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Review
. 2022 Jul 11:13:808814.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.808814. eCollection 2022.

Show Me What You've B/Seen: A Brief History of Depiction

Inez Beukeleers  1 , Myriam Vermeerbergen  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Show Me What You've B/Seen: A Brief History of Depiction

Inez Beukeleers et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Already at a relatively early stage, modern sign language linguistics focused on the representation of (actions, locations, and motions of) referents (1) through the use of the body and its different articulators and (2) through the use of particular handshapes (in combination with an orientation, location, and/or movement). Early terminology for (1) includes role playing, role shifting, and role taking and for (2) classifier constructions/predicates and verbs of motion and location. More recently, however, new terms, including enactment and constructed action for (1) and depicting signs for (2) have been introduced. This article provides a brief overview of the history of enactment and depiction in the sign linguistic literature but mainly focuses on issues related to terminology (and terminology shifts). First, we consider the relation between role shifting and constructed action. We question the idea that these terms can be used interchangeably and rather suggest that they capture different, but related functions. Subsequently, we zoom in on the conceptualization of depicting signs, indicating verbs, pointing signs and fully lexical signs and the relation between these signs and the method of depicting. Where earlier research often associates depicting with the use of specific types of structures, we promote the idea that depicting is a semiotic diverse practice. In doing so, we show that the conceptualization of the different sign types and the terms that are used to refer to these phenomena do not accurately capture the way these signs are used in actual signed discourse and propose a reconceptualization of the different sign types in the lexico-grammar of Flemish Sign Language (VGT) as composite signs that can describe, depict and indicate meaning in various ways. In this way, this article illustrates (1) the risks that may come with the execution of terminology shifts and (2) the importance of making a clear distinction between form and function, i.e., we show that it is important to be careful with assuming a (too) exclusive relation between a certain function and one or more particular forms.

Keywords: classifier constructions; constructed action; depicting sign; depiction; role shifting; semiotics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
G: COVER-EYES.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
G: TAKE-BY-THE-HAND.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
G: PUSH-BUTTON.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
G: BRICK-A-WALL.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Visualization of the relation between the different modes of communication and different sign types based on Sallandre (2003).
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
The fully-lexical sign TREE in its citation form, as produced in example 1. Figure reproduced with permission from Corpus VGT (Van Herreweghe et al., 2015).
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
The modified fully-lexical sign FLS: tree-falls-down, as produced in example 1. Figure reproduced with permission from Corpus VGT (Van Herreweghe et al., 2015).
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Fully-lexical sign MOON which is modified in order to indicate and depict its location, as produced in example 2. Figure reproduced with permission from Corpus VGT (Van Herreweghe et al., 2015).
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
DS: molehill – classifier construction that depicts the shape of the molehill. Figure reproduced with permission from Corpus VGT (Van Herreweghe et al., 2015).
FIGURE 10
FIGURE 10
Modified fully-lexical sign IN. Figure reproduced with permission from Corpus VGT (Van Herreweghe et al., 2015).
FIGURE 11
FIGURE 11
Modified fully-lexical sign HOLE. Figure reproduced with permission from Corpus VGT (Van Herreweghe et al., 2015).
FIGURE 12
FIGURE 12
PSa – pointing sign that traces the shape of the molehill. Figure reproduced with permission from Corpus VGT (Van Herreweghe et al., 2015).
FIGURE 13
FIGURE 13
Modified indicating verb TO-LOOK-AT, as produced in example 4.
FIGURE 14
FIGURE 14
Stretch of constructed action (CA: walking-deer), as produced in example 5.
FIGURE 15
FIGURE 15
Classifier construction that traces a flat surface in the reconstrual of a cliff.
FIGURE 16
FIGURE 16
Classifier construction that traces the shape of the cliff.
FIGURE 17
FIGURE 17
Fingerspelling “K” and repetition of classifier construction that traces the shape of the cliff.
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References

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