Digital Commons@WOU

Title

Keeping it Vague: A Study of Vague Language in an American Sign Language Corpus and Implications for Interpreting between American Sign Language and English

Author

Daniel J. Greene, Western Oregon UniversityFollow

Type (DCMI Terms)

Text

Exit Requirement

Thesis

Date of Award

3-15-2013

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies

Committee Chair

Elisa Maroney

Language

eng

Committee Member

Amanda R. Smith

Committee Member

Miako Rankin

Abstract

Vague Language (VL) seems to be a universal feature of language, and American Sign Language (ASL) has been shown to have all the properties of language; therefore, it is natural that VL would appear in ASL. This thesis is the first study of VL in ASL, and provides evidence that VL occurs in ASL and is used to express meanings equivalent to those of VL in English. The findings of this study document yet another property that ASL shares with other languages, and contribute yet another language to the body of languages that have been studied for VL.

The investigator of this study analyzed the National Center for Sign Language and Gesture Resources (NCSLGR) Corpus for vagueness and found that the corpus contained vagueness in signs, gestures, and non-manual markers (NMMs). Hedging, approximation, and lack of specificity were the predominant types of vagueness found in the NCSLGR Corpus. The findings of this study, in addition to the literature reviewed, have implications for ASL teachers, ASL-English interpreters, and interpreter trainers. Previous literature has shown a need for explicit metalinguistic instruction about VL to second language (L2) learners, interpreters and translators. The ability to be vague has been shown in previous research to be a form of pragmalinguistic competence. This study contributes to the knowledge of the forms and functions of VL in English and ASL so that ASL students may improve their pragmalinguistic competence in ASL, and ASL-English interpreters may improve the pragmalinguistic equivalence of their interpretations.

Recommended Citation

Greene, Daniel J., "Keeping it Vague: A Study of Vague Language in an American Sign Language Corpus and Implications for Interpreting between American Sign Language and English" (2013). Master's of Arts in Interpreting Studies (MAIS) Theses. 2.
https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/theses/2

Rights Statement

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