Sign languages include partially lexicalised signs (known as depicting constructions, DCs) that have been argued to blend linguistic and non-linguistic components, although it is unclear what these components are. To describe object handling, signers produce handshapes that represent how the hands shape for handling, but it has not yet been fully established whether the continuous object size is described by discrete handshapes in British Sign Language (BSL). The thesis examines whether experience with sign language influences perception and comprehension of BSL handling handshapes. In the first study, categorical perception (CP), using the identification and ABX discrimination tasks, is examined for handling handshapes (HHs) in BSL. The experiments reveal that adult deaf BSL signers and hearing non-signers perceive continuous HHs categorically while remaining perceptive to gradient aperture changes. Deaf BSL signers were more accurate than hearing non-signers when discriminating between handshape stimuli; this is likely due to visual language experience. However, reaction times showed no processing advantage suggesting that categorisation of BSL HHs has a general, visual-perceptual rather than linguistic basis. The second study examines whether deaf BSL signers compared with hearing non-signers express and interpret gradient sizes of manipulated objects categorically in discourse. Handling of objects gradiently increasing in size was recorded in BSL narratives, in English narratives via co-speech gesture and pantomime; recordings were shown to another group of judges who matched handling productions with the objects. All participants reliably associated smaller objects with smaller apertures and larger objects with larger apertures; however, in BSL and co-speech gesture, handshapes were not completely interpreted as gradient variations in comparison with pantomime. When gestures become more strategic or unusual, e.g. pantomime, speakers introduce finer-grained encoding of object sizes. The discontinuous patterns suggest that HHs have underlying representations outside of the linguistic realm; their categorisation arises from visual-perceptual experience that is embodied through interaction with real life entities. In discourse, handling constructions are partly conventionalised and may become decomposable in BSL overtime but it is suggested here that general cognitive and perceptual factors contribute to the conventionalisation, rather than purely linguistic. Further, the findings from both experiments lend support to the argument that HH category structure is graded. This thesis contributes to debates about the relationship between visual perception and language processing and the complex interface between language and gesture and highlights the nature of language as a multimodal phenomenon.

Sign languages offer a unique perspective for understanding the relation between handedness and cerebral lateralisation for language, since in sign language the hands themselves are the articulators. Signers display evidence of hand dominance while signing and fingerspelling. In one-handed signs and one-handed fingerspelling, the dominant hand is predominantly used. In two-handed signs and two-handed fingerspelling, the dominant hand is the active articulator with the non-dominant hand acting as the base. Past studies of handedness in the deaf population have reported a lower prevalence of right-handedness than in the population generally. These studies however have investigated mostly non-linguistic and non-communicative tasks such as throwing a ball, using a hammer etc. The present study looks at handedness patterns for linguistic and communicative tasks such as signing and fingerspelling, and non-linguistic communicative use of the hands such as gesture. The main research questions are: What is the handedness distribution for signing and fingerspelling within the BSL using population? Is this distribution similar to that of the hearing population? What are the handedness patterns for linguistic and non-linguistic tasks within right and left-handed signers? How are these patterns affected, if at all, under experimental conditions? What is the effect on handedness in relation to linguistic and motoric impairments caused by stroke in Deaf people? The study is in three parts: the first provides handedness statistics drawn from observation and reported signing hand preference in Deaf users of British Sign Language (BSL) as well as for tool use. A new questionnaire suitable for use with signers (the BSL Handedness Screen) was developed. In contrast to previous studies, this study did not find a higher prevalence of non-right handedness in the signing population. Parts 2 and 3 explore dominance switching in an experimental study by impeding or preventing use of the dominant or non-dominant hand (Part 2), and comparing errors and compensatory mechanisms with those found in RH and LH signers following stroke (Part 3). Differences between signing, fingerspelling and gesture are found in dominance switching. Possible motoric and linguistic explanations are explored and implications for therapy are also discussed. The hand as linguistic articulator offers a route to addressing questions about the interplay of linguistic and motoric skills and underpinning neural mechanisms.

