schaffer,
2002; McClave, 2001). To examine this process empirically, we compared the facial
gestures used within wh-questions by 14 Spanish-speaking Nicaraguans and 25 Deaf
Nicaraguans, representing three sequential age cohorts of users of Nicaraguan Sign
Language (NSL), a new language created 30 years ago.
We observed five facial gestures across cohorts (Fig. 1), and found that their distribution
has changed over time and does not reflect hearing gestural “input.” The nose wrinkle is
evident early, but by the third cohort, the brow furrow dominates (Fig 2.). We consider
three explanations for this pattern. Frequency in hearing gesture: Disconfirmed; no
gesture appears to dominate; indeed, the brow furrow is the least frequent. Salience in
hearing gesture: A tendency to hold the brow furrow is intriguing but inconclusive; no
facial gesture was held significantly longer than others (Fig. 3). Associated spoken
question word: Also disconfirmed; Spanish-speakers produced the brow furrow
primarily with when, whereas the deaf signers produced it primarily with WHAT (Fig. 4).
We consider an alternative account. The brow furrow, while not dominant in Nicaraguan
hearing gesture, appears in many sign languages around the world. Additionally, the
brow furrow is a universally used facial expression with clear emotive salience, typically
indicating puzzlement (Ekman, 1979). The brow furrow may be a preferred candidate for
marking wh-questions due to the salience of the form, namely, the ease with which it can
be produced and perceived. Additionally, movements of the brows are easily
manipulated, allowing the signer to control the onset and offset of the nonmanual-marker,
and mark scope, transforming a facial gesture into a grammatical nonmanual-marker.
Research with hearing speakers suggests a similar preference for the use of the upper
facial area, including the brows, for judgments of prosody and paralinguistic information
(deGelder et al., 1999; Lansing & McConkie, 1999; Swerts & Krahmer, 2008).
Our findings suggest that once the language has blossomed, its seed is no longer visible.
Perhaps once gestures have been repurposed into sign language, the factors that then lead
to the grammaticalization of one form over another are internal to the sign language,
leaving gesture behind. Instead, other elements come into play, shaping the language to
conform to the needs of the users.
word count: 448 Figure 1. Facial gestures.
Furrowed brow
Raised brow
Nose wrinkle
Chin lift
Head tilt
Figure 2. Proportion of Wh-Questions Using Each Facial Gesture.
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