The phonological system of a sign language comprises meaningless sub-lexical units that define the structure of a sign. A number of studies have examined how learners of a sign language as a first language (L1) acquire these components. However, little is understood about the mechanism by which hearing adults develop visual phonological categories when learning a sign language as a second language (L2). Developmental studies have shown that sign complexity and iconicity, the clear mapping between the form of a sign and its referent, shape in different ways the order of emergence of a visual phonology. The aim of the present dissertation was to investigate how these two factors affect the development of a visual phonology in hearing adults learning a sign language as L2. The empirical data gathered in this dissertation confirms that sign structure and iconicity are important factors that determine L2 phonological development. Non-signers perform better at discriminating the contrastive features of phonologically simple signs than signs with multiple elements. Handshape was the parameter most difficult to learn, followed by movement, then orientation and finally location which is the same order of acquisition reported in L1 sign acquisition. In addition, the ability to access the iconic properties of signs had a detrimental effect in phonological development because iconic signs were consistently articulated less accurately than arbitrary signs. Participants tended to retain the iconic elements of signs but disregarded their exact phonetic structure. Further, non-signers appeared to process iconic signs as iconic gestures at least at the early stages of sign language acquisition. The empirical data presented in this dissertation suggest that non-signers exploit their gestural system as scaffolding of the new manual linguistic system and that sign L2 phonological development is strongly influenced by the structural complexity of a sign and its degree of iconicity.

Until now there has been no robust (socio)linguistic documentation of urban sign language varieties in Indonesia, and given the size of the Indonesian archipelago, it might be expected that these varieties are very different from each other. In this kind of situation, sign linguists have often applied lexicostatistical methods, but two such studies in Indonesia have recently produced contradictory results. Instead, this investigation uses conceptual and methodological approaches from linguistic typology and Variationist Sociolinguistics, contextualised by a sociohistorical account of the Indonesian sign community. The grammatical domains of completion and negation are analysed using a corpus of spontaneous data from two urban centres, Solo and Makassar. Four completive particles occur in both varieties, alongside clitics and the expression of completion through mouthings alone. The realisations of two variables, one lexical and one grammatical, are predicted by factors including the syntactic and functional properties of the variant, and younger Solonese signers are found to favour completive clitics. The reasons for intra-individual persistence and variation are also discussed. Negation is expressed through particles, clitics, suppletives, and the simultaneous mouthing of predicates with negative particles. These paradigmatic variants occur in both varieties, with small differences in the sets of particles and suppletives for each variety. The realisations of four variables are found to be conditioned by factors including predicate type, sub-function, and the use of constructed dialogue. The gender of the signer is found to correlate with the syntactic order of negative and predicate; younger Solonese signers are also found to favour negative clitics and suppletives. The similarities revealed between the Solo and Makassar varieties are discussed with reference to the history of contact between sign sub-communities across the archipelago. The investigation concludes with a discussion of factors that favour and disfavour the convergence of urban sign language varieties.

BSL exhibits considerable regional lexical variation. Results from previous studies suggest that there has been a reduction in regional differences since the introduction of BSL on television (Woll et al., 1991) and increased regional contact (Woll, 1987). Based on these findings, this project aims to investigate lexical variation and change in BSL and its relationship to regional contact. Regional variation in the signs for colours, countries, numbers and UK place names were analysed from the BSL Corpus Project data (Schembri et al., under review) to consider their correlation with signers’ age, gender, school location, social class, ethnicity, teaching experience and language background (whether the signer has deaf or hearing parents). The results suggest that levelling may be taking place with younger signers using a decreasing variety of regionally distinct variants. Dialect contact and long-term linguistic accommodation are considered to be contributing factors in levelling (Trudgill, 1986). To investigate this as a possible explanation for language change, 25 pairs of BSL signers from different regional backgrounds were involved in a conversational ‘Diapix’ task (Van Engen et al., 2010) and a comprehension task. Observation of the conversational data reveals that, despite conflicting evidence as to the degree of comprehension of BSL regional varieties (e.g., Kyle & Allsop, 1982; Woll et al., 1991), participants had no difficulties understanding one another. It appears that signers from different regions often rely on English mouthing produced simultaneously with signing to disambiguate the meaning of regional signs. Results also suggest that participants performed best comprehending Birmingham and London varieties. Lexical accommodation was found to be minimal suggesting that language change in BSL is not influenced primarily by contact with other varieties but rather that language change appears to be the result of recent changes in language transmission (i.e., the closure of schools for deaf children)

This thesis explores the way im/politeness is interpreted from British Sign Language into spoken English. This aspect of interpreting may significantly impact on the dynamics of interpreted interactions, due to differences in the way im/politeness is both produced and received in the varied situations in which interpreters work. The study draws on rapport management theory (Spencer-Oatey 2005, 2008) and the concept of social networks (Watts 2003) to frame the complex and multiple considerations involved. Qualitative data were generated through a series of semi-structured group discussions centred on interpreting im/politeness, involving eight highly experienced professional BSL/English interpreters. Data were analysed thematically to identify how interpreters recognise im/politeness in BSL, the key influences on the way they interpret im/politeness and the interpreting strategies they might employ. To underpin this study, foundational research to explore how politeness is expressed in BSL was conducted, involving interviews with five Deaf participants. Analysis reveals that interpreters' knowledge about politeness in BSL and interpreting politeness is generally tacit and hard to articulate, and suggest the benefits of explicit tuition on the subject. The multiple influences on interpreters' evaluations of im/politeness are dynamic, and coalesce differently in each interpreted interaction. Context emerges as a multi-layered influence that relates to not only the environment but also the characteristics, language use, goals and expectations of the people involved. Interpreters' strategies may involve smoothing their interpretation to better ensure that the interactional goals are met and to manage rapport between clients. The affordance of interpreters' familiarity with the context, and their clients, provides a valuable resource that informs interpreters' decisionmaking and strategy choices; a particular benefit given the temporal pressure of simultaneous interpreting. The study contributes theoretically to im/politeness research and interpreting studies, and has practical value for interpreting professionals, both within initial interpreter training programmes and continuing professional development.

Current definitions of prosody present a problem for signed languages since they are based on languages that exist in the oral-aural modality. Despite this, researchers have illustrated that although signed languages are produced in a different modality, a prosodic system exists whereby a signed stream can be structured into prosodic constituents and are marked by systematic manual and non-manual phenomena (see Nespor & Sandler, 1999; Wilbur, 1999, 2000). However, there is little research examining prosody in British Sign Language (BSL). This thesis represents the first serious attempt to address this gap in the literature by investigating the type and frequency of a number of visual markers at intonational phrase (IP) boundaries in BSL narratives. An analysis of 418 IP boundaries shows linguistic visual markers are not frequently observed. The most frequent marker observed were single head movements (46%) followed by holds (30%) and brow movement (22%) and head nods (21%). This finding suggests that none of the visual markers included in this study can be considered a consistent marker to IP boundaries in BSL narratives. As well as examining the production of markers at IP boundaries, the perception of boundaries by different groups in a series of online segmentation experiments is investigated. Results from both experiments indicate that boundaries can be identified in a reliable way even when watching an unknown signed language. In addition, an analysis of responses suggests that participants identified a boundary corresponding to a discourse level (such as when a new theme is established). The results suggest that visual markers (to these boundaries at least) are informative in the absence of cues that can only be perceived by native users of a language (such as cues deriving from lexical and grammatical information). Following presentation of results, directions for future research in this area are suggested.

This study investigates the ethical reasoning abilities of sign language interpreters in the US using two data sources, one that is qualitative and one that is quantitative. The twenty-five participants involved in this study were recruited after their completion of an online training session on interpreting ethics (unrelated to this study or the author). Their responses to six ethical scenarios (e.g., what would you do and why) were analysed through the lens of James Rest’s three tacit moral schemas: personal interest schema, maintaining norms schema, and post-conventional schema. These data were then compared to the results of Rest’s standardised instrument of moral reasoning, the Defining Issues Test, also based on these three schema preferences. These data show that the interpreter participants have a preference for a maintaining norms schema on both qualitative and quantitative data sources. This moral reasoning pattern found in the interpreter cohort is more typical of adolescent reasoning – a much younger profile than the actual age and education level of the participant pool. Furthermore, this reasoning preference does not coincide with the justice claims often made in the profession (e.g. the ally model). Justice as defined by collaboration by both moral psychologists and translation scholars is only weakly evident in the ethical discourse of the interpreter participants. These reasoning patterns that reveal an adolescent and non-collaborative approach are also evident in ethical documents and literature of the sign language interpreting profession. How the profession has come to conceive of and articulate ethics is explored as a potential limiting factor on the study participant’s abilities to express more sophisticated reasoning. In addition to moral judgement patterns evident in the quantitative and qualitative data, the study cohort’s qualitative data are examined for other psychological aspects of Rest’s Four Component Model (FCM). Findings indicate that sign language interpreters make many assumptions about service users’ needs, actions, and intentions. Further, they are more concerned for how decisions might impact them than the potential impact on service users. As a result, education interventions are indicated particularly for moral sensitivity and moral judgement.

Research into the role of the interpreter in dialogue interpreting has so far established that the interpreter participates in the interaction just as much as the two primary participants,particularly in the area of turn-taking. Less has been written about the nature of participation by the interpreter when interpreting. This thesis has contributed to knowledge through research into the extent and the manner of participation by the interpreter when there are problems due to seeing/hearing, producing or understanding: “repair” (Schegloff , Sacks and Jefferson 1977). Using an established tool (a Map Task) in order to distract participants from their language use, the actions of the interpreter were examined through a Conversation Analysis lens, to observe what it is that interpreters do in these situations of uncertainty. The findings were that the participation by interpreters, often described by practitioners as “clarifying”, was due, for the most part, to what I have defined as “ambiguity” and “underspecificity”. The interpreter must change stance from “other” to “self”. I have considered this action, positing a model Stop – Account – Act, and also the responses from the participants when the interpreter changes from “other” to “self” and back, using those responses to show whether the clients understand the interpreter’s change of stance. It is already known that understanding is collaboratively achieved in interpreted interactions just as it is in monolingual conversations. My contribution to interpreting studies is to strengthen this understanding by empirical research. Interlocutors do not present an absolute meaning in one language which is then reframed in another language; meanings are differentiated between collaboratively through further talk. I show that an interpreter is tightly constrained in their participation, and that their overriding job of interpreting dictates the reasons for their participation. The interpreter seeks not “what does that mean?” but rather “what do you mean?”.

Language and gesture are thought to be tightly interrelated and co-expressive behaviours (McNeill, 1992; 2005) that, when used in communication, are often referred to as composite signals/utterances (Clark, 1996; Enfield, 2009). Linguistic research has typically focussed on the structure of language, largely ignoring the effect gesture can have on the production and comprehension of utterances. In the linguistic literature, gesture is shoehorned into the communicative process rather than being an integral part of it (Wilson and Wharton, 2006; Wharton, 2009), which is at odds with the fact that gesture regularly plays a role that is directly connected to the semantic content of, in Gricean terms, “what is said” (Kendon, 2004; Grice, 1989). In order to explore these issues, this thesis investigates the effect of manual gestures on interaction at several different points during production and comprehension, based on the Clarkian Action Ladder (Clark, 1996). It focusses on the top two levels of the ladder: Level 3 signaling and recognising and level 4 proposing and considering. In doing so, it explores gesture’s local effect on how utterances are composed and comprehended, but also its more global effect on the interactional structure and the goals of the participants. This is achieved through two experiments. The first experiment, the map task, is an interactive spatial description task and the second is an eye-tracked visual world task. These two experiments explore how gestures are composed during the map task, how gestures affect the realtime comprehension of utterances, and how gestures are embedded within the turn-by-turn nature of talk. This thesis builds a picture of the effect of gesture at each stage of the comprehension process, demonstrating that gesture needs to be incorporated fully into pragmatic models of communication.